The Nature of Surviving Japanese Factories in the Global Competition: An Empirical Analysis of Electrical and Electronics Factories

Abstract

During the last few decades, Japanese electrical and electronics companies have been struggling to compete against rivals from emerging countries, such as South Korea and China. As a result, they have lost global market share. However, are Japanese firms really losing their competitiveness? This chapter investigates the following questions: (1) Are Japanese factories maintaining competitiveness today? (2) If so, which are the main characteristics of these competitive organizations? 3) Which aspects are important for Japanese factories to maintain competitiveness in the future? Interviews with eight successful Japanese electrical and electronics companies and a survey of 97 business units were conducted. Our findings show that Japanese electrical and electronics companies are still competitive at the shop floor level, with higher performance than their overseas transplant, except in terms of cost. Some common features of these factories include (1) carrying out sales and promotion activities targeting their own headquarters or other companies in order to find new business opportunities and (2) gathering various functions in one place, ranging from product development and design to production and sales. However, key issues to ensure future competitiveness still need to be addressed, such as personnel development and transmission of skills caused by unbalanced age distribution.