The Sun also Sets

For some years now, the Japanese, and in particular the strength of their economy, has been a threat to the well‐being of Europe and the West. It has been particularly galling to see the Japanese being successful in so many fields which hitherto we had seen as our own preserve – none more so than in motor vehicles, both cars and motor bikes, but also in electrical and electronic goods. Japanese manufacturing prowess moved from being a joke and being synonymous with“cheap and tacky” to being synonymous with quality in only about 20 years. Management gurus have, as a result, tried to distil “essence of Japan” and bottle it for sale to willing Western businesses which rapidly, but not always, successfully adopted Just‐in‐Time, quality circles. TQM and a whole raft of methodologies and techniques which were identified as perhaps being the source of Japanese success.