The Japanese Values of Precision Accuracy and Punctuality - Case Study Example

The Japanese Values of Precision, Accuracy and Punctuality Name Institution Professor Date The Japanese Values of Precision, Accuracy and Punctuality Introduction Precision and punctuality are believed to be the order of the day in the Japanese society at workplaces and social settings. Punctuality is highly regarded as an important factor that has contributed to the success of the Japanese economy in global scene. In 2013, the train transport between Osaka and Tokyo recorded an average delay of six seconds only. There is a deep sense of respect for other people’s businesses with concerns that such activities should not be interrupted due to lateness (Tomalin and Nicks, 2010). However, the lack of flexibility has been faulted by critics who believe that the Japanese people are too obsessed with time keeping and precision. However, the origin of such values is still unknown to many with questions arising on whether such values existed before industrialization in Japan. Foreign engineers who arrived in Japan in early 19 century complained about the Japanese lack of time consciousness. The fact that the values are associated with Japan’s position as a global economic powerhouse raises concern on the origin of such values. The History of the Japanese Culture of Punctuality and Precision The Nara period In the history of Japan, the Nara period occurred between CE 710-794, where agriculture was the main economic activity. Most of the population was based in villages, where they could participate in the gardening as a family. Punctuality in this period was absent due to the agricultural nature of their economic activities. However, the society was keen on doing what is right, a foundation where the current values were based. This was evident in their religious lives that were based on the worship of an ancestral spirit called Kami. Apart from the agriculture, the Japanese were also involved in the construction of roads that linked the Nara province with other regions. The construction of the roads was done to allow the movement of people and facilitate tax collection through the routes created. However, there were little commercial activities in the rest of Japan with the majority of the Japanese focusing on agriculture (Buckley, 2009). The Tokugawa period In 1639, the Japanese rulers implemented an isolation policy that restricted western ships from docking at the Japanese harbours. A unique Japanese culture was developed during the period of isolation of the Japanese from the outside world. The Japanese society was able to create and develop their culture that affected their way of life and their economic activities. Researchers believe that the Japanese were not punctual in the Tokugawa period, which lasted between 1603 and 1868. In 1857, a historical document by Willem Van Kettendyke showed how the Japanese society was poor at keeping time. During the Tokugawa period, the Japanese divided time into six equal units called koku, rather than the use of clocks that were used in the other societies. However, the modesty and politeness of the Japanese was highly valued during this period, where respect for authority was also treasured (Fitzgerald, 2011). The Meiji Restoration Period The Meiji restoration period between 1868 and 1912 became a turning point for the Japanese, where time keeping was introduced. In 1873, the Japanese modified and adapted their own clock system called the watokei, which used a Chinese zodiac instead of the Arabic numbers used in the European clock (Schirokauer, Lurie, and Gay, 2012). This was a historical land mark, where precision and punctuality were considered as crucial components in the economy of the Japanese society. The introduction of the values was connected to the westernization of the Japanese society during the Meiji Restoration period. Their military, which initially made up of sword carrying warriors, was replaced by a conventional army that matched with the western countries. Many Samurai warriors; therefore, changed their work to teaching as they were replaced with conventional western-like armies. This contributed to the formation of an education system that was based on the Samurai teaching of Boshido (Griffis, 2006). It is believed that the accuracy and precision of the Samurai was transferred to the school during this period. Being the teachers in the Japanese education system, they introduced the teachings on the need for accuracy, punctuation, and precision. Time keeping was introduced in the education system, where students had to arrive 10 minutes earlier. In case the students came later, they had to give satisfactory reason for their lateness. Although such measures are used in most education facilities, the Japanese case is unique since they applied the technique earlier in their history. During the same period, other communities were not concerned about time keeping in school as most parts of the world had not embraced education to during the period. During the construction of the railway in 1901, delay was considered to be a problem, where between 30 minutes and 1 hour was wasted. To solve the problem, the Japanese, assisted by British engineers, came up with a double track system that was unique time saving technique. Before the world War Before the First World War, Japanese was advanced compared to other Asian