The Transformation and Future Issues of Japanese-Model Management Systems

No.48
April 1999
Research Fellow Hidetaka Yoneyama

1. Until now, Japanese-model management systems have been an important source for the competitiveness of Japanese businesses (such as flexibility and adaptability to change, the development of superior craftsmanship based on skills and expertise, etc.). However, within accelerating environmental and technological change, Japanese-model management systems have lost their adaptability and have fallen into a state of inefficiency.
2. Through recent reforms, the American-model management system has been actualized as a new model for management systems in Japan. Since the end of the 1980s, American businesses have exploited the strong points of Japanese-model management systems through the application of information technology, and as a result have evolved an even more cutting-edge management system.
3. Japanese businesses must learn from the American-model management system by expanding the possibilities of intelligence sharing and external partnerships. Through these means it will be possible to restructure inter-company and employment relationships with more flexibility. Furthermore, learning from the American-model management system will make it possible for Japanese businesses to achieve the rapid and low-cost adaptability and flexibility required to respond to environmental and technological change.
4. At the same time, in the face of the IT boom, the role once played by the high level of manufacturing expertise-spawned by Japanese-model management systems-is deteriorating in comparison. From this perspective as well, the superiority of the conventional Japanese-model system is fading, and for Japanese businesses it has become imperative to construct a new foundation of competitive strength.

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