The Total Quality process

The specifics of the historical development of the Japanese gaming industry are considered. A periodization of the history of the gaming industry in Japan is proposed, a description of its main stages is presented: the emergence in the 1970s, access to foreign markets in the 1980s, stagnation and crisis of the 1990-2000s, the global triumph of the 2010s. It is proved that it was accelerated economic development and a high standard of living that allowed Japan to switch to the consumption of such a product as video games. The complex of historical, economic and sociocultural factors that provided Japanese companies with competitive advantages in the global video game market was identified and analyzed. Particular attention is paid to the impact of information and communication technologies on these processes. The role of the American factor in the formation and development of the gaming industry in Japan, as well as in the promotion of Japanese gaming products to foreign markets is disclosed. The constructive potential of the Japanese practice of intersectoral cooperation of game industry companies with large industrial giants and with representatives of the art sphere is shown. It is noted that the involvement in the gaming industry of highly qualified specialists from the entertainment industry (anime and manga) allowed shifting the emphasis from the technological aspects of video games to their content, genre diversity and plot content. The authors come to the conclusion that the historical experience of the gaming industry in Japan indicates the significant role of this industry in the economic and social development of modern states.

This study examines whether domestic competition enhances competitiveness in international markets for Japanese manufacturing industries. The study analyzes the effects of competition in Japanese industries, measured as the price–cost margin compared to that in US industries, on export and output market shares in OECD countries. The results show that relative price–cost margins negatively affect both export and output market shares, suggesting that competition contributes to international competitiveness. In addition, high-tech industries in Japan are more likely to have strong competitiveness in international markets in terms of both export and output market shares. The implications of the findings are discussed.

The Total Quality Management (TQM) process is one of the most misunderstood concepts in the construction and maintenance business today. It is actually a very simple thing, a process of continuous improvement at everything a company does. Since we know that a process is an ongoing thing that really never ends, it must be understood that the Total Quality process is a journey not a destination. To incorporate the Total Quality process onto the jobsite, contractors and owners must realize that you cannot have a Quality Project without the successful ingredients of quality, productivity and safety. They are inseparable. Management must also realize that field personnel must receive training similar to what management has received in order to properly grasp the TQM concept and aid in its implementation. In order for the Quality Process to work, you must have everyone in the company involved. For companies with a large number of employees on jobsites, (typically 80 percent of those companies' employees are on projects,) this will be a substantial investment. The key word is investment. It is estimated that for every dollar spent on the successful implementation of a Quality Process, the investor will receive between five and ten dollars in return. Properly implemented, it is a wise investment.

During the Nineties and in recent years the prolonged stagnation of the Japanese economy and the weakness of its financial sector have greatly affected the performance and the competitiveness of Japan's industry. This paper examines how industries and firms have reacted to the challenges posed by new economic conditions at home and abroad. In the first part of the paper, the attention is focused on the dual structure of the Japanese industry, i.e., the co-existence of competitive, deregulated and financially sound sectors with low-productivity, protected and financially weak ones. In the second and third part the issues related to the transfer abroad of manufacturing activities and the undergoing change in the labour market are discussed. Finally, the future prospects of the Japanese industry are discussed on the basis of recent data regarding research and development activities.

Two important factors that contributed to Japan's economic success were government investment in industrial development and the early recognition that a good educational system is a prerequisite to technological progress. Government policies promoted the importation of technologies from Europe and North America and encouraged the education of students abroad. This facilitated the rapid development of Japanese industry and the adaptation of foreign technologies to local conditions. Many of the methods used to develop industry in Japan could be used to advantage in developing countries today.

With increasing competition from overseas producers, it is becoming increasingly clear that the only way for high-wage nations like the United States to succeed is by producing quality products. To boost performance, organizations must implement a total quality process by reducing their bureaucracy and giving more authority to workers. Never-ending and all-encompassing, the road to the implementation of quality service depends on senior management commitment, which sets a compass course for the journey, though not a specific destination. The essence of ibis commitment is dedicated support of the total quality process, which means an enlightened adherence to a participative style of management and willingness to provide the necessary training. This article presents a case study of a job shop's progress along this road.

This paper is the first to introduce an experience of the system structure of venture capital industry in Japan. In addition, this paper provides some context for understanding the Japanese venture capital industry. It briefly discusses Japan’s economic difficulties and the role of venture capital in promoting economic growth. It then set forth a short history of Japanese venture capital. The heart of the paper is devoted to a discussion of key features of Japanese venture capital.

Japan is the highest per capita consumer of packaging materials in the world. The Japanese packaging materials industry has an annual value of US$50 billion. There is a close relationship between the food and packaging industries in Japan. There is a tendency toward ingenuity in packaging designs in Japan, and Japanese food manufacturers use high-tech packaging techniques. At the same time, there is still widespread usage of traditional packaging materials (i.e., wood, earthenware, ceramics, and bamboo). Available space, energy, and a severe lack of natural resources directly affect the food packaging industry in Japan.