countries such as China. The uniqueness of the Japanese society was based on their culture of doing what is right for their society, where such values were highly regarded. The Japanese focused on the values of punctuality, accuracy, and precision to catch up with their European counterparts who were more advanced. As a result, Japan was able to speed up its institutional reforms that saw the country improve its societal and economic capacity. Scientific management started in Japan in 1910 under the leadership of Fredrick Taylor. During this period, Japan was building its military capacity in readiness for the war that was anticipated due to the battle for supremacy. Therefore, precision and punctuality was highly regarded to ensure that Japan was ready to fight against its enemies that outnumbered it in terms of population. During this period, punctuality was promoted in public places through movements and promotion. In 1920, a pamphlet was published, which stated that “Work time and rest time should separate clearly and time must not be wasted” (Buckley, 2009). Post-war Punctuality, Precision and Accuracy After the Second World War, the importation of the American social culture made the Japanese to adopt punctuality in their social lives (Tsutsui, 2007). The strides made by the Japanese since the war to the present suggests how serious they valued precision, accuracy, and punctuality. The once destroyed economy and infrastructure was brought back to normalcy within a short period of time. During this period, the Japanese focused on expanding its economy, where it succeeded in developing the companies that served the whole world. A good example is indicated by the Toyota production systems that employ the Kaizen technique. Under the technique, time wasted is greatly reduced by ensuring all the loopholes associated with causing delays are eliminated. This shows how the Japanese companies focused on saving time and precision as an advantage over their rivals. Cultural explanation Versus Industrial Pressure The Japanese strongly believe in high degree of predictability in their business dealings and daily living. Train and bus schedules show good examples of how the Japanese society value time keeping and accuracy. This has ensured that the economy is run efficiently with no wastage of time associated with delays. The punctuality has developed trust in both business setting and personal relationships. Thus, the Japanese society is now considered as organized, efficient, and adherent to deadlines in both business settings and personal relationship (Buckley, 2009). Political and Economic reasons After the Second World War, Japan embarked on a mission to rebuild its society by focusing on the local and international markets. The punctuality and precision adopted earlier in their history propelled them to strengthen their culture of precision. The loss they suffered in the war became a motivation for them to use all the time available to rebuild and restore their nation (Chavez, 2005). With little efforts diverted to military build-up, the government focused on industrialization to gain economic influence instead. The idea of precision and time keeping was adopted to speed up the economic development and ensure that the Japanese economy dominated the international markets. Therefore, the culture of time keeping was developed through the organization culture in workplaces rather than inheritance. Education The Japanese education system played a pivotal role in promoting the culture of punctuality, since learning of such values can be taught practically. In schools, it is easy to prepare the aspect of punctuality since the institution offers a practical lesson (Duke, 2009). Practicing punctuality while still at school prepares the population to embrace the same qualities in their future life. Therefore, the Japanese may have acquired the values of accuracy and time keeping through education, rather than learning from their culture. Limited Resources Japan’s natural resources are limited forcing its economy to rely on raw materials from other countries. To compensate on the lack of the resources, the Japanese has opted to utilize fully its human resource. Therefore, the need for precision and sticking to deadlines has been adopted to ensure that the available resources are utilized to the maximum (CarteÌ and Fox, 2008). Competition for the global market share The Japanese culture of time keeping and effectiveness was motivated by the fight for economic dominance (Menipaz and Menipaz, 2011). Compared to her neighbours such as China, Japan’s population is low with the majority being the old. Therefore, the economy and the infrastructure were developed in a way that time wastage will always be minimized. This allowed the population to work efficiently, placing the Japanese economy at a competitive position. Japan economic strategy has been focusing on the international markets, where trade has been liberalized. However, Japan depends on other countries for raw materials due to its limited natural resources. The importation of raw materials and the need for exporting the finished goods puts the country at a disadvantage, where low profit margins are expected (Menipaz and Menipaz, 2011). Therefore, saving on time will assist the companies to produce more products improving the overall profit due to the economy of scale. Additionally, the expected