Japanese Challenge Research Articles

Merry White: The Japanese Educational Challenge: A Commitment to Children

American education is in “crisis.” That was the message of numerous recent reports indicting American schools for woeful intellectual rigor and lax standards. And many accepted the related conclusion: we were a “nation at risk” beset by an unproductive work force and an inability to compete in the international economy. Indeed, discontent with schools seemed more to reflect a diffuse worry about America’s economic and moral vitality than any concern for intrinsically intellectual issues. As at other points in our history, larger social problems became defined as educational problems, and by the same token, were to be solved by education. The belief that schools are simultaneously the cause and solution to social problems has a mythic hold on the American mind.

The Japanese Educational Challenge: A Commitment to Children

The Japanese Educational Challenge: A Commitment to Children

Merry White: The Japanese Educational Challenge: A Commitment to Children

American education is in “crisis.” That was the message of numerous recent reports indicting American schools for woeful intellectual rigor and lax standards. And many accepted the related conclusion: we were a “nation at risk” beset by an unproductive work force and an inability to compete in the international economy. Indeed, discontent with schools seemed more to reflect a diffuse worry about America’s economic and moral vitality than any concern for intrinsically intellectual issues. As at other points in our history, larger social problems became defined as educational problems, and by the same token, were to be solved by education. The belief that schools are simultaneously the cause and solution to social problems has a mythic hold on the American mind.

Logistics

The difference between logistic optimisation versus transport optimisation is pointed out. The impact of the “Japanese challenge” to the changes of optimisation in transportation is analysed. The creation of flexible production capacities forces to apply the same principle in the transport sector.

Cross-Investment: A Second Front of Economic Rivalry

Everyone knows that Japan has profited for more than a decade from a continuous trade surplus with the U.S. However, Japan has also become a large capital exporter—with America, previously a major capital exporter, now being a principal recipient. Japanese investments in the U.S. take many forms and have been growing rapidly. In fact, Japan has become America's third largest foreign investor. Like trade competition, this second front of economic rivalry represents an increasingly formidable Japanese challenge to U.S. business—now mounted on America's home grounds. On the other side, by 1983, only Canada and Switzerland surpassed Japan as the target for new U.S. direct investment abroad. This article examines the history and practice of cross-investment between the U.S. and Japan. The full story of cross-investment involves a larger tale, that of growing similarities and persistent differences in the government policies, industrial structures, and corporate strategies of the two countries. The growth in similarities represents an increasingly potent weapon in the arsenal of managers and policymakers in the U.S. and Japan.

Malaise in business management

For the first time since the Great Depression in the 1930's, American business seems uncertain of its future. The Japanese challenge has shattered the dream of a millenium of global American business leadership after only four short decades (Moritani [1], Morikawa [2]), and the resulting soul-searching is creating a re-thinking of management imperatives. Some issues are addressed in an attempt to identify hidden weaknesses in the modus operandi of American business.

U.S. Electronics Needs New Strategy

U.S. Electronics Needs New Strategy

Myth in the making

The Fifth Generation Computer: The Japanese Challenge. By Tohru Moto-oka and Masaru Kitsuregawa. Translated by F.D.R. Apps. Wiley:1985. Pp.122. Pbk 8.95, 17.95.

Japan's global challenge in electronics — The Philips' response

Out of the Going Global Conference reported in this issue, this contribution stands out as a trenchant, unequivocal and understandable statement of how a senior Philips executive feels about the nature of the Japanese challenge in electronics, and the ineffectiveness of European industrial and political bodies to organize an effective response, either through forcing the Japanese to open their markets as ours are open, or to organize means of beating off the competition here in Europe.

How Effectively Are We Managing Innovation?

• we are no longer complacent. The ~ howe recognized our previous CJUr economic vitality has led us to at least pobdes and actions, although probably _lIMn are ample signs that we have not 10 mnovate, our productivity has turned becoming more competitive. However, fulJy met the Japanese challenge, and ~ give more serious national attention 1a1B31.kloaJ trade and to its dependence on onI~' in the so-called high technology lID the others as well do we need a of ~' technology, if we are to remain ItIDDlomic leader. 0

The ‘Japanese challenge’: US-Japan relations at mid-decade

For nearly three decades following World War II Japan was officially considered to be America's newly befriended and unthreatening client in East Asia. Today that is no longer entirely true. A major change is underway in the justifying ideology and the imagery surrounding the US relationship with Japan. Bureaucrats, businessmen, journalists, and academics now portray Japan provocatively to the American public as a direct threat to the viability of America's key economic institutions. To understand why this shift in the official perception and evaluation of Japan is occurring, and what a change in the dominant ideological teaching about postwar Japan portends, I will focus first on two successive periods—the 1970s and the early 1980s—during which the US-Japan bilateral relationship reflected important changes in the world economy and the US position within it. Then, after having described the environment within which US-Japan frictions have been working themselves out, I shall argue that influential ruling elites in the United States are now coming around to the view that the new challenge confronting US global hegemony is the narrowing technological gap between the US and its main industrial competitors. This will lead me to say a few words about the different forces acting to shape science and technology in the United States and Japan. Finally, I shall conclude by recommending what may be a more rational approach for Japan to take in the international arena if it still wishes to preserve its “peace constitution” into the next century.

Japanese challenge and European response

Japanese management thinks globally, with a 30-year vision, with a total commitment to long term survival. Thus the author analyses the Japanese challenge, and contrasts it with complacency and low levels of information awareness in Europe.

