tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-29153349.post8193017138484733758..comments2023-09-29T04:09:54.831-04:00Comments on Thought Center: All hell breaking loose on Japan - blame it on their historySindhu Subramaniamhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09426043808886874328noreply@blogger.comBlogger2125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-29153349.post-32105623153825365592010-07-22T11:02:32.080-04:002010-07-22T11:02:32.080-04:00Hey Anonymous,
Thanks a lot for the comment. I gu...Hey Anonymous,<br /><br />Thanks a lot for the comment. I guess I did indeed fall short of covering all aspects that I perhaps wanted to. Call it the flip side of having to keep it short :)<br /><br />The idea I wanted to cover here was that ancient Japanese history shows that the people have been by default mild, and protective. The seclusion perhaps brings to fore the point that Japanese are quaint and alone in themselves. So, I'd maybe argue that they quietly perform their research, without wondering whether anyone else is also involved in similar research. My point was based on the Bloomberg news report that Toyota was given credit for its own research in the IPR issue. <br /><br />No doubt Toyota made a gross error in not acting fast. But this I attributed to the fact that they are too slow in terms of their culture. They are in love with status quo.<br /><br />As for the spelling errors - peoples is a term one uses for a civilization, it isn't a plural form of people :D<br /><br />Doyens - well I apologize for the error. Thanks for the comment though.Sindhu Subramaniamhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/09426043808886874328noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-29153349.post-75300012381823807032010-07-22T05:47:10.917-04:002010-07-22T05:47:10.917-04:00“There's a world of difference between truth a...“There's a world of difference between truth and facts. Facts can obscure the truth.” ~ Maya Angelou<br /><br />Sindhu, this is one of your rare posts that make me feel short-changed. On reading the title – ”All hell breaking loose on Japan - blame it on their history”, I anticipated reading about historical influences on the present day economic, social or political issues in Japan. Half-way into the post, I begin to wonder whether it would be fair to label the recent troubles of one Japanese company as the onset of an economic Armageddon for Japan. Here are some of my observations on this post (aka "The logical loopholes” and “The reasons why I felt short-changed on reading this post"):<br /><br />1. Let's consider the case of the Toyota recalls. You say that the company deserved a break. Some would say that the company got what it deserved – it made a bad product, it did not recall the bad product soon enough, it got its image bashed. Interestingly, on the issue, Wikipedia reports that "The US government sought a record penalty of US$16.375 million from Toyota for its delayed response in notifying the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration regarding the defective accelerator pedals." Seems like a case worthy enough for a public outcry, wouldn’t you agree? Put the bruised reputation down to bad R&D rather than to history.<br /><br />2. The Toyota Prius IPR story? This one is not without a controversial ‘other’ view which shows Toyota as a petty thief which stole Mr. Alex Severinsky’s (a Soviet emigrant to the US) invention – “a culmination of years of work and research”. Read a part of this counterview here: http://jalopnik.com/5592533/this-man-fought-toyota-for-stealing-his-hybrid-tech-and-won.<br /><br />My point? That the situation which Toyota is going through is one which it has brought on itself through some bad R&D and, maybe, due to competitive anxiety. Any company, regardless of its country of origin, can find itself (and you know that a few have, in the past) in the same situation. All hell breaking loose on Japan? Not really. Blame it on their history? I wouldn’t.<br /><br />3. The post makes a case for Japanese congeniality “Japanese peoples over the years have been a sheltered and protected community. They're not overly aggressive. […]” A Google for the term ‘Asian Holocaust’ may reveal certain belief-altering facts. I quote Wikipedia “[…]between 1937 and 1945, the Japanese military murdered from nearly 3,000,000 to over 10,000,000 people […] This democide was due to a morally bankrupt political and military strategy, military expediency and custom, and national culture." Nothing personal.<br /><br />Your thoughts on the corporate culture in Japan do the most justice to the title of the post. I do wish that you would have expanded on this idea in detail – ‘how did the Japanese culture influence the corporate decision making by its corporations, and how did such decision making result in Japan’s present circumstances’.<br /><br />Summing up, certain logical fallacies and typos [“Then the doyens (why the plural?) of Japanese industry, Toyota got hit”; “Japanese peoples (?) over the years” ] kept me from relishing the wordsmith’s serving of the week. I eagerly await the next helping.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.com