Conventional Wisdom
According to conventional wisdom, Japan’s technical cooperation entails so many problems that only significant modification of Japanese methods will facilitate transfer abroad. The same problem apply to industrialized Western countries and to developing countries :
1. Other counties are qualification oriented. Workers acquire high, formal qualification in training courses outside companies that are the basis for assignment to high-level positions in companies. In Japan, skill formation centers on OJT.
2. Workers elsewhere do only what they are told. In Japan, they are characterized by the diligent attention they pay to their workshop tasks. This stresses cultural differences—in thought and behavior.
3. The order and means by which a job is done and the authorized limits of workers’ duties are standardized and precisely documented in other countries. In Japanese workshops, nothing is written down, and the limits of authority are vague.
Do these perceptions correspond with fact? Skill formation in U.S. workshop also centers on OJT. And as for non-Japanese workers doing only what they are told, this correspond to an earlier discussion of workshop practice where some blue-collar workers are unable to do unusual operations. To argue otherwise is tantamount to asking whether intellectual skills found predominantly in large Japanese companies can be formed in other counties. Standardization and documentation, too, refer to an earlier discussion of dealing with workshop problems. These perceptions require study.