A Survey of Electronics R and D in the USA

AbstractThis paper reviews the large‐scale electronics R&D activities in the United States, with emphasis on microelectronics and computer development. This review serves as useful background in discussing technology trends in computer graphics.The $245,000 million spent by U.S. computer and electronics‐related industry is discussed by categories, and the factors influencing technology development are considered. The U.S. response to the Japanese challenge is reviewed with regard to superspeed and fifth‐generation computers, VLSI chips, and CAD/CAM tools.Various industrial, university, and government activities are discussed. Included are descriptions of the Microelectronics and Computer technology Corp., Semiconductor Research Corp., Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency, Electronics Computer‐Aided Manufacturing, and Very High Speed Integrated Circuit programs. The VLSI manufacturing and CAD/CAM design goals of these programs for the 1985–1990 period are summarized.It is pointed out that computer graphics technology and general electronics R&D are strongly interrelated. For example. VLSI circuits are utilized for powerful geometry engines in computer graphic systems. Conversely, CAD/CAM based on computer graphics is essential for the design of VLSI circuits.Finally, computer graphics technology trends are summarized in the areas of VLSI usage, display systems, software, and system architecture.

International Competition: The Japanese Challenge

The Japanese success in international competition has attracted much attention. To date, little of this attention has addressed the role of marketing in the Japanese success. This note focuses on the Japanese approach to strategic market planning and its role in contributing to the competitive strength of Japanese enterprise.

Human Resources Management in Japanese Large-Scale Industry

Current interest in Japanese business and industry has produced an outpouring of 'learning-from-Japan'prescriptions for meeting the Japanese challenge (e.g. Ouchi 1982, Pascale and Athos 1982, Vogel 1980; also a veritable flood of newspaper and magazine articles). But learning from Japan requires a good deal of learning about Japan, about Japanese history, tradition and culture, the economy-aspects of Japan that are hardly expressed in prescription contributions offered to either prac titioners or scholars. It is the purpose of this paper to selectively examine basic elements of Japan's industrial relations system in an historic and cultural context as well as contemporary arrangements. The discussion is limited to a composite depiction of essential aspects of human resources management in typical Japanese firms employing 500 or more workers. Overwhelmingly, this is the pool from which knowledge has been generated by both Japanese and foreign scholars studying this topic.

Competing with Japan—The rules of the game

This paper explains that, to deal with the Japanese challenge, it is important to understand the comprehensive nature of that challenge. The challenge covers every function and every phase of the product development and marketing cycle. Therefore, solutions must not be piecemeal. In writing this paper, the author draws extensively on his working and consulting experience.

Science, industry, and the new Japanese challenge

The Japanese Super-Speed Computer project, recently begun, has generated pressure for a response in the United States and other countries. The background for the Japanese project is the world-wide effort to computerize four hundred years of science, in support of industrial applications of science. In the United States, a number of barriers are slowing progress of the computerization process. The barriers include software problems, lack of U.S. university participation in the computerization effort, poor matching of resources to needs, etc. The computer revolution is also part of the background for the Japanese project, and problems caused by the computer revolution, such as inadequate education, also require attention. Specific recommendations to overcome these barriers are proposed. Computer-assisted instruction meeting the standards set by Professor Arnold Arons combined with teacher retraining would help science education. A national computer communications network for basic and applied research would greatly improve technology transfer within the United States for an absurdly low cost; Britain already is developing such a network. The diverse groups engaged in the computerization of science need a sense of community which a national network would provide. They also need more decision-making power, and more effective sharing of resources. The U.S. Government should establish the network and provide seed money to help private industry, universities, and government laboratories collectively implement the other recommendations.

U.S. Economic Policy toward the Association of Southeast Asian Nations: Meeting the Japanese Challenge, by Lawrence B. Krause; The Eastasia Edge, by Roy Hofheinz and Kent E. Calder

U.S. Economic Policy toward the Association of Southeast Asian Nations: Meeting the Japanese Challenge, <i>by Lawrence B. Krause; </i> The Eastasia Edge, <i>by Roy Hofheinz and Kent E. Calder</i>

The Japanese Challenge to U.S. Industry. By Jack Baranson. (Lexington, Mass.: D.C. Heath, 1981. Pp. xvi + 188. $19.95.) - Coping with U.S.-Japanese Economic Conflicts. Edited by I. M. Destler and Hideo Sato. (Lexington, Mass.: D.C. Heath, 1982. Pp. viii + 293. $24.95.)

The Japanese Challenge to U.S. Industry. By Jack Baranson. (Lexington, Mass.: D.C. Heath, 1981. Pp. xvi + 188. $19.95.) - Coping with U.S.-Japanese Economic Conflicts. Edited by I. M. Destler and Hideo Sato. (Lexington, Mass.: D.C. Heath, 1982. Pp. viii + 293. $24.95.)

Japanese and American Management: Theory Z and Beyond

This article analyzes studies comparing Japanese and American managers, workers, and societies in order to consider questions raised by William Ouchi's book, Theory Z: How American Business Can Meet the Japanese Challenge. The analysis results in 2 general observations: 1) Theory Z management is not likely to become the accepted norm in American companies to the extent that it has in Japan, and 2) the major conceptual or theoretical lesson we can learn from the Japanese is the potential values of developing a management system that is internally consistent, that fits societal norms and expectations and that obtains support from the major institutional actors in the world of work.