From Japanese household appliances, which are synonymous with high quality and durability, to rizhimaru semiconductor, which accounts for half of the world, to the LCD panel once known as the “LCD kingdom” and holds more than half of the world’s share, made in Japan once created a brilliant history and became a business card of Japanese enterprises in the international market.
However, in recent years, Japanese manufacturing has stagnated, and frequent “counterfeiting” events have also cast a shadow on its “quality myth”. In Japan and China, there are also some arguments advocating the decline of Japanese manufacturing industry, such as “made in Japan has gone down the altar” and “the halo has faded”.
Many Japanese media and scholars have also analyzed the reality of the decline of Japanese manufacturing industry. Recently, the former CEO of Sony, Nobuyuki Inoue, published a new book “management of life”. He pointed out that “Japanese enterprises have lost to China”.
As for why the Japanese manufacturing industry cannot defeat China, he believes that the reason is that Japan cannot get rid of the manufacturing myth and Japanese enterprises cannot integrate well with it technology. Moreover, Japanese enterprises still have the big problem of “bureaucratic dependence”P align = “center” Japanese enterprises were imprisoned by the myth of making, fell into the “innovation trap”
“The market is shrinking, but I don’t know how to make goods to sell well.”
“The technology cycle is surprisingly fast, but your skills are constantly aging.”
This is the trouble of many Japanese manufacturing enterprises today. The shrinking market, inability to cope with globalization and aging technology have brought Japan’s manufacturing industry to a standstill.
Yasuhiro Inoue believes that the biggest reason for this is that Japan cannot get rid of the manufacturing myth of post-war revival and indulge in the brilliance brought by technological progress.
He pointed out that the traditional manufacturing era is dominated by enterprises, which develop new technologies, produce products, and then transport them to the market, so as to make profits through mass production and reducing costs. “As long as it is a product manufactured by new technology, consumers will feel ‘so powerful, so powerful’.” In that era, technological innovation is the foundation of manufacturing industry.
In today’s Internet age, on the contrary, it is market-oriented. Enterprises need to listen to the needs of users, meet the needs of users by using existing technology or make venture capital, and the cost pricing must also be determined by the market. Google, Facebook (now meta), apple, etc. are all like this. Products can be free. Just increase the number of users and make money through advertising and other ways. There is no need to develop new technologies, and the business model is completely subverted.
However, Japanese enterprises are still stubborn in the past manufacturing industry’s pursuit of technological excellence. Japanese manufacturing has always been exquisite. This characteristic is undoubtedly an advantage in the upstream of the manufacturing industry – materials, key parts, manufacturing equipment and other fields that need long-term investment, continuous tracking and excellence. This is also the embodiment of the “craftsman spirit” that Japan has long been proud of.
However, the excessive paranoia of “craftsman spirit” also led to the reversal of things when they reach the extreme, which made Japanese fall into the “innovation trap”.
Tang Shanglong, director of Japan precision processing research institute, has long been engaged in semiconductor research and development in the production front line of Japan’s manufacturing industry. His book “lost manufacturing industry: the defeat of Japan’s manufacturing industry” also mentioned that Japanese electronic information products excessively pursue excellence, and enterprises invest a lot of resources in product quality and technical depth, resulting in high manufacturing costs and long cycle of Japanese household appliances, mobile phones, computers and other products, Even more than the needs of market customers, to the point of being too high and too few. Then the rising Chinese and Korean enterprises gained advantages in scale, cost and efficiency, met the needs of rapid iteration and downward price of electronic products, and gradually surpassed Japanese enterprises.
“In the face of the 10-year round of new technology wave, they lack sensitivity to market opportunities, stick to the old ways and miss opportunities; in the face of the change of technology trend, the Japanese enterprise system is too rigid to adapt to the trend of technological change.” Tang Shanglong wrote in the bookP align = “center” made in China embraces the future through technological innovation, p align = “center” Japan should accept the reality
While Japanese manufacturing fell into a downturn, China turned into a “world factory” and became a leading role in the manufacturing industry.
In the book “management of life”, Nobuyuki Inoue introduced the popular business model in China – Omo (online merge offline), that is to realize the integration of Wuxi Online Offline Communication Information Technology Co.Ltd(300959) and Wuxi Online Offline Communication Information Technology Co.Ltd(300959) through the combination of hardware and it. Omo does not simply import it technology into business, but puts online business and offline business in the same important position. Taking the Internet health management product “safe and good doctor” launched by Ping An Insurance (Group) Company Of China Ltd(601318) in 2015 as an example, the company provides online health examination, online sales of pharmaceuticals and nutrition subsidized foods, and suggestions on healthy lifestyle through online platform and taking doctor resources as the core. In order to optimize the service, Ping’an good doctor makes good use of the health data provided by users, and establishes a marketing plan for individual users on this basis.
Different from Japanese enterprises, Chinese enterprises “start their contact with users from the Internet.” Many of the digital reforms of Japanese enterprises are still superficial, such as upgrading traditional seals to electronic seals.
Takeshi Inoue pointed out that at present, the digital transformation of many Japanese enterprises remains in the “defensive” stage, which belongs to “defensive digitization” (guarding digitization), that is, changing existing business processes through digitization. However, this defensive digital transformation cannot create new things. It must be transformed into “offensive digital” (offensive digital), and change from the initial idea. This is the real digital reform. “At present, Japan doesn’t even know what the real digital revolution is.”.
What is the real digital revolution?
Take the automobile industry as an example. At present, in the field of automobile manufacturing, electric vehicles and automatic driving technology are very hot. However, if the innovation and Reform in the automotive field only stay in the idea of “because electric driving is quiet and safe” and “your hand will run when you leave the steering wheel”, it will still be imprisoned by the old manufacturing ideas and cannot realize the real digital transformation. The real digital transformation in the automotive field should liberate the car from the concept of driving tool and no longer regard it as a simple mobile tool. In addition to the integration of it and driving technology, we should also consider what services we can provide for people.
Today, Japan’s manufacturing market is shrinking, but Chinese enterprises are rising by virtue of advanced business model and technological innovation. Yasuhiro Inoue believes that Japan should “sincerely accept this reality and jointly create a new pattern of manufacturing industry”P align = “center” completely handed over the management of enterprises to the government, Japanese enterprises lost “sovereignty”
During his tenure as CEO of Sony, Nobuyuki Inoue found that Japanese enterprises had the problem of “bureaucratic dependence”, which had not changed for many years.
In the past, people often attributed the rapid development of Japan’s economy to the guidance of the Ministry of trade and industry (the predecessor of the Ministry of economy and industry), exaggerating the role of the government system. Therefore, Japanese enterprises will choose to “bow” in front of government departments, and even some enterprises leave all their company management and operation to government departments, which is almost tantamount to giving up “sovereignty”.
“No matter what new things you do, you have to rely on the judgment of officials. If the government departments do not have clear judgment and instructions, you can’t make any new challenges. Such enterprises are problematic.” He believed that the problem could not be solved without improving the “bureaucratic dependency” of enterprises, but Japanese enterprises now rely more on government departments.
Takeshi Inoue believes that blockchain technology may be an area in which Japan can lead in the future. However, due to the excessive dependence of Japanese enterprises on government departments, the latter needs to spend a lot of time formulating rules, which may delay the development of this field. “This is why some Japanese enterprises fled to Singapore.” Yasuyuki Inoue wrote.
(compiled from presedent online and Yahoo News)
