"The" way vs "a" way (Japan v China dept)

[Don Plumley]

From James Fallows blog:

This is not a scientific comparison, but when i saw one scene I remembered another.

This is the recent scene: yesterday afternoon, Naha airport, Okinawa, Japan. Line crew gassing up a Cirrus SR22:



Details to notice below: crew identically dressed in company uniform; complete safety gear -- hardhats, reflective chest straps with procedural checklist clipped on, puffy protective cuff to shield the plane's wing from damage. It's hard to see in the picture, but even the boots are part of the uniform: black, with red laces, and company logos on the back. Impossible to see in the picture: the coordinated shout and semi-bow toward the plane when the fueling was done.


Now, the scene I remembered and mentioned last year: Refueling the same kind of plane in Changsha, capital of Hunan Province, China.



With usual caveats against sweeping generalization, what this made me think was: Japan is all about the way of doing things. Practice, ritual, perfectionism, as much fanatical attention to the process as to the result. China is all about finding a way to do things. Improvisation, little interest in rules, putting up with whatever is necessary to attain the result.

(Yeah yeah yeah, there are exceptions: perfectionist operations in China, loosey-goosey ones in Japan. Still.)

At the moment, I am feeling positive toward both approaches. The emphasis on the right way of doing things is re-surprising on each encounter with Japan. And the determination to do things in China, no matter what, commands respect, despite the obvious complications and problems it creates.

But when it comes to refueling the plane....

Culturally and personally, this was really insightful for me. "The" way versus "A" way. Being half-Japanese and in generally a rules-following, organized type of person, I really get "The way". But the other half is lazy, accomplishment-driven, short-cut seeking, so at times my alter ego reverts into "A way". Which I think explains why I'm at war with myself so much - like a low-energy incredible hulk. I guess we all have a little Jekyll and Hyde inside of us...

[Dantilla]

Interesting observations, interesting thoughts. Thanks.

[The Gaijin]

Back in the late 80's when I should have been in China - I had a Japanese friend who took a semester off from American University to go study in China. She was horrified and convinced they would never build a modern economy. (This is when they were all riding bicycles and wearing Mao suits.) But the last 20 years has seen some amazing growth over there..

[Komenda Fan]

I think I will stick with driving a Japanese car for now... wonder what difference I would have found with a Chinese wife, instead of my Japanese one? Maybe for my next marriage....

[azasadny]

I'd rather work in a Japanese nuclear power plant than a Chinese one...

[MRM]

I think it has more to do with having a mature, first-world economy versus an emerging third-world economy than anything else. It wasn't long ago that "Made in Japan" meant "junk". That changed by maybe the mid 1980s. As late as 1983-1984 Honda cars (remember when you used to have to say Honda-car or people would assume you meant a motorcycle) were still tin cans. Cheap, fuel efficient death traps of tins cans, but you would dent them just slamming the door. By the mid 1980s that was completely changed.

China had farther to go. Since starting to open in the 1990s, China has come light years. But anyone who's been there knows they have light years to go. Bigger country, lower economic base, more oppressive former regime, all mean China's way of doing things will look funny for a few more years. But when they're fully mature I wouldn't think you'd see much difference between the Japanes, American and Chinese way of doing things.

[Sapporo Guy]

lolo, IF I would have had a Chinese girlfriend back in college I wonder what life would be like?
Original plan was to go to China and wait for the expected economic boom.
Now, I'm stuck waiting to see if Japan can create more than 3 FM (actually 4 but that 4th one is very local in the city) stations for a city of 1.9 million

Yes, form and procedure are very important in Japan. Problem would be if (using the above picture) if they didn't have the right tank or hose or rubber cushion, they probably would never have thought of the Chinese method and serious consensus agreement would have to go through red tape committees to try to find a solution. [I'm being a bit rough but that is the general format for solving many problems. ]

In Japan: "The way" is the only way!

[alf]

That is a very keen observation.

I spend too much time in both countries and find that the Chinese are more American than the Japanese are particularly in thier entrepreneural spirit, can-do attitude, individualism and capatilistic DNA. Now they have some bad habbits that comes along with that too.

Take a look at the smaller Chinas (Taiwan, Singapore, Hong Kong) that did not shut the world out for 30 years and you will get an idea of where the big one will be in the not so distant future.

China was the dominant nation state politically, economically, culturally and technologically in the world for most of its 5000 year history. It was only in the last 100 years that they were not, that was a hiccup.

[Shaun @ Tru6]

this reminds me of a semi-fictitious story my Indian hosts told me last time I was there.

2 identical powdered soap companies, one in Japan, one in India. An American designed the filling-boxing system such that 1 out of every 100 boxes didn't get filled with soap, and this was causing havoc on both plant floors and shipping departments. Something had to be done to ensure no empty boxes were shipped out of the factories.

the Japanese shut down the factory and spent months analyzing the systems, processes, equipment, everything... and finally came up with a solution that ensured 100% of the boxes were filled. Problem solved.

The Indians thought for a moment and then placed a fan on the line just after the boxes were filled. All empty boxes were blown off the conveyor belt, full ones were unaffected by the fan being filled with soap and heavy. Problem solved.

[Sapporo Guy]

first-world economy versus an emerging third-world economy

ummm, live in Japan for a while and you will find that is not so true. Yes, they may have statistics ranking them high but the 80's are over. They don't have 70's Arabian oil money coming in with the promise (love the way the Japanese forecast future profits!) of more to come. Toyota I have to admit did the right thing and jumped the sinking ship.

Yes, the population counts work out on paper but who has the actual spending money power?
Over 60 + the young 20s girls who live with their parents because their under 2k salary can't make ends meet.

Japan doesn't have any real viable export power outside of Nintendo and some heavy industry. Toyotas are made every else but here.

SonyWorld is too focused on Tokyo and finding a way to stuff away public funding cash than to restructure its glory days economic base of the 80s.

This brings up dumping. To be honest the only things they were dumping on the States were items that weren't ever really produced for Japanese consumption. A Nissan Sentra for 9k in the US in the late 80's would have been more like 12K+ here and then the model was still different (Sunny is the model that resembles the Sentra the most) and had basically a full package to begin with. The Japanese would probably never buy a shell of a car even if it was that cheap.

Now, don't get me wrong! Japanese is a great to place to live if you can over come the lack of jobs for foreigners and the under-current of racial discrimination.