Working for Toyota: Growing Disenchantment, Coercive Work Practices & Mismanagement

[Ming]

A bumper-car experience in Toyota-land
July 9, 2006
By JEFF KINGSTON
The Japan Times
http://www.japantimes.co.jp/



Book: NOTES FROM TOYOTA-LAND: An American Engineer in Japan, by Darius Mehri. Ithaca, New York

Toyota is booming, but its PR department has had its hands full with a high-profile sexual harassment lawsuit in the United States -- and now this damning insider's revelations about coercive work practices, unsafe production lines and mismanagement.

Darius Mehri, an Iranian-American, worked for three years at a subsidiary of Toyota as a computer-simulation design engineer. His story is one of growing disenchantment as he discovers the grim realities of work in Japan's industrial heartland. Along the way he challenges many shibboleths about corporate paternalism, harmony, consensus, kaizen (continuous improvement) and the vaunted Toyota Production System.

This keenly observed account imparts considerable firsthand information about current workplace practices, one that is reminiscent of Satoshi Kamata's bleak assessment in "Japan in the Passing Lane" (1973). Thirty years on Mehri observes that "the same unsafe work environment, the same oppressive mechanisms of worker control, and the same power manipulations."

Mehri finds much of the literature about Japanese management practices and production processes way off the mark. He believes Japanese management is deeply flawed and conveys his experience of blatant disregard for workers' well-being, disorganization and authoritarian practices. Intrusive monitoring of workers, bullying and public humiliation is standard practice among ladder-climbing executives eager to squeeze as much work as possible out of their subordinates. The "diligent and disciplined Japanese worker" is here portrayed as corporate cannon fodder.

"Notes from Toyota-Land" asserts that rigid hierarchies and institutionalized overwork are the bane of Japanese firms and their employees, stifling communication, imposing top-down consensus and substituting perspiration for inspiration. Overwork resulting from mandatory sabisu zangyo (unpaid overtime) saps productivity and undermines morale and health. Better designs are routinely ignored by upper-level managers because "Rank was more important than reason."

Clearly Nizumi (the fictitious name of his firm) is not a very congenial place to work. Unless of course you are a Romanian refugee; his colleague said he felt at home in the factory because it was just like the communist dictatorship at home where everyone watched each other and forced each other to abide by the regime's orders.

The ideology of firm as family does not jibe with Mehri's observations about inadequate concern for worker safety. Many of his foreign friends on the production lines regaled him with horror stories about unsafe workplaces and dangerous practices. Because foreigners can be hired at a pittance under the fiction of "training visas," many manufacturing firms employ as many as possible. Unfortunately, there is not much training going on, subjecting these "trainees" to considerable risk.

In an interview, Dr. Shinya Yamada, a leading occupational health and safety expert, explains that "hiding injuries is a long-standing, pervasive and hidden rule at most corporations in Japan." Firms wish to burnish their safety records to avoid being named and shamed by the government and to minimize medical expenses. If the injured employee is awarded worker's compensation, meaning that the injury is not the worker's fault, then the company is responsible for all medical expenses.

Workers thus face pressure not to file injury reports knowing that they risk losing both their claim and their jobs.

Mehri depicts enterprise unions as lapdogs of management. He witnessed the outcome of negotiations that resulted in one additional vacation day per annum. Satisfaction with this rare "victory" evaporated when he realized that the extra holiday was implemented by making daily work hours 5 minutes shorter. Since these official working hours were routinely ignored, management could win kudos without making a substantive concession.

"Every last person I interviewed, including the union leader Kurasawa, said the union was weak and in no way represented the voice of the workers," Mehri writes. "It was universally acknowledged that the primary role of the union was to rubber-stamp management decisions."

Mehri is unimpressed with how Japanese engineers solve problems. He notes: "They had been educated to engage in an inductive process, while as an American-educated engineer, I had been trained to use deduction. Deductive reasoning and abstract ideas were crucial to who I was as a Westerner . . . . It occurred to me that the inductive process, along with the authoritarian hierarchy and a disinclination to engage in debate, was one reason why Nizumi was rarely innovative. When it came to the details of the design, the Japanese were brilliant, but when it came to creativity, they were disappointing."

