Originally Posted by
travellerK
My unscientific observation:
I am currently on my third visit to Japan auditing [food] factories. I audit factories all over the world, and I am shocked at the state of Japanese factories. The quality is top notch, but the physical plants seems stuck in the 80's or maybe 90's. Except the two decades of rust on some of these facilities, you would think you were time warped back 20 years. On top of that, the leve of utilization and efficiency is extemely low.
It should be unrelated, but the Shinkansen trains are really nice and efficient, but at least in the green cars that my company pays for, they seem to be 75-80% empty.
My personal assessment is that Japan has been trying "stimulus" for the last two decades. With stimulus money flowing why should anyone try to be efficient in the utilization of their factory? Why should they update it?
The reason that they seem 20 years old is that they were probably built then (during the bubble).
About the shinkansen, it depends where you're going. A lot of the shinkansens were built for political reasons but if you're going from Osaka to Tokyo on a weeknight it's hard to get a seat. During the day is usually an entirely different matter though.
One of the things that (IMO) drags Japan down is that companies waste a ton of money on things and don't call it quits. For example, Sony stopped making walkmans this year. Last year Pioneer finally stopped producing laserdisc players. Willcom, before it was bought, was originally owned by KDDI (which owns AU). KDDI didn't want to sell it as it would mean "giving up" on a division (which hadn't released new products or had a visit from AU executives in years).