Just how seriously will Toyota's problems affect the Japanese economy ?
Earlier this month Newsweek published the shocking headline Toyota and the End of Japan. Toyota, they say, is "largest and virtually the last remaining face of Japanese manufacturing and trading prowess."
BUT
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Originally Posted by Newsweek
"Toyota was a symbol of recovery during our long recession," says Ryo Sahashi, a public-policy expert at the University of Tokyo. Now Toyota's trouble "has damaged confidence in Japanese business models and the economy at a time when China is surpassing us."
AND
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Originally Posted by Newsweek
Many other top Japanese manufacturing brands lost their made-in-Japan luster, says Michael J. Smitka, an economist who specializes in the Japanese auto sector. Sanyo is gone, its pieces sold off in a restructuring. Toshiba and Fujitsu also are reorganizing. Sony is as much a Hollywood hitmaker as a Japanese manufacturer, and Mitsubishi Motors, Mazda, and Nissan have all had tie-ups with foreign companies through the years. In the early part of the last decade, particularly under the maverick administration of celebrity prime minister Junichiro Koizumi, Japan made fleeting attempts to promote itself as the land of the new new thing: nano-this, bio-that. Nothing stuck. There is still no Japanese Google.
The Japanese automobile industry is in free fall. The electronics sector has experienced some difficulties, but Sanyo's case is not representative. The true leaders of the industry are still there and flourishing : Panasonic, Hitachi, Sony, Casio, Canon, Nikon...
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Originally Posted by Newsweek
In many ways, Toyota is symptomatic of a nation that has lost its way. According to a 2008 Pew survey, Japanese were more dissatisfied with the direction of their country than almost any other nation, including Pakistan and Russia.
That's because the Japanese are insecure, worrisome and not easily satisfied by nature. It is on this trait of character that the Japanese perfectionism was built. I am sure that many Africans are quite unperturbed about their country's future. Does that mean that things are going well ? No ! People who don't worry enough do not change enough, do not try hard enough to improve things...
The real worry with Toyota is this.
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Originally Posted by Newsweek
"Toyota represents Japan all over the world in terms of Japanese culture and Japanese economy,"
Toyota's problems reflect badly on all Japan. People around the world usually don't know much about Japan. But they know Toyota. It's a symbol. If Toyota loses its immaculate image for reliability, people around the word will start doubting the reliability of all Japanese products. I know it's a very simple and reductionist way of thinking, but that's how many people think (about things that aren't close to them). This is the perfect "excuse" for people to stop buying Japanese and start buying cheaper but similar Korean or Chinese products. The image that "Japan = quality" has been shattered. The mediatic hype about this relatively minor problem is what has really damaged the image of Toyota, and by extent all the Japanese industry. That is the real problem.
