Japanese Manufacturing Industries Research Articles

사례 분석을 통한 일본 모바일 어플리케이션의 UX/UI 디자인 특이성 연구

The Japanese manufacturing and IT industries, often compared to Galapagosization, have developed differently from the global market since the 1990s. To address potential disruptions in industrial development, Japan's government established the Digital Agency and South Korea's Ministry of SMEs and Startups began supporting Korean IT companies in entering the Japanese market. This study is part of preliminary research for developing “Mobile Service Localization Guidelines for Korean IT Companies in the Japanese Market” and aims to understand Japanese mobile service specificity. It involves understanding Japan's socio-cultural characteristics, analyzing Japanese user behavior across various media, and validating findings through expert interviews. The study evaluated UX/UI specificity in approximately 15 Japanese mobile services, uncovering significant cases reflecting Japanese user characteristics.

Evaluation of environmental energy efficiency and its influencing factors: a prefecture-level analysis of Japanese manufacturing industries

This study evaluates the progress of efficient energy use and the control of carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions in Japan between 1990 and 2012. A new indicator of energy performance is presented called environmental energy efficiency (EEE). The EEE of manufacturing industries was measured by each prefecture in Japan. We estimated the influencing factors of EEE for each industry by applying the pooled mean group (PMG) method. Our findings are as follows: First, the Japanese manufacturing industry has not been in line with the EEE improvement goals since the adoption of the Kyoto Protocol. However, the progress of each industry was relatively consistent by region. Second, EEE tends to improve and then deteriorate or monotonically increase as economic development progresses. Third, EEE is raised by expanding industry share. Finally, EEE, which focuses on energy reduction, is likely to increase with the progress of energy-saving technology.

The Formation and Development of Japanese Craftsmanship

Japanese craftsmanship is an important resource of Japanese industrial culture. The Japanese manufacturing industry has a global reputation and strong competitiveness and influence, and the artisan spirit is one of the “secret weapons” that has made the Japanese manufacturing industry strong. The evolution of Japanese craftsmanship in different historical periods can further enrich the connotation of craftsmanship and deepen people’s understanding of craftsmanship, which is of positive significance to all countries in cultivating and promoting craftsmanship and improving the service capability of various industries.

APPLICATION OF MIXED REALITY TECHNOLOGY TO SHIP MANUFACTURING PROCESS

In recent years, the evolution of so-called XR technologies and devices has been remarkable, and they have become widespread and familiar especially in the gaming and amusement industries. XR technology is also being used in some manufacturing industry and is expected to be widely used at design and production sites as a means to support the Japanese manufacturing industry, which is expected to face a labour shortage due to a declining population. Since the 2000s, Mitsubishi Shipbuilding has promoted digitalization of production sites by utilizing the 3D-Viewer developed in-house. The 3D-Viewer has dedicated functions to support shipbuilding design and manufacturing processes. As the next step, we are working to further improve productivity and quality by introducing MR technology to our production sites so that workers can experience a more realistic virtual space. In this paper, we introduce FitViewer MR, a shipbuilding MR system that works on Microsoft's MR device Hololens2.

Temporal changes in factor adjustment of the Japanese manufacturing industry

Temporal changes in factor adjustment of the Japanese manufacturing industry

Promoting energy efficiency in Japanese manufacturing industry through energy audits: Role of information provision, disclosure, target setting, inspection, reward, and organizational structure

An energy audit is a popular policy instrument for improving energy efficiency in facilities. However, it is unclear whether they serve to improve energy efficiency, because even under energy audits, several barriers to energy efficiency exist. Additional practices such as information provision, target setting, or reward by governments can make energy audits more effective. This study investigates the complementarity of energy audits and these practices by focusing on the Emission Reduction Program, an energy audit unique to Japan. Using municipality-level data, we show that target setting, inspection of planning, information provision, reward, and designating the department responsible for tackling climate change, complementarily reduce CO2 emissions via facilities under the Emission Reduction Program. Our results suggest that energy audit is more effective in reducing CO2 emissions when combined with additional policy instruments.

