GLOBAL VIEWPOINTS: Japan plans for the future

Greater competition from Western and other Asian nations, as well as global environmental concerns, have focused the country's long-term technology and engineering strategies. This third of a three-part annual series takes a broad look at how automotive companies in Japan are using technology as a competitive advantage.

Japan's automotive industry accounts for 13% of the country's total manufacturing output. Its automobile-related industries employ 11 % of the entire working population. According to the recent Report on Technologies and Strategies in the Automotive Industry from the Society of Automotive Engineers of Japan, Inc., the major reasons for the country's recent success are its building and marketing quality cars at affordable prices, backed by its fuel economy and exhaust emissions control technologies, leading-edge production technology, and abundant and high-quality labor.

However, other countries have followed Japan's model of success by promoting technology development through collaborative projects among industrial, academic, and bureaucratic sectors and developing new manufacturing approaches combining Japanese-style lean production systems with information technology. As a result, Japan's competitive edge was minimized in the 1990s. Moreover, automotive industries in China and the Association of South East Asian Nations (ASEAN) are expected to develop their capabilities further and threaten the Japanese automotive industry.