precision is highly valued in ensuring that the products meet high standards to give the Japanese goods a quality advantage over other products. Promoting accuracy is; therefore, a value that is promoted by the economic pressure that Japan is undergoing in its position as a global player. Today, Japan clock system is synchronized, where all the watches are harmonized. Time settings for all the electronics appliances are usually done at the Fukushima station for the Japan Standard Time Agency. Being a global player in the electronic industry, most watches and other electronics are designed to automatically synchronize with the Centre (Nelson and Quick, 2009). Additionally, the time indicated in mobile phones cannot be adjusted manually. Due to the use of a single time, punctuality between public transport and other services have been improved making the Japanese to be exceptional time keepers. In the Japanese working environment, lateness is punishable, where a small nap is preferred rather than lateness (Albrecht, 2010). The transport system is operated with the highest levels of punctuality due to the fact that lateness will put the jobs of others at stake. An accident that occurred on 35 April 2012, led to the death of 107 people including the driver of the train. It was believed that the driver was overspending while negotiating a corner since he was late for only one and a half minutes. This shows how the Japanese society value punctuation and they are ready to do anything just to keep time. The driver of the train was probably trying to avoid the punishment associated with lateness such as financial penalty, retraining or losing the job. Conclusion It is evident that the Japanese culture of punctuality, accuracy, and effectiveness dates back to many centuries. The Meiji restoration period marked the beginning of the time keeping as the time keeping was not valued earlier. The reason behind the success of the Japanese community regard to punctuality, precision, and accuracy was due to its unique culture that focused on the respect for their own initiatives focused in improving the welfare of their society (Prasol, 2010). By considering the history of the Japanese community, it is evident that they valued improvement. They transformed their culture from a non-punctual community in the Nara and Tokugawa periods but transformed into a highly punctual community. The Japanese believed in improvements; therefore, they were able to adopt new changes and improve them to make a stronger society (Mitchell, 2009). The values of punctuality, precision, and accuracy are, therefore, connected to the history of the Japanese society. However, the values were not adopted in the same period, but were in different generations (Mente, 2005). Accuracy and precision were adopted earlier followed by punctuality. These principles were greatly valued by the older generations, where it was passed from one generation to the other. The current level of precision, accuracy, and punctuality is motivated by the position of the Japanese in the world’s economy (Hodgson, Sano, and Graham, 2008). The Japanese have expanded their values and improved the country to compete with other economies whose population or natural resources are an added advantage. Reference List Albrecht, S. L., 2010. Handbook of employee engagement: perspectives, issues, research and practice. Cheltenham, UK: Edward Elgar. Buckley, S., 2009. Encyclopedia of contemporary Japanese culture. London: Routledge. CarteÌ , P., and Fox, C., 2008. Bridging the culture gap a practical guide to international business communication (2nd ed.). London: Kogan Page. Chavez, A., 2005. Guidebook to Japan: what the other guidebooks won't tell you. Columbus, OH: Gom Press. Duke, B. C., 2009. The history of modern Japanese education constructing the national school system, 1872-1890. New Brunswick, N.J.: Rutgers University Press. Fitzgerald, T., 2011. Religion and politics in international relations: the modern myth. New York, NY: Continuum. Griffis, W. E., 2006. The mikado's empire a history of Japan from the age of the gods to the Meiji era (660 BC-AD 1872). Berkeley, Calif.: Stone Bridge Press. Hodgson, J. D., Sano, Y., & Graham, J. L., 2008. Doing business with the new Japan: succeeding in America's richest international market (2nd ed.). Lanham, MD: Rowman & Littlefield Publishers. Menipaz, E., and Menipaz, A., 2011. International business: theory and practice. Los Angeles, Calif.: SAGE. Mente, B., 2005. Japan unmasked: the character and culture of the Japanese. Tokyo: Tuttle Pub.. Mitchell, C., 2009. A short course in international business culture building international business through cultural awareness (3rd ed.). Petaluma, CA: World Trade Press. Nelson, D. L., and Quick, J. C. 2009. Organizational behavior: science, the real world, and you (6th ed.). Mason, OH, USA: South-Western Cengage Learning. Prasol, A. F., 2010. Modern Japan origins of the mind: Japanese traditions and approaches to contemporary life. Singapore: World Scientific. Schirokauer, C., Lurie, D., and Gay, S., 2012. A brief history of Chinese civilization (4th ed.). San Diego, Calif.: Harcourt Brace Jovanovich. Tomalin, B., and Nicks, M., 2010. The Thorogood guide to the world's business cultures and how to unlock them (2nd ed.). London: Thorogood. Tsutsui, W. M., 2007. A companion to Japanese history. Malden, MA: Blackwell Pub. Read More