Clayton Christensen on Sony's founder: http://www.forbes.com/free_forbes/2003/1013/082_2.html
...the original battery-powered pocket transistor radio, launched in 1955, and
the first portable solid-state black-and-white television, in 1960. Plus:
videocassette players, portable video recorders, the now-ubiquitous Walkman and
3.5-inch floppy disk drives, launched in 1980.
How did Sony find these foothold applications? Morita and a trusted group of
about five associates observed and questioned what people really were trying
to get done. They looked for ways that miniaturized, solid-state electronics
might help a population of less skilled and less affluent people to accomplish,
more conveniently and at less expense, the jobs they were already trying to get
done through awkward, unsatisfactory means.
As an example of creativity, there's Hayao Miyazaki. While he is a perfectionist, there must be some tolerance for experiment, exploration, discovery - else there can be no original creation.
Japanese aren't copying they are embracing an idea, comprehending it, and improving it. They could be inspired by anything, like any of us, but there has been much to be inspired by in the US over the last 50 some years. We all do this, but while americans focus on price per unit, Japanese focus on quality.
As I've mentioned elsewhere the subtle but powerful core difference between Japanese and Americans (quality vs quantity) form the foundation of two different emergent systems. Although it sounds simple it is a profound difference at scale.
This is why Japanese are very innovative, but most americans simply don't see it. Japanese had broadcast HD in the early 90s, and phones that could play TV 6 years before the iPhone.
Umm, Lean is just a copy of the Toyota Way that has been infected with american/euro values.
Constant improvement is Japanese. Americans use it to drive the cost low in order to maximize profits, japanese use it to maximize quality in order to maximize profits.
The examples I gave are about new product categories. To repeat one of them: before Sony, there was no transistor radio. They created not just one, but several new product categories - twelve, by Christensen's count. (Unfortunately, Sony didn't create any new product categories without the founder. e.g. the playstation was a great product, but consoles were an established product category.)
That is, it's not the getting better at something, but the creation of something new to get better at (hence Christensen's interest, as the coiner of disruptive innovation).
[ BTW: I can't help but think that the post-war period in Japan somehow enabled this creation of new product categories. ]
I mean when someone says "What is the highest quality car?" - no one says "[Toyota|Mazda|Honda|Izuzu]"... though they might say one of those if you ask about the 'cheapest'... which is counter to your point.
I think toyota are unique in how they incorporate their suppliers into their own processes, basically applying TOC beyond the walls of their own factory, which as far as I'm aware is/was quite innovative.
http://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kaizen
Also, ToC and that horribly written "novel" _The Goal_ is the most oversold management buzzword ever. It is super famous because it was the first "agile" fad to get buzz in the modern era of mass communication.
Kaizen is just a word. It's (literally) like saying "improvement" long predates ToC... well of course, but it has no context.
If anything it's the strong Yen which is forcing their hand. They can't make a profit importing materials and making cheap products without focusing on automation.
Depends on what you mean by "recent". In my mind, recent means within ~10 years. However, Japan started turning things around in the late 80s. We're approaching the 30 year mark of high quality Japanese products and, to me, that's no longer considered recent.
> They can't make a profit importing materials and making cheap products without focusing on automation.
But the article is wider in scope than just manufacturing, it's about the entire culture. It's everything from manga/anime to whiskey, Music (Ever hear of Babymetal? Now that's innovation), Kobe beef, to even porn. Those things aren't produced on an assembly line.
Perhaps you mean the cheap radios, cameras, vehicles etc of post-war Japan. Those were made to rebuild their economy, and from a starting point of almost great desolation.
Go back a few decades from WWII, and you'll find out that for centuries before Japan made extremely high quality products, from swords and teapots, to furniture and jewelry.
To the point that European and American artifacts of the same type and same era look like the Dell Ditty compared to the iPod Touch.
That said, I think many people or even most of society misses that angle, and get cought up in the stressful negative side of perfection, leading to various horrible outcomes.
Sure so you have an example of perfect pizza.
How about WWII... that didn't really go perfectly for them? Or their economy being a complete shambles ever since. Or how about their Nuclear plants, or their response to failed nuclear plants. Selection bias is a pretty powerful beast, "All japanese are perfectionists, look at the pizza" isn't a compelling argument.
