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Comment by vram22 | Hacker News Reader

>for manufacturing Japan is world-class. Japanese companies build things really really well, with very few workers, quickly.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Toyota_Way

I bought and read that book some years ago. Found it pretty interesting. There is a lot of detail and statistics in it, but the overall theme is of Kaizen (roughly, continuous improvement), along with muda, mura, muri (all three terms explained in the links below):

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kaizen

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Muda_(Japanese_term)

"In 2004, Dr. Jeffrey Liker, a University of Michigan professor of industrial engineering, published The Toyota Way. In his book Liker calls the Toyota Way "a system designed to provide the tools for people to continually improve their work."

Also, see Muji :)

http://jugad2.blogspot.in/2010/05/muji-simplicity-is-decepti...

http://www.muji.com/

http://www.muji.us/about-muji/

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http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kaizen#History

Ironically, American experts introduced many of those concepts to Japan.

One of the most interesting things about Japanese business, is how much was built by New Dealers who came over in the occupation. Americans rebuilt the giant conglomerates, we reinforced the idea of life time employment (salarymen were very consciously modeled on American professionals of the 1950s and 1960s, then made Japanese), we insisted on tight government-corporation intervention in the economy to encourage growth and stability. People often try to make it sound like this ancient relic of Japanese culture, and it's really not. It's a weird fusion of Japanese thought and new Dealer technocratism, left to develop on it's own for decades.

Didn't know those details about the New Dealers, interesting. I guess that sort of fusion tends to happen in many such scenarios. I know there's some of it in India, in a different field of work.

Interesting premise. Is there anything to read up on New Deal influence in Japan?

The book where I read most of this from is Embracing Defeat: Japan in the Wake of World War II by John Dower. It's a big book, and covers a lot about occupation, not just economics, but I found it engrossing and quite readable. It's a little out of date now, being 14 years old, but nothing really noticeable.

I'm addicted to Muji now and buy all my housing goods there (well, sometimes my wife sneaks over to Ikea but...). It really is very good...especially the really good balance of their 40 kuai spoons (the last spoon you'll ever buy), and I don't think I could ever use a sheet from anyone else.

I think Japan is like any other countries: there are pockets of genius in a mostly conventional culture. The same is true about the USA, China, and so on.

Makes sense.

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