Japanese industrial technological structure based on the number of patent applications by technical field

PurposeThis research outlines the technological structure of the entire Japanese manufacturing and service industry using the patent information from research and development (R&D) activities to set R&D goals.Design/methodology/approachBy analyzing the technological development capability of individual companies, the direction of the companies' R&D activities and current state of technological fusion between them can be understood. A group of companies participating in a particular product/service market must have the same technological development capabilities. As a result, the ratio of patent applications by a company to the total number of applications in a technical field will be similar across companies. This study uses the inter-company correlation coefficient of the ratio of patent applications by technical field as an index of technological development capability. A total of 167 major companies covering the major industries of Japan were analyzed. The analysis period was 15 years from 2004 to 2018, and the technical fields were rearranged to 42 fields with reference to the International Patent Classification (IPC)-Technology Concordance used by the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO). Considering the fluctuation in patent application opportunities, the number of patent applications was collected for at least three years for the analysis of patent applications by technical field, company and industry.FindingsExamining the entire Japanese industry, the research found that chemicals, ceramics, non-ferrous metals and electrical/electronic equipment act as intermediaries between the respective groups and are linked to the transportation equipment, electrical/electronic equipment and information and communication services industries that are currently driving the Japanese economy. However, the technical connections between these groups are relatively loose. Over the last 15 years, the propagation structure of technical knowledge information has not changed. The progress of technological fusion remains within the scope of commerce and is conditioned by commerce.Originality/valueStudies focusing on the technological development capability between companies and the technological structure of the Japanese manufacturing and service industries are almost non-existent since 2000 when Japan's economic growth slowed. The analytical methods presented in this research can be applied to individual companies to gain an understanding of technical positions of companies and can be useful for planning a technical environment, business or R&D strategy.

A Study on Global EV shift and the Strategy of Japanese Automobile Industry

Purpose: The influence of EV shift spreading around the world on Japanese automobile industry due to CASE technical innovation and environmental regulation is examined in this study. In the past, the background of high international competitiveness of Japanese automobile companies has been supported by high technology in Hybrid Vehicle (HV) in addition to highly accumulated technology in the internal combustion engine. However, considerable change and supply chain reorganization is expected in the Japanese automobile industry because CASE and EV shift spreads rapidly. The expansion factor of global EV market, current status of Japanese EV market, the reason to hesitate in EV shift, the strategy of Japanese automobile companies, and the assignment of Japanese automobile industry according to EV shift are analyzed and examined in this study. Research design, data, and methodology: This study is based on the literature research, expert interview and the data published by each company. A survey on EV market which is expanding due to global CASE and environmental regulation was conducted through the literature research. And then, a research on the strategy of Japanese automobile company for EV shift was conducted through an interview with a supply chain official along with a university researcher in Aichi Prefecture where Toyota Motor Corporation is located. A result discovering the characteristic of EV strategy on each company has been achieved. Results: At this moment, the EV market in Japan is very small. Expensive vehicle price, inconvenience of charging and mileage problem, etc. are mentioned as the cause of it. Accordingly, Japanese automobile companies have been pursued the global product strategy centered on the HV. HV has been recognized as an eco-friendly vehicle prior to moving to future FCV and EV. The time Japanese automobile companies announced their EV strategy was Year 2021. However, the strategy of each company is very much different. Toyota is pursing an all round strategy which plans bold investment in PHV, FCV, etc. in addition to EV. Nissan is devoting all their energy to develop all-solid-state battery expanding global EV market based on the result which they early focused on EV. At this moment, Nissan is considered as most advanced in the development of all-solid-state battery in Japan. Honda is concentrating on the development of EV and FCV cooperating with GM in US. Implications: EV has a simple structure unlike traditional gasoline and diesel vehicles. Therefore, the expansion of EV is expected to give inevitable significant influence on the Japanese automobile industry. First, huge EV development and production facility reorganization will cause huge amount of cost. As a next, it is expected the industrial structure to be reorganized with the bankruptcy of existing companies and the entry of new companies based on the reorganization of the supply chain due to the decrease in the number of parts. Accordingly, employment problem also will be emerged seriously. Finally, the change in the Japanese automobile industry will be an important subject for research in the future because it is expected there also will be change in traditional Sryawase type Monozukuri method which has been evaluated as a strength of Japanese manufacturing industry.

From globalising to regionalising to reshoring value chains? The case of Japan’s semiconductor industry

AbstractThis study evaluates the current situation and challenges of reshoring in the Japanese manufacturing industry, focusing on the semiconductor industry, which once dominated the world. After a recent document analysis and qualitative interviews with firms’ representatives and policymakers, it is apparent that the globalised semiconductor industry is unlikely to reshore to Japan even amid supply chain disruptions due to the coronavirus disease 2019 pandemic. A review of Japan’s semiconductor-related industries, such as semiconductor manufacturing materials, validated that they are embedded in Asian production networks and need to be optimised within a regionalised production system.

