Taylorism in Japan

Japan adoption of Taylorism could have said to be much attributed by Taylor's publications. Many management articles relating to Japanese industrial practices had borrowed heavily from Taylor's ideas. For instance, Yukinori Hoshino, director of Japan's Kajima Bank of Osaka, was impressed with Taylor's theories while in America that he seek his permission to translate "The Principles of Scientific Management" which was distributed in Japan in 1912 (Nakagawa 1996). Toshiro Ikeda also published a book titled "The Secret of Saving Lost Motion" in 1911. The interest in Taylorism among the Japanese was affirmed when more than 1.5 million copies were sold (Butman 1997).

Yochi Ueno, a prominent figure in the early Japan, also introduced a psychology journal, "Shinri Kenkyo", covering Taylor, Gilbreth and C.B Thompson accomplishments on management efficiency. Shortly, Hugo Munsterberg's writings on "Shinrigaku Tsugi" were translated into Japanese (Greenwood & Ross 2002). It was clear that Taylorism was very much adopted when the Taylor Society branch was established in 1925, with Ueno being the first managing director. It created opportunities for management experts such like Carl G.Barth, H.Emerson and H.K. Hathaway to give lectures and advice to Japanese firms. Moreover, Japanese Federation of Efficiency Organizations, formerly Institute for Industrial Efficiency, was reformed in 1927 to train efficiency experts and also provide consulting advice to firms (Nakagawa 1996). Taylorism continued to thrive when Ueno translated all Taylor's work in 1932 and established the Japan Efficiency School in 1941 (Tsutsui 2001).

Besides adopting Taylorism by influence of the publications and management expertise's advice, repair works at Japan National Railways (JNR) and Kure Navy Yard were instrumental in applying and disseminating Taylorism. For example, JNR, being the largest employer, acquired hundreds of professionally trained engineers. These engineers joined the Japanese Industry Society and utilised their experiences with JNR to help other firms in implementing scientific management system during the Industrial Rationalisation movement in 1930s (Nakagawa 1996). In addition, Takeo Kato and Nobuo Noda of the Mitsubishi Electric Company who studied time and motion work of the Westinghouse Electric Company capably applied these theories to their firms (Nelson 1992) . They were also invited by Okiie Yamashita, chief of engineering department at JNR, to guide them in time study procedures. In due course, time study sheets were formed and procedures were implemented in JNR. Government also began to install these procedures in other firms across the country (Greenwood & Ross 2002). Moreover, Toyota Production System approach, conceptualized by Taiichi Ohno, applied the original concepts of Taylorism which was a great solution to Toyota's production problems and was