If a corporation is to innovate. it must also train its workers to handle ever more sophisticated tasks. Here again the Japanese labor system provides a vital advantage because companies can undertake expensive training programs confident that their enterprise will reap the rewards. By contrast, American employers increasingly consider training a dubious investment, since in the us. system trained workers are free to take their skills to rival employers. A recent survey found that u.S. corporations are only one- seventh as likely as their Japanese counterparts to provide new recruits with formal training.