Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: SUNDAY, July 9, 1995 TAG: 9507100006
SECTION: BUSINESS PAGE: B-1 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: JOHN CUNNIFF ASSOCIATED PRESS
DATELINE: NEW YORK LENGTH: Medium
Foremost of the myths is the superiority of Japanese quality, a theme so carefully cultivated by Japanese trade officials and manufacturers that millions of Americans uncritically accept it.
The Eberts no longer do. Before they lived in Japan, Purdue University Professor Ray Ebert and his wife, Cindelyn, also a Purdue teacher, swore by Japanese brands - Toyota, Honda, Sony. ``We had bought into the myths,'' they said.
Instead, they found Japanese appliances that were junk, automobile markets closed, consumers dictated to, prices needlessly high, educational practices poor and productivity considerably below the U.S. level.
Their disillusionment came on gradually, first as an American family seeking in vain the consumer products to which they had become accustomed, then as engineers failing to find documentation for popular beliefs.
The result, ``The Myths of Japanese Quality,'' published by Prentice-Hall, is a bit of a shock to those who swallowed in one great gulp such notions as the Japanese being efficient and high-quality producers.
Shocking, among other things, because it takes on Edwards Deming, who in the postwar years became a Japanese god and an American legend for helping create the so-called Japanese industrial miracle.
Spurned by American manufacturers, Deming allegedly taught the Japanese the science of industrial development, emphasizing the statistical route to worker productivity, high quality and customer satisfaction.
But, Ray Ebert said in an interview, Deming wrote poorly, didn't know much about statistics, seldom documented with data (preferring anecdotes instead) and claimed as true a lot that wasn't.
Considering that Deming's name is so revered in Japan, you wonder if this book might not be just more Japan bashing. But the Eberts were well aware of this concern, which explains their penchant for documentation.
It makes for credibility and a good deal more understanding than most people have of what led to the negotiating impasse between the United States and Japan.
You can begin with the mindset. ``We think the Japanese are exactly like us, and they think we are like them,'' Ebert said. It isn't so. The Japanese emphasis is on the group, while Americans are individualistic.
In Japan, the image is always better than the reality. The Japanese value their myths, believe in them and live by them. It is the other way around in the United States: The reality usually is better than the image.
When you consider that many Japanese obtain their image of Americans from violent American films - violence translates easily into foreign languages; few words, no subtleties - you can imagine what they think of us.
``If you dehumanize people, those against whom trade restrictions are aimed, for example, by saying they are uneducated, violent and dirty, you do not feel guilt,'' said Ebert. ``You think they deserve it.''
In regard to Japanese trade limitations, which the book documents, they can say it is the fault of Americans - that American products aren't any good, and that if they were good, the Japanese would buy them.
That they are free to sell in the United States, and U.S. products do not fare as well in Japan, underscores their belief that they are better, said Ebert. Yes, it is arrogance, he said. Americans, too, have been accused of it.
To Ebert, it also is a potentially debilitating malady for Japan. You can believe in the image rather than the reality, believe you are No.1, he said, but the marketplace is where decisions are made.
Based on experience, research and analysis, and contrary to popular belief, Ebert maintains the Japanese are not consumer-oriented - a vital ingredient of demand - and that they ``aren't worrying about quality as they were.''
by CNB