I remember talking to a pair of Japanese girls in Edinburgh in the early 1990’s. What they said meshed with what I read about the system there at the time; they got a two weeks vacation but did not dare take them together because nobody covered you at work - so you did not want to take more than a week at a time, all the stuff piled up on your desk and was waiting when you got back. One of them was lucky. She was a teacher and said she got summers off.
Also at that time you would see dozens of Japanese on the slopes of Whistler or Banff. As others mentioned, they were spend-crazy. The yen was worth a lot, and I saw women wearing those loud one-piece ski suits that were hanging in the ski shops with $1000 price tags. Local workers said they’d come over for a few days skiing and spend a fortune.
Because there aren’t enough public high schools. As I posted, compulsory education ends at junior high so the government is not required to provide public high schools for everyone.
There are a few elite private high schools, but for the most part the public ones are superior. More students would attend if they could, but they can’t pass the entrance exams.
I know of bright children from poorer families who really, really studied hard in junior high in order to get into a public high to save their parents money.
I’m going to say this is a made up reason and it doesn’t match reality or provide a good reason why Japanese cars are so good.
I’m only sort of interested in photography but my WAG would be that German and Japanese precision manufacturing has been so good and you need precision manufacturing to make great lenses.
All this is correct.
After 10 years of working for a company, you would max out at 20 days of paid leave and most of the people in the companies I worked out would never use all of that.
The bubble popped in 1990 but there were people with a lot of extra cash for some years after.
When I went skiing in Japan everyone was wearing those loud one-piece suits, even those who couldn’t actually ski yet.
ETA: And it must be noted that in the 1990s, it was cheaper to fly to Canada and ski for three days than to fly up to Hokkaido for the same length of a trip.
I remember the presentations we got out of learning “Japanese management methods” in the company I worked for. One video, for example, was on why Chrysler and Mitsubishi (? I think?) made identical transmissions but the Japanese ones lasted longer. Examination showed both were within specs but the Japanese one had less variation in the product than the American one. The lesson was supposed to be that the Japanese valued precision and consistency in production, and this was the secret to their success. What I took away from it was that the (American) engineers specified far too lax a set of tolerances for a reliable transmission. Similarly, the vast majority of manufacturing effects that the USA was famous for were more likely bad engineering rather than poor workmanship.
A side effect of the “iron rice bowl” model of employment was that the company could rely on the employee staying for life; therefore, they would give them a “tour” of the company - spend 6 months on the factory floor, 6 months in sales, 6 months in accounting, etc. - then when they got to their chosen field, they would understand what the business was about. Too many American companies, the people making critical decisions had no idea the real impact of their decision on the front lines. This resulted in designs like where in one of the first American “small cars”, the fourth spark plug could not be changed without removing the steering column.
No, you have the right term. A Japanese government study put the average age at 31, though adolescents are more likely to be hidden away by their parents so that number may be skewed higher than the real average. Experts have wide-ranging estimates on the average age and number of people affected. The psychologist who coined the phrase estimates that 1% of Japan’s population (around a million people) falls into this group, which seems like quite a lot to me. The government’s own figure is closer to 700,000 but they estimate over 1.5 million people on the verge of becoming hikkomori.
Interesting takeaway. It looks like the producers chose the wrong example, though if they weren’t able to make their case.
I was involved in international business principally between Japan and the US for more than two decades. I established the Japanese sales office for a US manufacturer and then working as a consultant for other US manufacturers among other jobs.
The short answer is that the difference comes down to Japanese manufacturers chasing down all the little things which happen and US manufacturers not.
It’s just not in American DNA. I could fill volumes about all the ways I tried to help the US companies learn, but they wouldn’t. I worked with all the big names in Japanese manufacturers, including Sony, Matsushita, Toshiba, Fujitsu, etc. and there just was an American way of doing business and a Japanese way.
It wasn’t the fault of the guy on the line. It was all the way to senior management.
So, I’m not surprised that you don’t see it that way. I don’t know any American who spent less the five years working in Japan who could really get it.
There were good and bad things about rotating the employees and I wasn’t a particular fan on how most companies did it. There were sales managers who had been trained as engineers, for example and guys in general affairs who should have been designing things.
Japan doesn’t do mental health very well. If you think of the number of people in the US with serious mental issues, it’s easily over 1% of the population.
For 1 adult on July 16 (Saturday), a 1-day passport at Tokyo Disney is 7,400 yen (at today’s rates, just under $74).
For 1 person over 10 y.o. on July 16 (Saturday), a 1-day ticket at Disneyland in Anaheim is $119 (a person between 10 and 18 y.o. at Tokyo would be 6,400 yen, or $64)
A Standard room rate at peak time at the Disney Ambassador Hotel at Tokyo Disneyland is between $422 and $514 / night
Standard room rate at peak time at the Disneyland Hotel in Anaheim is $483/night
Airplane fares vary widely, but when I’ve flown to Boston from Tokyo around this time of year, round-trip economy-class ticket prices have been over $1,000 per person (July, and even more so August, are peak travel seasons for Japan). Even the most expensive bullet train ticket from the furthest station from Tokyo will be less than $300/person (not to mention that travel to Tokyo to catch your plane would have to be added in to a trip to LA).
As for easier, you can also take mass transit from nearly any corner of Japan right to the front gate of the park, only requiring a taxi or rental car to go from your house to the nearest train station if you happen to live in a rural area. If you like, you can bring your bags to your neighborhood convenience store and have them checked and delivered to your hotel so you don’t have to carry them on the train (same for going home). All in a language you’re accustomed to.