Japanese Production Research Articles

ПРОЕКТНЫЙ ПОДХОД К УПРАВЛЕНИЮ ВНЕДРЕНИЕМ БЕРЕЖЛИВОГО ПРОИЗВОДСТВА

The article highlights methodical approaches to building a mechanism for effective management of the implementation of the lean production, as a factor in solving the problem of Russia's lag behind developed countries in productivity. The issues related to differences in the ideology of Japanese, American and Russian lean production systems, analysis of historical experience of implementation, trends and effectiveness of var-ious management options for the implementation of lean production are considered for Russia and developed countries; the reasons for the lack of efficiency of implementation in the dynamics are considered; An assess-ment of expected performance under the national project «Productivity and employment support”; methodical recommendations have been proposed to form an effective mechanism for implementing lean production based on a combination of project management and quality management.

Reliability-oriented multi-resource allocation for seru production system with stochastic capacity

Seru production system, which can meet the demands characterised by varied product assortment and fluctuant volumes in Japanese production practice, consists of several serus where the capacity of each seru is not certain but stochastic. Therefore, the capacity of each seru has multiple operational states. In this situation, the system reliability is an important issue to evaluate the performance of this new type production mode. The reliability in this paper is defined as the probability that a seru production system with stochastic capacity can satisfy the given demands within a fixed period, and a resource allocation problem in a stochastic-flow network, i.e., how to allocate various resources to each seru from a reliable angle, is formulated to maximise the system reliability. An efficient solution method is designed according to the characteristic of network, and two cases are given to illustrate the proposed model and solution method. [Submitted 24 January 2019; Accepted 7 May 2019]

The Japanese Production System and Its International Transferability

The Japanese production system has an ethnic or national basis. There are considered to be three production components of the system-shop-floor-centred work organization, waste-free production control, and participative management in the context of cooperative labour relations. For each of these, it is possible to set up a Japanese-type'. The author is conducting research into the overseas operations of Japanese subsidiaries in automobile assembly. Japanese multinational enterprises presumably try to apply the system to their overseas operations to take advantage of its strengths; however, given that they have moved into a foreign country, presumably Japanese enterprises have to adapt to the management environment of the local area. This research investigates the following questions: (i) Does this 'application' and 'adaptation' result in a dilemma? (ii) What is actually being applied and what has not been possible to apply? (iii) How well is the balance between 'application' and 'adaptation' being achieved? According to surveys of Japanese manufacturing plants in North America, Asia, and Europe, the application of the system is possible. Of course this does not mean that it can be applied 100%. The pattern of application varies according to the management strategy of the Japanese enterprises.

The Changing Face of Labour between Hawai‘i, Japan and colonial Taiwan

By the 1930s, the Hawaiian archipelago had become a touchstone for a Japan-centric history of transplanted peoples, meanings and memories across the northwestern Pacific world. This article sketches one aspect of this transpacific history through reconstructing for the first time the commission, composition and reception of an iconic painting from 1885. ‘Japanese laborers on Spreckelsville, Maui’, by Joseph D. Strong (1853–1899), frames one story of Japanese sugar production in the Pacific world. My article first examines the contemporary political significance of the faces of ‘Japan’ and ‘Hawai‘i’ on display in the painting, and then extends this analysis to consider the painting’s later reframing as part of the story of Japan’s colonization of Taiwan after 1895. In these ways, I highlight, first, the need for new research on Native Hawaiian support for Japanese immigration in the late-nineteenth century; and, second, the importance of the recent trend in the historiography of the Japanese empire to consider ‘emigration’ and ‘colonization’ as two sides of the same coin.