Knowledge Management for Design Development and Maintenance through Text Mining of Product Information

In recent years, Japanese manufacturing industry has been facing a skill succession problem due to the retirement of skilled workers and a shortage of young workers, despite the increasing complexity of technology. To solve this problem, there is a need to extract and utilize tacit knowledge and skills, but a method for utilizing disconnected information has been expected but not yet established. For instance, in the field of product failure, a method for appropriate integration of such fragmented information is expected to obtain systematic information about failure propagation. In this study, we obtain groups of failure cases with similar failure mechanisms from past automobile failure records (FPRs) by the following steps: 1. create a network among words such as part names or failure types (failure BOM), based on a single FPR; 2. create a network among FPR documents based on the common nodes of the failure BOM; 3. apply community detection algorithms to the network among FPR documents. As a result, comparing with the manually assigned labels about symptom and cause, the resulting community boundaries matches the label boundaries. Under the assumption that the failure BOM represents failure propagation, the proposed method can be evaluated as an FPR classification based on the likelihood of failure propagation. The proposed method is effective in indicating propagation-prone failure and in getting partial failure BOM based on failure propagation likelihood, which are expected to aid human analysis of faults.

Consideration of problems from the characteristics of Japanese companies in the introduction of IT in the Japanese manufacturing industry

The importance of business IT systems in corporate activities has increased, and the effects of their introduction have greatly contributed to corporate performance. However, it has been pointed out that Japanese companies are not sufficiently effective for the purpose of introduction. In this paper, we focused on the manufacturing industry, which accounts for the majority of Japanese companies, and considered and analyzed the utilization status of business IT systems. From there, we focused on the issues of organizational structure that are often seen in the manufacturing industry, low productivity, and added consideration to the relationship with business IT systems non-utilization. Based on recent changes in social conditions, we derive a hypothesis for a business IT systems activation model.

Lean manufacturing techniques and its implementation: A review

The two pillars on which the Lean manufacturing theory is built are product quality at low cost and customer happiness. It is regarded as a technique for reducing waste to the bare minimum. The Japanese manufacturing industry, particularly Toyota's, is where lean concepts first emerged. Lean manufacturing focuses on minimising waste in order to maximise the product's value. In today's world of cutthroat competition, every company or industry tries its hardest to provide high-quality, large-quantity goods at the lowest possible cost, and Lean manufacturing is a tool for doing so. The study in the article extracts approaches to improve the implementation of Lean manufacturing's idea in order to improve and increase productivity while keeping product costs low. The purpose of this article is to examine lean waste methods and to clarify the current state of Lean manufacturing.

Automatic Extraction of Design Rationale from Voice Sounds

The Japanese manufacturing industry faces various problems, one of which is the need to solve the problem of collaboration regarding information sharing with other departments such as production engineering, manufacturing, and procurement. In this study, the target of information extraction is the idea stage in the design process. All conversations including the design rationale, such as the reasons for the decision on the structure and function of each part and the process of consideration leading up to it, are recorded in the design process, and the data is automatically transcribed using the Google Speech API. The document data is analyzed in terms of TFIDF, which is text mining technique to detect important words from a text. We proposed an automatic method for extracting design rationale and important information by extracting sentences containing the extracted words from the document data in the order of their TFIDF values, and then extracting the logical and important information sentences. The proposed method was applied to the design of scissors. The case shows the potential for extraction of rationale while there are several points to be improved.

How to Build a Linkage between High-Quality Assurance Production System and Production Support Automated System

To maintain the planned production volume for potential disaster, the Japanese manufacturing industry needs to develop and rebuilt the global product that is to strengthen QCD (Quality, Cost, and Delivery). The keys to fulfilling this need are automated facility, human skills to operate the facility (production operator), and a production system incorporated with production data systems that activate the facility and human system subject to each overseas plant conditions. Therefore, the author has created a new system that ensures the necessity of building a new production system for global production, eliminates ambiguity among the processes of production planning, production preparation, production and process control, and formalizes and builds the linkage among the processes. This paper is to reveal the effectiveness of the above-specified objectives of the newly created systems. Especially the highly accurate robot production system has been tested and confirmed at Toyota Motor Corporation.

Domestic large-diameter log use in the Japanese lumber manufacturing industry: focusing on regional differences

ABSTRACT Japan’s postwar policies with respect to forestry management have led to the aging of planted forests and a shift toward large-diameter logs that has created a challenge for how to use such logs in the lumber manufacturing industry. In recent years, medium-diameter logs have been the predominant type, and there has been less demand for large-diameter logs. This study examines the Japanese lumber manufacturing industry’s consumption of domestic timber using survey data from 21 member companies of the Domestic Timber Sawmill Association. The results suggest that regional characteristics and the tree species consumed are the two main factors that drive the decision to use large-diameter logs. While current demand for large-diameter logs is considered low, the results show that demand is present, and there are signs of growing consumption of these logs within the lumber manufacturing industry. As the current machinery that handles medium-diameter logs depreciates, it is expected that companies will respond by either introducing machinery that can accommodate large-diameter logs or changing their products.

