Warnings from Japan's Manufacturing Crisis to China's Manufacturing Industry

In the crisis, Sharp is still laying off staff and selling houses to save itself. Panasonic, which has been losing money for years, is still struggling to make a profit. Sony has gradually drifted away in the continuous downturn. Canon's crisis does not seem to be fundamentally relieved. The field of consumer electronics has collapsed all the way, and NEC, the star of Yuri, has completely withdrawn from the field of smartphones... Although from these appearances, we cannot draw the conclusion that Japan's manufacturing industry has declined and failed, but there is no doubt that Japan's manufacturing industry has indeed encountered a stage Sexual trouble. China and Japan are quite similar. The strength of the economy is closely related to the international status of the manufacturing power. China, which is in the whirlpool of the 'world's factoryWhy is Japan's manufacturing industry encountering 'trouble' at the current stage? Yugami Takashi, who has worked at Hitachi for 16 years and is currently a teacher at Kyoto University and Tohoku University, reviewed the honor and disgrace of Japan's IT manufacturing industry for decades in his book 'Lost Manufacturing: The Defeat of Japanese Manufacturing'. History, summed up the four lessons of the Japanese manufacturing industry: First, in the face of a ten-year wave of new technologies, lack of sensitivity to market opportunities, conservative, missed opportunities; The actual demand level of the market is ignored and unnecessary costs are invested, so that when the market changes, the product cannot be adjusted in time in research and development. Lack of low-cost mass production capacity; fourth, in the face of changing technological trends, the Japanese corporate system is too rigid and cannot adapt to the trend of technological change. The road to innovation is not easy. How can we keep up with the times and not fall behind? In his book, Takashi Tang mentioned another reason for the 'crisis' of Japan's manufacturing industry, that is, 'lack of imitation and innovative spirit of advanced technology, lack of previous expertise, and slow responseThe call for 're-emphasis on imitating entrepreneurial elements and developing our own technological integration advantages' is what we need to pay the same attention to. Looking back at the history of the rise and fall of Japan's manufacturing industry, it can be divided into four typical stages: From the Meiji Restoration to World War II, it was the stage when Japan was dominated by 'cottages'. At that time, Japanese products were called 'Oriental goods' in China. embarked on the road of modernization; from the end of World War II to the early 1970s, it was a stage of imitation, which made Japan develop from a defeated country with an economic collapse into an economic giant; from the 1970s to the 1990s, innovation and transcendence dominated The stage of 'Made in Japan' not only appeared on the world stage, but also created one myth after another, and became the world's second largest economy after the United States; after the 1990s, it was a stage of stubbornness and persistence. , because imitations and cottages are not seen, the Japanese manufacturing industry has fallen from the peak and has encountered a crisis, and the general mentality of enterprises is still the ostrich mentality of 'fight against the water, make every effort to turn losses into profits, and allow the enterprise to survivecatch up. The 'crisis' of Japan's manufacturing industry, of course, has the reasons revealed by Takashi Yuujie in the book, but the actual reasons are far more complicated, and are closely related to the international and domestic financial and monetary policies, labor market, cultural mentality, and even the international political situation. , are closely related. Objectively speaking, the market influence of 'Made in Japan' is still huge, and the level of technology research and development and innovation capabilities are still top-notch. The global manufacturing industry chain is still inseparable from Japan. 'The metaphysical is called the Tao, and the metaphysical is called the utensil'. The problem of Japanese manufacturing is not the 'dao' but the 'equipment'. The problem of the 'equipment' is mainly stagnant, which is embodied in the level of technological research and development and innovation orientation. Matching consumer fashion, business model, and market development capabilities, but not willing to go to cottages, imitating innovations in the United States, South Korea, or even China, not only failed to produce epoch-making products related to the Internet, but also failed to keep up with the Internet era. pace. The main reason for the rise of China's manufacturing industry, from a big perspective, is reform and opening up; from a small perspective, it is similar to the first two stages of Japan, and the innovation of cottages is indispensable. Whether China's manufacturing industry can reach the peak of Japan's post-industrial consumption era in the 1990s depends on whether China can surpass Japan in imitation and innovation. However, good technology is not the same as good products and good markets. Technology is stable and linear, while products and markets are variable and curvilinear. Therefore, even if we cannot achieve transcendence in innovation, as long as we keep imitating innovation, we can still occupy a place in products and markets; even if we achieve Transcendence in innovation, if you can't maintain innovation and transcendence in products and markets at all times, you may not be able to win the market and maintain the peak. In the history of the rise and fall of manufacturing, what did Japan do right? What did I do wrong again? It is obviously instructive to Chinese companies catching up with the industrial Internet era. Both China and Japan, at the core of their culture, are deeply influenced by the Confucian ideology of 'the golden meanTherefore, both Chinese and Japanese cultures have a very 'stubborn' side, and their degrees of freedom and innovation are not as good as those of the European and American worlds. Japan has gradually moved from being a 'master of imitation' in the prestigious world to 'resting on its laurelsChina has become the world's second largest economy, and the mentality of the Chinese people is also changing. This is something we should be vigilant about.