Simulated annealing and genetic algorithm based method for a bi-level seru loading problem with worker assignment in seru production systems

<p style='text-indent:20px;'><i>Seru</i> production is one of the latest manufacturing modes arising from Japanese production practice. <i>Seru</i> can achieve efficiency, flexibility, and responsiveness simultaneously. To accommodate the current business environment with volatile demands and fierce competitions, <i>seru</i> has attracted more and more attention both from researchers and practitioners. A new planning management system, just-in-time organization system (JIT-OS), is used to manage and control a <i>seru</i> production system. The JIT-OS contains two decisions: <i>seru</i> formation and <i>seru</i> loading. By <i>seru</i> formation, a <i>seru</i> system with one or multiple appropriate <i>serus</i> is configured; by <i>seru</i> loading, customer ordered products are allocated to <i>serus</i> to implement production plans. In the process of <i>seru</i> formation, workers have to be assigned to <i>serus</i>. In this paper, a <i>seru</i> loading problem with worker assignment is constructed as a bi-level programming model, and the worker assignment on the upper level is to minimize total idle time while the lower level is to minimize the makespan by finding out optimal product allocation. A product lot can be splitted and allocated to different <i>serus</i>. The problem of this paper is shown to be NP-hard. Therefore, a simulated annealing and genetic algorithm (SA-GA) is developed. The SA is for the upper level programming and the GA is for the lower level programming. The practicality and effectiveness of the model and algorithm are verified by two numerical examples, and the results show that the SA-GA algorithm has good scalability.

Eco-Efficiency Assessment of Intensive Rice Production in Japan: Joint Application of Life Cycle Assessment and Data Envelopment Analysis

To promote sustainable agriculture worldwide, it is important to understand what constitutes eco-efficiency for rice, a staple food in many countries. This study examined whether expanding the scale of rice farming contributed to the improved eco-efficiency of intensive rice production in Japan. Both life cycle assessment (LCA) and data envelopment analysis (DEA) were used to measure comprehensively the eco-efficiency of rice production. A DEA window analysis technique with two DEA inputs (global warming and eutrophication from the LCA results) and one DEA output (weight-based rice yield) was applied to the statistical data for 2005–2011 categorized by the size of rice farms. The results indicate that expanding the size of rice farms is an effective way of improving the eco-efficiency of intensive rice production in Japan. The important factors for improving eco-efficiency are the implementation of economies of scale, reduced outsourcing of farm work, and savings in chemical fertilizers and pesticides. Expansion of the size of rice farms through the recent abolition of the rice production adjustment program will also contribute to improving the eco-efficiency of Japanese rice production.

Ability of Saccharomyces cerevisiae MC87-46 to assimilate isomaltose and its effects on sake taste

Recently, wild strains of Saccharomyces cerevisiae isolated from a variety of natural resources have been used to make bread, beer, wine, and sake. In the current study, we isolated wild S. cerevisiae MC strain from the carnation (Dianthus caryophyllus L) flower and produced sake using its cerulenin-resistant mutant strain MC87-46. Then, we characterized the components, including ethanol, amino acids, organic acids, and sugars, in the fermented sake. Sake brewed with MC87-46 is sweet owing to the high content of isomaltose, which was at a concentration of 44.3 mM. The low sake meter value of −19.6 is most likely due to this high isomaltose concentration. The genomic DNA of MC87-46 encodes for isomaltases IMA1, IMA2, IMA3, IMA4 and IMA5, as well as the isomaltose transporter gene, AGT1. However, these genes were not induced in MC87-46 by isomaltose, and the strain did not possess isomaltase activity. These results show that MC87-46 cannot utilize isomaltose, resulting in its accumulation in the fermented sake. Isomaltose concentrations in sake brewed with MC87-46 were 24.6-fold more than in commercial sake. These findings suggest that MC87-46 may be useful for commercial application in Japanese sake production because of its unique flavour and nutrient profile.

Functional Correlation between Subcellular Localizations of Japanese Encephalitis Virus Capsid Protein and Virus Production.