It's pretty clear Japan, just like everyone else, screw things up, and are slack/lazy, etc. There are not 129 million perfectionists... just 129 million people living out there lives in a modern developed economy with a fetish for foreign culture.
Obviously there are not 129 million perfectionists, that was particularly misleading.
However I would claim that Japanese are more likely to favor and reward perfectionism than any other culture I experienced. I am only talking about a trend I may have observed.
Which given Japan and Germany's history makes me believe the mindset of 'perfection' or continuous improvement/innovation comes from germany, rather than Japan.
disclaimer: I'm neither German, nor Japanese ;)
He was American; we've forgotten (or never learned), but they took it to an extreme.
The commenter has since pointed out his intent further, but my core point is, the traits people are saying are Japanese seem to stem from distinctly western sources (Demming, and Germany both being mentions).
But this whole idea Japan are 'perfectionists' is just racial stereotypes. The only thing Japanese people are (in general) is Japanese.
In order to asses whether it's an stereotype or not, we have to set up some kind of measure of perfectionism. Otherwise we have to rely on anecdotes. My anecdotes, having lived in Germany and very briefly in Japan, match that of the original post: I was continuously baffled with the attention to detail displayed everywhere in Tokyo. It's just in a whole different level. And that of course does not make them perfect (what does that even mean?). Whether this attitude historically stems from Europe, is a second order tangent.
Your argument seems to be: Japanese are not particularly perfectionist (no more than Colombians, Danish, Turkish for example). But if they were, it's because they took it from the Germans. I found this confusing.
I realized long before Fukushima that Japan's nuclear safety culture was impossibly awful, and I'm afraid I have to agree with those who say they have no business running serious reactors.
But I don't desire 'perfection' in anything, I simply have standards that don't degrade. Think of TV talent shows, and the horrible people you get to see during the auditions. These people lost their standards somewhere along the line.
It's this sort of "reasoning by anecdote" that, while convincing to the individuals relating them, can easily mislead others into believing your conclusions are rational.
Edit: I am surprised to find; I mistakenly assumed I have the ability to delete my comments. That seems new...
Don't worry about it. I -- for one ;-) -- think your comment was appropriate and useful, in this context.
(For example, it provides me with some additional insight to my own occasional interactions with Japanese culture. Most useful, to me.)
Nor do I mean to be overly critical of the critiquing response. Yes, we do need to be aware of anecdote versus corroborated fact. But, as one other respondent has commented, we make some assumption that those on HN can judge this for themselves.
--
This comment meant in good spirit, all around. And yes, it's just my opinion.
It's a pest when you post something only to realise a little while later that perhaps it should have been written differently or not written at all.
Happens to me all the time.
I did not say it was unreasonable to "gain a sense of the uniquely different cultural attitudes and priorities that are prevalent in a society".
Based on your analysis, I think you have misinterpreted both the intent and premise of my comment.
What I actually said was precisely what I did say: that you should not be quick to publicly espouse these generalizations that you have anecdotally observed. To a general audience of people who do not know you, the words that you write on here are the only basis we have on which to understand you as a person, short of getting to know you personally.
Perhaps you have never been on the receiving end of a racial stereotype or generalization, even an "innocent" one. Even if the comments are not made with malicious intent, and believe me I know the OP had absolutely no malicious intent at all, stereotypes can and do make some people uncomfortable to hear.
Why is that? Well, there are lots of reasons. If for nothing else, it makes the member of the group in question the "Other". If only for a brief moment in time the individual ceases to exist; their racial characteristics are being now being discussed, rationalized, and analyzed by the others in the room.
I really just wanted to give my honest advice to a nice guy (the OP), that it would be wise to avoid allowing this sort of discussion be associated with him as a person, unintentionally immortalized by the internet.
If we all shy away from discussing the interesting and unique different perspectives of different cultural and social norms and objectives, we lose the opportunity to be inspired by one another.
I really dont care if someone later in the future discovers that i said i had an impression of something i saw in a society, and i dont think people need to be shielded from hearing what outsiders think of their society.
As for your suggestion that i have probably not been on the receiving end of such observations, as a non-japanese living in a country that has almost no foreigners percentage-wise, yes, i am aware of what it is like to be on the receiving end of blanket generalizations about "americans" "foreigners" "californians" and other groups, usually by people who have never travelled more than a few km by train from their home town. That kind of empty and idiotic thinking has nothing whatsoever to do with someone simply describing what they have seen with their own personal experience in a foreign land.