Source: http://search.japantimes.co.jp/cgi-b...0060709a1.html

[63GrandSport001]

Wow, this is interesting.

And as people sat there thinking that everything was perfect with Toyota this article comes out.

It doesnt shock me one bit, treating US workers well is a big part of PR as well as building the vehicles here in the states to start with.

[megeebee]

Let's see how far this book gets toward the "mainstream".

[FStephenMasek]

One more piece in a puzzle also composed of growing numbers of recalls and the increasing number of problems endured by Toyota owners. GM and Ford may be burdened with big unions and retirees, but Toyota's problems may be worse.

[GM-10]

this is what i hear from people I know who work for Japanese firms as well.

[DarkKnight67]

It will get about as far as the news of Toyota's recall of 160,000 Tundras ... nowhere!

[grumbles]

Originally Posted by DarkKnight67

It will get about as far as the news of Toyota's recall of 160,000 Tundras ... nowhere!

Yeah, I agree man.

News about working conditions in a few select locations in a foreign country under one company is sure to make the front page.

This is important stuff. It's not like we're at war, or North Korea is shooting off missles over the pacific. That would be news.

[1G6]

Originally Posted by grumbles

Yeah, I agree man.

News about working conditions in a few select locations in a foreign country under one company is sure to make the front page.

This is important stuff. It's not like we're at war, or North Korea is shooting off missles over the pacific. That would be news.

Do you have some supernatural sense that alerts you to possible insult of the mothercorporation? It seems strange that such a prideful Toyota fan would spend so much time fighting on a GM site.

[GMFreak8]

Yeah, I agree man.

News about working conditions in a few select locations in a foreign country under one company is sure to make the front page.

This is important stuff. It's not like we're at war, or North Korea is shooting off missles over the pacific. That would be news.

It's funny. You can make all kinds of excuses for toyota, but we can't make excuses for GM without you criticizing us for it.

[redimpss5]

The funny part about all these stories and mostly the recalls, it take years before people believe it, or even read about it!

[GMFreak8]

Originally Posted by redimpss5

The funny part about all these stories and mostly the recalls, it take years before people believe it, or even read about it!

Yeah, it's truly amazing how far reality lags behind perception.

[Aromanances]

Originally Posted by DarkKnight67

It will get about as far as the news of Toyota's recall of 160,000 Tundras ... nowhere!

Maybe if Cathy Lee Gifford was in charge of production at Toyoty the press would pounce!! As it is the slavish lapdog press won't look the great Oz in the eye. The media will just keep guzzeling the cool aid!

[Ming]

Because foreigners can be hired at a pittance under the fiction of "training visas," many manufacturing firms employ as many as possible. Unfortunately, there is not much training going on, subjecting these "trainees" to considerable risk.

Its unrelated, but I was reminded of Japan's practice of hunting whales under the guise of "scientific research", where the meat ultimately ends up in restaurants and in customers' mouths, and yet it is somehow legitimized in this way.

On the other hand, I have only praise for life as a College student in Japan, but working there as a Gaijin fluent in Japanese for a Japanese company and living by their rules (long hours of unpaid overtime) was what drove me out. Sure, I could have stayed and taught English on mostly my own terms (with a sponsor), and could have avoided all of the bad aspects of working in Japan in that way, but I saw no future in that.

[Bvonscott]

This shows how the Japanese will attempt to perfect a design.. but they can't create the inital design in the first place, they "borrow" it. As soon as GM figures out how to perfect their "innovative" designs, the market will swing back in their favor.

[jwrebholz]

This is how nearly EVERY Japanese company operates.

Many don't realize this, but the worker suicide rate in Japan is the highest in the industrialized world. Workers are pushed and bent until they finally break under the pressure. You toe the line and SHUT UP and do your job. To do otherwise is to dishonor your superiors and your company--and in Japan, honor is valued above all else.

OSHA would have a field day in any Japanese company. Americans working for Japanese companies Stateside don't have a lot of these problems as the American government has laws in place that prevent them from making their plants unsafe, and from working them to death. (Americans also don't value honor nearly as much as the Japanese do, nor the fierce loyalty, and if things start to suck they usually start looking for a new job)