The flavivirus capsid protein is considered to be essential for the formation of nucleocapsid complexes with viral genomic RNA at the viral replication organelle that appears on the endoplasmic reticulum (ER), as well as for incorporation into virus particles. However, this protein is also detected at the lipid droplet (LD) and nucleolus, and physiological roles of these off-site localizations are still unclear. In this study, we made a series of alanine substitution mutants of Japanese encephalitis virus (JEV) capsid protein that cover all polar and hydrophobic amino acid residues to identify the molecular surfaces required for virus particle formation and for localization at the LD and nucleolus. Five mutants exhibited a defect in the formation of infectious particles, and two of these mutants failed to be incorporated into the subviral particles (SVP). Three mutants lost the ability to localize to the nucleolus, and only a single mutant, with mutations at α2, was unable to localize to the LD. Unlike the cytoplasmic capsid protein, the nucleolar capsid protein was resistant to detergent treatment, and the α2 mutant was hypersensitive to detergent treatment. To scrutinize the relationship between these localizations and viral particle formation, we made eight additional alanine substitution mutants and found that all the mutants that did not localize at the LD or nucleolus failed to form normal viral particles. These results support the functional correlation between LD or nucleolus localization of the flaviviral capsid protein and the formation of infectious viral particles.IMPORTANCE This study is the first to report the comprehensive mutagenesis of a flavivirus capsid protein. We assessed the requirement of each molecular surface for infectious viral particle formation as well as for LD and nucleolar localization and found functional relationships between the subcellular localization of the virus capsid protein and infectious virus particle formation. We developed a system to independently assess the packaging of viral RNA and that of the capsid protein and found a molecular surface of the capsid protein that is crucial for packaging of viral RNA but not for packaging of the capsid protein itself. We also characterized the biochemical properties of capsid protein mutants and found that the capsid protein localizes at the nucleolus in a different manner than for its localization to the LD. Our comprehensive alanine-scanning mutagenesis study will aid in the development of antiflavivirus small molecules that can target the flavivirus capsid protein.

Re-emergence of Asia and the Rise and Fall of the Japanese Economy in Super Long Waves of Capitalist World Systems

ABSTRACTAfter the global financial crisis of 2007–2008, we are facing the beginning of the end of the post-war capitalist world system. The 1920s was in the middle of the social, political and economic interregnum, a period of discontinuity in the social order, accompanied by widespread unrest, wars and power vacuums. In this article, that framework of the long and super long waves in the capitalist world systems is used to examine the recent interregnum that marks the re-emergence of Asia. Within the framework of the long and super long waves a new “flying geese” theory is built by incorporating the theory of dynamic industries with Akamatsu’s theory. In the 1980s, Japanese integral production architecture improved quality and productivity in the automobile and electrical machinery industries. In the 1990s, the USA’s open modular production architecture enabled China’s compressed industrialisation, and the China-centric Asian production network replaced the Japan-led Pacific Rim triangular trade regime. In the 2000s, the knowledge-and technology-intensive (KTI) industries have established themselves as the new dynamic industries. The USA is the leading country to develop KTI industries. China is catching up quickly and has leapfrogged Japan in KTI industries. In conclusion, it is argued that these changes mark an approaching second interregnum.

Circulating art and visual hybridity: cross‐cultural exchanges between Portugal, Japan, and Spain

AbstractThis article examines on circulation and visual hybridity in works of art produced in Japan and other major Asian port cities under the control of Portugal and Spain. Cultural influences from the Iberian Peninsula, via traders and missionaries, had a significant impact on artistic production in Japan in the late sixteenth and early seventeenth century. Many foreign objects brought by the Europeans into Japan exhibit hybrid forms. These hybrid objects played their part in influencing Japanese local production. The impact of Japanese art exported to Europe and colonial Mexico further illustrates the complex circulation of artists and craftsmen, goods and ideas. As artworks travelled in and out of the different artistic production centres in Asia, they both influenced new production and were adapted to local styles and traditions. This article demonstrates that artistic and cultural exchanges are not one‐directional transmission but rather a far more complicated process of hybridization. The article concludes with a call for new art historical approaches for looking at hybrid objects, wherein there is less focus on exactly where and by whom it was made, and more acknowledgement of the shared characteristics and long history of interactions among cultures embodied in the hybridity of objects.

Revisiting the Avian Eco-SSL for Lead: Recommendations for Revision.