Those are not "racial generalizations" (and the fact that the Japanese are asian has little to do with that, it could have as easily been about differences between French and German attitudes).
Of course you can find Japanese who are totally sloppy and against the description given above. But you wouldn't find a Japanese culture where sloppiness is OK, and shame is not important.
Outliers exists everywhere -- but the importance of observation is to find larger patterns and be able to summarily understand your subject. Science starts with labelling things -- and it's perfectly rational.
And of course, observations and conclusions can be corrected as more data arrive.
The Japanese do many things well, but if you ever take a look at the software they produce you will realize very quickly that "perfection" is nowhere to be found and there are many industries where this is true.
I know the pizza place you are referring to in Namba Parks. The pizza is indeed incredible. However, how much of that is simply an alignment of my sense of taste? I know people who would eat that pizza and feel like it was garbage. A quick look at all of the varieties of crust and the holy wars that ensue when discussing them lends credence to this possibility.
Little I'd say. Judging cooking is not just about "taste". Even if some people don't like some dish, quality fresh ingredients and proper preparation are not debatable for example.
So, that some people might hate that pizza and love Domino's, or prefer some other kind of crust, doesn't mean much with regards to the quality of the restaurant. Other stuff matters.
My hypothesis is: Japanese do not accept anything less than perfection. The accompanying motto seems: "If you cannot archive perfection, don’t even bother starting.“
To illustrate my point; My wife might ask me to purchase something for her. Whenever I could not get the specific product she asked for, I just bought something comparable. At home she would be disappointed to her core, to the point where she considered the possibility that my intentions where nefarious. Every time this happened I was shocked. Why would I try to bring her harm by not buying the exact same thing, but something comparable? Now I was convinced that her thought-process is rather unique. Yet, to my surprise, almost every Japanese person who I befriended on a deeper level behaved the same way.
To me it seems for Japanese people there is an crucial "line of competency". An average Gaijin (non-Japanese) is seen as incompetent to act according to Japanese customs (rightfully so). Almost everything a Gaijin does, even if it is rather obnoxious, is not judged by Japanese, but accepted as: „Well..., different culture, different habits."
When they allow you in their circle, befriend you, you are seen as to cross the „line of competency“ and your actions will be judged by higher standards.
Now imagine you grew up in a society where everything you do is expected to be done perfectly. And a consequence of not doing something perfect is bringing shame to you and those around you (Japan is a shame based culture, so that is extremely bad). You will not consider starting a task unless you have a very high chance of archiving mastery. If you do a task, you are not perfect in, you better hide it.
Another example: A friend of mine visited me in Japan and quite frequently asked people for directions. To his awe every single one of them went out of their way to help him. People walked for very long distances with him, making 100% certain that he will get to an ATM. In their mind, drawing on a map just did not suffice. They would walk with him all across Shinjuku station (the busiest station on the planet) making sure he will find the right train. To him these were just examples of nice people in Japan. I believe he, unknowingly, tasked these poor people with unreasonably big requests. When asking for the nearest ATM these Japanese did not consider the possibility of pointing in a direction, as this would have left too much room for error. Anything less than walking with him would have brought shame to them. Actually when you ask directions and they „just“ point (it happens) look at their faces. Often thy turn away from you in shame. Or their faces will freeze as if they just did something appalling.
Imagine having a country of 129 million perfectionists. How would the society be run? Trains would always be perfectly on time. Food would always look as delicious as in the ads and taste like you hope it would. People would be very stressed committing to anything they have not done 100 times before. People would feel the constant pressure to live up to insane expectations and if they could not hold up to them, they would be anxious to leave their houses (otaku). — If you are not familiar with the Japanese culture, this is exactly like it is in Japan.
A last point to support the article, I was in Rome and an Italien friend brought me to „the best pizzeria in Italy“. I must say, it was a truly delicious pizza. 3 Days later I was in Osaka and went with a Japanese friend to a „very good “ pizza place. Every single slice of pizza I ate there was pure perfection. It blew the „best pizzeria in Italy“ out of the water. The pizzeria in the Namba Parks is run by Japanese who studied in Italy.