In the globalized economy, companies compete on their value-added service offer. Japanese firms have a long tradition of outstanding manufacturing quality. However, the Japanese service industry is less developed in comparison with other OECD countries. Services have often been bundled together with products or internalized in manufacturing firms without separate visibility. We argue that this service bundling can be highly valuable in certain industries where there is a need to increase the service content. The paper uses the interface between product and package to show the potential strengths of the Japanese firms in terms of increasing value-added service in the value-chain. It offers a theoretical contribution to the discussion on the service economy and gives empirical examples from an industry in Japan.

The export of Japanese television programs overseas started in the 1970s and the rapid
\ngrowth of Japanese television programs globally especially in Asia started in the early 1980s.
\nHowever, in the 21st century, the glory of Japanese dramas seems to have faded and replaced by the
\n“Korean wave”. Perhaps the younger generation nowadays has not heard of “J-Pop” and here is an
\nexamination of the past consumption of the Japanese television culture outside of Japan, especially
\nAsia.

Japanese research activities on jet engines began in the 1940s and progressed as far as the test flight of the Ne-20 jet engine. All work was discontinued, however, at the end of World War II. After seven years, production of jet engines was permitted to resume, as the major defense equipment mainly under licenses with European and American manufacturers. Efforts were subsequently continued to develop more advanced technologies, which were then applied to design and manufacture the civil and military engines. Full-scale development of superalloys and other engine materials began in Japan as a part of multiple national programs aimed at developing new gas turbines. A number of original materials and process technologies have been studied. This paper addresses the current and future material technologies in Japan. Business Overview It is generally predicted that the number of airline passengers throughout the world will grow at a rate of about 5% per year until 2020. Demand is expected to grow rapidly especially in the Asia-Pacific region. The aero-engine industry in Japan has grown considerably in the last half century. Total production in fiscal 2001 was worth approximately $23 million, about twice the amount sold in fiscal 1985. Japanese production accounts for several percent of the total world market; it is equivalent to about one-ninth of the American production, and equal to the production of Germany or Canada. Despite the lingering affects of the war in Iraq and SARS, the long-term prospects for the aero-engine industry are strong, making it an exception to the general malaise that currently afflicts so many other Japanese industries. The nature of the business has changed drastically in recent years, as well. Although the field of defense retains its historical importance, it accounts for a decreasing share of total aero-engine sales, declining from 75% in the 1980s to about 60% today. In the past several years, it has been predicted that civil engines will eventually outsell those for military use. The other major change has been the expansion of related maintenance and service sectors, and the increased provision of component production services to the major manufacturers in the US and Europe. Generally speaking, maintenance and service industries are increasingly being localized, and production is becoming more specialized throughout the world. In the future, Japanese manufacturers expect to develop their own next-generation engines, one for patrol planes for defense, and one for small regional planes (50-seat class) for the civil market.

Gorham was a US-born engineer. He renounced his US citizenship to become a naturalized Japanese citizen. During a period of time from after World War I until immediately after World War II, he played a big role in introducing and transferring an American concept of technological rationalism to the machinery industry in Japan, especially in the fields of design, development and production of machines.

Recent Trends of Manufacturing Technology in Japan

Over the past decade, the philosophy of total quality has appeared in all fields of industry in Japan and the USA. This philosophy is now present all over Europe as well, Italy included. In 1993 the Arcispedale Santa Maria Nuova of Reggio Emilia, a town in Northern Italy, began to apply the total quality management philosophy, thus embarking on a course of continuous quality improvement. The present article describes the main steps which led to an external accredited team granting the emergency department of this hospital a quality system certificate in 1997 according to the international quality system requirements UNI EN ISO 9002. The importance of this work lies in the fact than an industrial quality standardization system, whose requirements have little in common with a traditional view of medical practice, can nevertheless be applied to a public health care department.

In the 1980s, Japan was viewed as the world leader in high technology. Its superiority in electronics and other manufacturing sectors created the enigma of the Japanese management system and trade friction with the USA. Today, the sharp decline in Japan's competitiveness has become another enigma and even a trouble in the world economy. This paper addresses the contrast between Japan's high-tech industry in the 1980s and that in the 1990s. The ascendance of Japanese high-tech industry up until the 1980s has been attributed to tacit knowledge and the organisation of Japanese firms based on shared knowledge. The competitive decline during the 1990s has been viewed as a failure of the Japanese assembly industry to adapt to the change in explicit knowledge embodied in the digital revolution. In this paper, the author produces a more comprehensive explanation for the decline in the competitiveness of the Japanese high-tech industry by introducing a comparison between science-driven sectors, which rely on the sharing of tacit knowledge, and engineering-driven sectors, which should rely more on explicit knowledge such as is found in strategic components. The author argues that different forms of organisation are appropriate to different types of knowledge exchange. He concludes that current changes in the organisation of Japanese firms and research will stimulate the science-driven sector of the country's high-tech industry.