The avian ecological soil screening level (Eco-SSL) for Pb (11 mg/kg) is within soil background concentrations for >90% of the United States. Consequently, its utility as a soil screening level is limited. Site-specific ecological risk-based remedial goals for Pb are frequently many times greater. Toxicity reference values (TRVs) play a major role in defining Eco-SSLs. The Pb Eco-SSL TRV is driven by reduced egg production in Japanese quail (Coturnix japonica), which displays effects at doses both substantially lower and greater than other tested species. High variability in egg production in Japanese quail has also been observed for other contaminants. Japanese quail egg production may therefore be too variable and unreliable an effect endpoint upon which to base regulatory screening criteria. Toxicity data supporting the Eco-SSL were reevaluated and only studies reporting both no and lowest observed adverse effect levels (NOAELs and LOAELs) for reproduction, growth, or survival were considered. Dose-response data were extracted from 10 studies both as concentrations and doses. Dose-response relationships were developed using the US Environmental Protection Agency (USEPA) Benchmark Dose Software for dietary concentrations and doses for egg production in Japanese quail and chickens. Effect levels (of 10%, 20%, and 50%) were extracted from the dose-response analyses. Species sensitivity distributions and dose-response data indicated reproduction was most sensitive to Pb and survival was least sensitive, with growth intermediate. Limited data for ringed turtle doves (Streptopelia risoria) and American kestrels (Falco sparverius) suggest lower sensitivity than chickens to Pb. The ED10 and ED20 thresholds for chickens were 4.4 and 9.8 mg·kg-1 ·d-1 , respectively. Avian Pb Eco-SSLs were recalculated based on the chicken ED10 and ED20, with and without a bioavailability adjustment. Revised avian Pb Eco-SSLs for the most highly exposed species (American woodcock), based on the ED10 and assuming 100% and 50% bioavailability, were 36.3 mg/kg and 43.7 mg/kg, respectively. Integr Environ Assess Manag 2019;15:739-749. © 2019 SETAC.

The emergence of properties of the Japanese production network: How do listed firms choose their partners?

This paper investigates the mechanisms behind the formation of links between suppliers and customers in the Tokyo Stock Exchange (TSE) production network. The supplier-customer network of listed firms in Japan is estimated by the so-called exponential random graph model (ERGM). We estimate 4 models to understand how endogenous and exogenous attributes contribute to the emergence of the TSE production network. In terms of endogenous attributes, the probability of links between suppliers and customers increases with the transitivity and reciprocity. We show that the model fits the real data only when the geographic distance, firm sizes the industrial sector of the firms are considered.

Knowledge Transfer in the Automotive Industry: The Case of JICA’s Project for Automotive Supply Chain Development in Mexico

The automotive industry is considered a source for economic development in both developed and developing countries. However, endogenous firms in developing countries may not reap the positive externalities of entering global production chains due to their technological and knowledge deficien- cies. This is particularly noticeable for Japanese production chains that demand high-quality parts and components and favors the procurement from companies from the same business group, limiting the opportunities for local firms. Training may help reduce this gap by transferring both tacit and explicit knowledge. This analysis provides evidence that institutions such as government agencies may affect the transfer of knowledge to local firms at the micro-level via training. The results from qualitative case studies show benefits from a training project carried out by the Japan International Cooperation Agency (jica) in Mexico. Participating firms expe- rienced overall growth and improvements in their quality and productivity indicators, allowing them to obtain certifications, increase their customer base and diversify to new markets. The knowledge acquired was internalized and diffused throughout the firms and in certain cases spilled-over to other production lines and other companies.

Electronic and microscopic researches of dislocation structure of metal near crack top

The most important element of fuel and energy complex is the system of the main pipelines for transport of gas, oil and products of their processing. On a surface of the main pipes in the presence of cathode protection there can be corrosion cracks. It is connected with simultaneous influence of two factors - soil electrolytes and the stretching tension. One of the most dangerous types of destruction of main gas pipelines is stress-crack corrosion (SCC). Defects on an outer surface of a pipe are shown in the form of single cracks or their system focused generally along the forming pipe. In work studying of the multiple cracks formed on the main gas pipeline under the exfoliated isolation is presented. Researches were conducted on a sample of X70 steel of the Japanese production which is selected from a focal zone of destruction of the main gas pipeline. On a sample there were cracks, characteristic of corrosion cracking. For the proof that cracks had corrosion and mechanical origin electronic and microscopic researches of dislocation structure of metal near crack top were conducted by means of a method thin foils and also the diffraction pattern of the site with a crack is studied.

