I heard culturally Japan and to an extent other Asian manufacturing nations would never actually press the button. Can anyone confirm this?
Its a cord, not a button, and the cord gets pulled all the time. It is a bit brave of Toyota to admit this fact when today's "journalists" are always looking for an angle to take a quote out of context and clickbait the headline. "Toyota admits they have constant flaws in their manufacturing process"
https://wheels.blogs.nytimes.com/2009/09/04/toyota-quality-c...
https://www.leanblog.org/2012/11/andon-cords-at-the-toyota-t...
"In our introductory discussions about Japanese culture, Brad talked about the importance of harmony (“Big Harmony”) in Japanese culture. Because of the overwhelming need for harmony, people often wouldn't naturally speak up. They might be more willing to cover up a problem than to really fix it. So, the andon cord is a mechanism that makes it easier for people to speak up."
More than that, when the manager approaches the employee who stopped the line, she is not supposed to ask, "why did you stop the line?" She instead asks, "how can I help?"
It's a an employee's duty to bring any abnormality to their superior, and then let them make a decision.
Sometimes something anomalous to a newer employee is actually normal, and an experienced superior knows about.
But sometimes letting an anomaly by doesn't get caught to later, since people further down the line/process aren't looking for or see them. And it's not until the product/process reaches final testing that they become aware. Thus it being cheaper to have stopped the line sooner. And 'punishment' being more severe than simply reporting a mistake or anomaly in the first place.