Quantitative analysis of the smile curve - empirical analysis targeted for the Japanese food and manufacturing industries

Quantitative analysis of the smile curve - empirical analysis targeted for the Japanese food and manufacturing industries

Quantitative analysis of the smile curve - Empirical analysis targeted for the Japanese food and manufacturing industries

This study targeted the food and manufacturing industries in Japan. We analyse profitability using the concepts of upstream, midstream, and downstream industries and clarify the relationship between the B-to-B and B-to-C rates and operating income margin profitability. Then, we analyse the relationship between the B-to-B rate and profitability using the extended input-output table and economic census. Our results show that the food industry has a smile curve, and the profitability of midstream industry is low. For the manufacturing industry, we verified that the higher the B-to-C rate, the lower the level of profitability, and as the B-to-B rate exceeds 0.8, it is shown that profitability tends to be high in industries with a higher B-to-B rate.

Challenge to a new industrial revolution of product planning area involving regional revitalization and small and medium-sized enterprises by utilizing "Agile Design Engineering in Functional space"

The main of reason for the low productivity of the Japanese manufacturing industry is the pursuit of efficiency through the curse of mass production. Functional planning is a method of creating value by considering each product / service as a "function", repeating analysis and synthesis based on "dialogue" with many people involved, and superimposing "purposes". We thought about making the use of functional planning in the "region" that is full of diversity and flexible in building relationships based on daily life. Involve small and medium-sized enterprises, utilize their strengths, and take on the challenge of creating new value by synthesis each other's functions.

Potential Impacts of the European Union’s Circular Economy Policy on Japanese Manufacturers

While the European Union’s (EU) Circular Economy policy package includes various aspects, such as waste treatment, plastics recycling, reduction of food waste, and remanufacturing, it is essentially an industrial and employment promotion policy. In regard to the promotion of circular businesses, including remanufacturing, product-service system (PSS), and digital platforms, this policy may change the shape of the EU market and the core of market competition. However, many Japanese manufacturers are not aware of the difference between the circular economy and the traditional 3R (reduce, reuse, and recycle) policy and are unfamiliar with the impacts on business competition. The objectives of this paper include an analysis of the EU’s Circular Economy (CE) policy and its potential impacts on the Japanese manufacturing industry (as a representative of a non-EU manufacturing industry). First, we summarize the EU’s CE Policy and analyze its meaning. Second, as examples of CE implementation, we introduce Ecodesign Directive “Directive 2009/125/EC” and the European companies, Siemens and Veolia. Then, we discuss the implication of EU’s CE policy; its double-layered structure, the different attitudes toward CEs among European and Japanese companies, and some notes taken from a CE that may be of importance to Japanese manufacturers. Companies are suggested to be proactively integrate sustainability with their main business activity. Finally, this paper points out key enabling technologies. While there are a lot of technologies related to ecodesign, process technologies, business strategy and planning, and digital technology, an indispensable technology for realizing a CE, is life cycle engineering, which synthesizes a sustainable circulation system, by integrating the technologies mentioned above. We also illustrate a hypothetical scenario in which the traditional manufacturing industry transforms into a life cycle value creating industry.

Corporate Governance and Firm Performance: A Comparative Analysis between Listed Family and Non-Family Firms in Japan

This study aims to explore the relationship between corporate governance and financial performance of publicly listed family and non-family firms in the Japanese manufacturing industry. The study obtains data from Bloomberg over the period 2014–2018 and covers 1412 firms comprising of 861 non-family and 551 family firms. Our results show that family firms outperform non-family counterparts in terms of return on assets (ROA) and Tobin’s Q when a univariate analysis is invoked. On multivariate analysis, family firms show superior performance to non-family firms with Tobin’s Q. However, family ownership negates firm performance when ROA is taken into account. Regarding the impact of governance elements on Tobin’s Q, institutional shareholding appears to be a significant and positive factor for promoting the performance of both family and non-family firms. Furthermore, board size encourages the performance of non-family firms, while such influence is not observed for family firms. In terms of ROA, foreign ownership inspires the performance of both family and non-family firms. Moreover, government ownership stimulates the performance of family firms, while board independence significantly negates the same. Besides, we find that the performance of family firms run by the founder’s descendants is superior to that of family firms run by the founder. These findings have critical policy implications for family firms in Japan.