A Skeptical Note on the Role of Constant Elasticity of Substitution in Labor Income Share Dynamics

The constancy of the elasticity of factor substitution (σ) makes its role as a driver of the labor income share exogenous. The constant elasticity of substitution (CES) production function has predominantly been used to support this causal relationship. We argue that (i) capital-labor ratio determines the value of σ, and (ii) both capital-labor ratio and σ vary over time. We use a variable elasticity of substitution (VES) production framework that allows both labor income share and σ to change over time. Statistically significant empirical support is provided using the Japanese industrial productivity data. This suggests that the CES model may not be an ideal choice to examine the factor income share dynamics.

The fundamental phonological unit of Japanese word production: An EEG study using the picture-word interference paradigm

Abstract It has been shown that in Germanic languages (e.g. English, Dutch) phonemes are the primary (or proximate) planning units during the early stages of phonological encoding. Contrastingly, in Chinese and Japanese the phoneme does not seem to play an important role but rather the syllable (Chinese) and mora (Japanese) are essential. However, despite the lack of behavioral evidence, neurocorrelational studies in Chinese suggested that electrophysiological brain responses (i.e. preceding overt responses) may indicate some significance for the phoneme. We investigated this matter in Japanese and our data shows that unlike in Chinese (for which the literature shows mixed effects), in Japanese both the behavioral and neurocorrelational data indicate an important role only for the mora (and not the phoneme) during the early stages of phonological encoding.

What is the impact of problem loans on Japanese bank productivity growth?

AbstractThis paper examines for the first time the impact of problem loans on Japanese productivity growth. We exploit a new data set of Japanese problem loans classified into two categories: bankrupt and restructured loans. We opt for a novel and flexible productivity growth decomposition that allows to measure the direct impact of these problem loans on productivity growth. The results reveal that Japanese bank productivity growth was severely constrained by bankrupt and restructured loans early in 2000s, whilst some persistence of the negative impact of problem loans on productivity growth is observed in the late 2000s. Thereafter, there is only some partial recovery in the productivity growth from 2012 to 2015. Further, we also perform cluster analysis to examine convergence or divergence across regions and over time. We observe limited convergence, though Regional Banks seem to form clusters in some regions.

Macroscopic features of production network and sequential graph drawing

Nation-wide economic system has both stability and flexibility in normal condition. In this study, we solve how these two superficially inconsistent properties are materialized, by exploring macroscopic structure of production network of Japan. For the purpose of this analysis, we developed a method which can generate successive layouts of changing large-scale complex network. By applying the proposed method, we visualize a series of Japanese production network with supplier–customer link direction. It is already known that the Japanese production network has the so-called “bow-tie” structure of directed network. Our method lets us examine how the bow-tie structure changes along with time, to find a stable core part and ephemeral peripheral part. Combined with quantitative analysis, we found that it is the way of transformation of this structure that makes both integrity and flexibility possible within a single economic network.

Tie-formation process within the communities of the Japanese production network: application of an exponential random graph model

This paper studies the driving forces behind the formation of ties within the major communities in the Japanese nationwide network of production, which contains one million firms and five million links between suppliers (“upstream" firms) and customers (“downstream" firms). We apply the Infomap algorithm to reveal the hierarchical structure of the production network. At the second level of the hierarchy, we find a reasonable community resolution, where the community size distribution follows a power law decay. Then, we estimate the tie formation within 100 communities of different sizes. The studied model considers a large set of attributes, including both endogenous attributes (network motifs, e.g., stars and triangles) and exogenous attributes (economic variables, e.g., net sales and firm size). The estimation results show that the considered model converges and presents a high goodness of fit (GoF) for all communities. Moreover, it is found that the forces explaining the formation of links between suppliers and customers differ among communities. Some attributes, such as reciprocity, popularity, activity, location homophily, bank homophily and sales statistics, are common drivers of internal link formation for most of the studied communities. However, transitivity is rejected as a significant influencing factor for most communities, reflecting an absence of a sense of trust and reliability between firms with a common partner. Finally, we show that sector homophily does not serve as an obvious mechanism of partnership at the community level in the production network.

A Study of Japanese Traditional Rice Production Technique in Warm Areas and Its Modern Ecological Value

A Study of Japanese Traditional Rice Production Technique in Warm Areas and Its Modern Ecological Value