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Xinhua Daily Author: Ye Lei

The imitation and innovation spirit that lacks previous expertise in advanced technology, and the response is slow" is what we really need to take warning from; the call for "re-emphasis on imitating entrepreneurial elements and developing our own technological integration advantages" is also what we need to pay the same attention to. of.

In the crisis, Sharp is still laying off staff and selling houses to save itself. Panasonic, which has been losing money for years, is still struggling to make a profit. Sony has gradually drifted away in the continuous downturn. Canon's crisis does not seem to be fundamentally relieved. The field of consumer electronics products has collapsed all the way, and Yuri Star NEC has completely withdrawn from the field of smartphones... Although from these appearances, we can't draw the conclusion that Japan's manufacturing industry has declined and failed, but there is no doubt that Japan's manufacturing industry has indeed encountered stages. Sexual trouble. China and Japan are quite similar. The strength of the economy is closely related to the international status of the manufacturing power. China, which is in the whirlpool of the "world's factory", should undoubtedly review and introspect from the "trouble" encountered by Japan's manufacturing industry.

Why is Japan's manufacturing industry encountering "trouble" at the present stage? Yugami Takashi, who has worked at Hitachi for 16 years and is currently a teacher at Kyoto University and Tohoku University, in his "Lost Manufacturing Industry: The Failure of Japan's Manufacturing Industry" The book reviews the decades of history of honor and disgrace in Japan's IT manufacturing industry, and summarizes four lessons from the Japanese manufacturing industry. Opportunities; second, they are too demanding on the extreme performance and indicators, while ignoring the actual demand level of the market, investing unnecessary costs, so that when the market changes, the product cannot be adjusted in time in research and development; the third is over-reliance on the spirit of craftsmanship and craftsmanship , while ignoring the standardization and generalization of products, and seriously lacking low-cost mass production capabilities; fourth, in the face of technological trend changes, the Japanese enterprise system is too rigid and cannot adapt to the trend of technological change.

The road to innovation is not easy. How can we keep up with the times and not fall behind? In his book, Takashi Tang talked about another reason for the "crisis" of Japan's manufacturing industry, that is, "the lack of the spirit of imitation and innovation in the past due to the lack of advanced technology. Slow response” is what we really need to take as a warning; the call for “re-emphasis on imitating entrepreneurial elements and developing our own advantages in technological integration” is also what we need to pay attention to. Looking back at the history of the rise and fall of Japanese manufacturing, it can be divided into four typical stages:

From the Meiji Restoration to World War II, it was the stage when Japan was dominated by "cottages". At that time, Japanese products were called "Oriental goods" in China, but they made Japan embark on the road of modernization; from the end of World War II to the early 1970s, it was The stage of imitation led Japan to develop from a defeated country with an economic collapse into an economic giant; from the 1970s to the 1990s, it was a stage of innovation and transcendence. "Made in Japan" not only entered the world stage, but also created a Another myth, it has also become the world's second largest economy after the United States; after the 1990s, it was a stage of stubbornness and stubbornness. Because imitation and copycats were not seen, the Japanese manufacturing industry fell from the peak and emerged. Crisis, and the general mentality of enterprises is still the ostrich mentality of "fight against the water, make every effort to turn losses into profits and let the enterprise survive", which is gradually overtaken by other countries.

The "crisis" of Japan's manufacturing industry, of course, has the reasons revealed by Takashi Yuujie in the book, but the actual reasons are far more complicated, and are closely related to the international and domestic financial and monetary policies, labor market, cultural mentality, and even the international political situation. , are closely related. Objectively speaking, the market influence of "Made in Japan" is still huge, and the level of technology research and development and innovation capabilities are still top-notch. The global manufacturing industry chain is still inseparable from Japan. "The metaphysical is called the Tao, and the metaphysical is called the utensil". The problem of Japanese manufacturing is not the "dao" but the "equipment". The problem of the "equipment" is mainly stagnant, which is embodied in the level of technological research and development and innovation orientation. Matching with consumer fashion, business model, and market development capabilities, but not willing to go to copycats, imitating innovations in the United States, South Korea or even China, not only failed to produce epoch-making products related to the Internet, but also failed to keep up with the Internet era. pace.

The main reason for the rise of China's manufacturing industry, from a big perspective, is reform and opening up; from a small perspective, it is similar to the first two stages of Japan, and the innovation of copycats is indispensable. Whether China's manufacturing industry can reach the peak of Japan's post-industrial consumption era in the 1990s depends on whether China can surpass Japan in imitation and innovation. However, good technology is not the same as good products and good markets. Technology is stable and linear, while products and markets are variable and curvilinear. Therefore, even if we cannot achieve transcendence in innovation, as long as we keep imitating innovation, we can still occupy a place in products and markets; even if we achieve Transcendence in innovation, if you can't maintain innovation and transcendence in products and markets at all times, you may not be able to win the market and maintain the peak.

In the history of the rise and fall of the manufacturing industry, what did Japan do right? What did it do wrong? It is obviously instructive for Chinese enterprises to catch up with the industrial Internet era. Both China and Japan, at the core of their culture, are deeply influenced by the Confucian ideology of "the golden mean", and are often reluctant to take the initiative. Therefore, both Chinese and Japanese cultures have a very "stubborn" side, and their degrees of freedom and innovation are not as good as those of the European and American worlds. Japan has gradually moved from being a "master of imitation" in the prestigious world to "resting on its laurels", which is the result of the fermentation of its "stubborn" mentality after its strength changes. China has become the world's second largest economy, and the mentality of the Chinese people is also changing. This is something we should be vigilant about.