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My guess. Japanese have long valued mastery and specialization. Historically a cast society, people were expected to dedicate their entire lives to the line of
by joewee 7y ago
My guess. Japanese have long valued mastery and specialization. Historically a cast society, people were expected to dedicate their entire lives to the line of work their biological or adopted family was known for.
The country also went to great pains to isolate themselves so this system continued for much longer than other parts of the world where sources of wealth were more diversified. In Japan wealth came from being known as the best at your craft, which fostered a culture of continuous improvement.
In much of Asia perfection of art was seen as a sign of sophistication for the wealthy. But the cultural revolution in China really dampened that for much of China’s sphere of influence.
After WW-II Japan was forced to modernize. Western manufacturing and improvement processes came in. The manufacturing was new but the culture of continuous improvement and mastery was already well established in Japanese culture but didn’t exist in the West where modernization was really a battle between the use of slave labor / child labor vs machines and the concept of continuous improvement was a new thing.
But I wonder, can we say the same about German engineering vs Russian engineering?
- nextos 7y agoI love Japanese high quality items, but I think we worship them a bit due to the fact that they are foreign imports from a different culture. For some categories mentioned by the OP, some non-Japanese items are superior. In the same way, the Japanese worship even more some Western goods and have gone out of their way to copy and sometimes improve them. For example, there is a whole subculture in Japan that adores old American tees and denim. They create exceptionally high quality reproductions using original equipment [1]. [1] https://www.wsj.com/articles/SB10001424052970204542404577157290201608630 https://www.wsj.com/articles/SB10001424052970204542404577157...
- joewee 7y agoThere are plenty of areas where Japanese have lost to competitors. Their sweet is making things that are hard and expensive do well. The most important components of our iPhones can only be made in Japan because of their attention to detail. They still make pretty good swords and knives!
- barry0079 7y agoAn interesting thing I remember reading about Japan was that post war it rapidly industrialised with massive success in a very short amount of time. Something which brought great pain and poor conditions to many countries that tried to do the same.