Made in Japan Share of market is more important to Japanese companies than immediate profitability Outwitting an opponent in some clever

deal is not the Japanese are interested in The most important mission for a Japanese manager is to develop a healthy relationship with his employees, to create a family like feeling within the corporation, a feeling that employees and managers share the same fate The concept of lifetime employment arose when Japanese managers and employees both realized that they had much in common and that they had to make some long-range plans One of the most significant value concepts that we have cherished from ancient times is a term that does not bear simple literal translation, mottainai, which can be pronounces moat-tie-nigh. It is a key concept, one that may help explain great deal about Japan, the Japanese people, and our industry. It is an expression that suggests, that everything in the world is a gift from the Creator, and that we should be grateful for it and never waste anything. To waste anything is considered a kind of sin. Struggling for survival under the constant threat of harsh times and natural calamity, attempting to produce goods with a minimum of raw materials, both became a way of life for the Japanese, and so the wasting of anything was considered shameful, virtually a crime. When you are told from childhood on that the metal object you hold in your hands comes from iron ore mined in countries far away, which is transported to Japan at great expense and is produced in furnaces that use gas and coal from other far way places, such objects seem very valuable.