Much of it actually came from W. Edwards Deming (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/W._Edwards_Deming), who taught it to the Japanese after World War II. The top prize for quality in Japan carries his name.

He was American; we've forgotten (or never learned), but they took it to an extreme.

I wouldn't say he gave them perfection, but rather that he tought some companies how to achieve the perfection they already desired from mass manufactured goods.

Yes, the How was the disconnect. It still is.

Oh, I am Austrian (culturally very close to Germany) and I worked in a German company in Tokyo. I am not alone with my opinion, that Japanese are taking perfectionism to a whole new level, actually harming productivity.