Today, the global economy has been slowing down. This applies
not only to Japan but also to America and some European
countries. Germany is also one of these countries, and has been
subjected to economic recession since the integration of West and
East Germany. Germany has regarded this economic recession as
dangerous and bad. Are there other causes of this German
situation except for the integration? Some experts said that the
other cause of the recession is bad industrial structure.
Concretely speaking, those structures are the social market
economy and the misplaced workforce structure. Deutschmann
explains the misplaced workforce structure:
It was Peter Brodner who already ten years ago observed in his
analysis of the German machine tool industries what he called a
“ misplaced workforce structure”. Since the mid of
the seventies many companies . . . had
pursued a policy of sharply reducing their semi- and unskilled
workers . . . As a consequence, the share of skilled workers went
up (in the machine tool industries from 67% of all workers in
1970 to 79% in 1982). (Deutschmann 53)
Moreover, Mr. Tamura argues that ”the German economy is
slow in these days, because the social market economy come to
have some problems . . . the German government start to amend her
social market economy.”
As the above reports testify, we can understand that the cause
of German economic recession is the German bad industrial
structure.
What kind of solution to this bad industrial structure do
German experts recommend? One solution is the adaptation of
Japanese industrial structure. The German interest in the
Japanese industrial structure is very high. Deutschmann says,
“in connection with the debate on lean production the
public and professional interest in the Japanese management
system and its social and cultural precondition rose too”
(53).
Concretely speaking, what kind of Japanese industrial
structure do German experts recommend? It is the human resources
approaches. Deutschmann also mentions “They don’t
only aim at organizational restructuring but also at an
institutional adaptation of human resources approaches to the
Japan“ (54). However, I think Germany doesn’t have to
imitate Japanese industrial structure, because Japan also faces
economic slowness.
Japanese economy has been also recently depressed like
Germany. The cause of slowness seems to be Japanese bad
industrial structure. This situation is same as German one. We
can say both countries have some similar problems in industrial
structure. However, concretely speaking, their problems have
important difference. In Germany, the most influential problems
are social market economy and misplaced workforce structure; but
in Japan, the most important one is public burden. As the
Japanese the Ministry of International Trade and Industry (MITI)
proclaims: “the increasing public burden on the people,
workers, and firms due to progression toward an aging society
will be a restrictive factor of economic activity”
("Structural reform").
As a result, the Japanese government has taken up a policy to
Japanese bad economy especially to public burden. In order to
respond to the problem to public burden, the Japanese government
claims that “Government will strive to restrain the public
burden by improving the efficiency of the public sector as a
whole including social security, national and local government
finance” ("The action plan"). However, this reform includes
fear. Which does it become good for our life to improve the
efficiency of the public burden, or not? We have to keep our eyes
on what means the efficiency of the public sector.
From wider point of view, the Japanese government started a
package of structural reforms. This responded to Japanese bad
economy in six areas: administration, public finance, social
security, the economy, the financial system, and education.
Likewise, the Japanese government shows confidence for their
economical policy. The former Prime Minister Hashimoto declared
““Economic structural reform”, designed to
establish a powerful tenacious economic foundation on a
medium-and long term basis” ("Structural reform").
Both German government and Japanese government made up their
own solutions. However, both solutions have some faults. That is
why I think we have to make up new industrial structure. What
kind of industrial structure should we take up for our society to
get better? I think the new industrial structure should be the
one that ends mass production. This is because I think mass
production is bad industrial structure: mass production means
mass consummation, and this causes environmental problems and
ruins people’s minds. The new structure that will end mass
production is the West Germany’s unique structure.
Deutschmann declares “West Germany could master the
inevitable end of the era of mass production more successfully
because of its unique economic structure,” and Deutschmann
expresses his confidence to this structure (51). He says
“in automobile field German producers felt convinced about
their superiority over their allegedly mass-production orientated
Japanese competitors” (51).
What is the West German unique structure? According to
Christoph, it is “the unique mixture of market mechanisms
with institutional regulation of labor relations, vocational
training and industrial development” (52). If the nation
takes this vocational training, they will be able to acquire some
professional skills. This system will produce the production and
work force with good quality. Moreover, such a work force will
solve the demerit of mass production. This is because the goods
with good quality will be sustain for a long time. As a result,
this situation stops the mass consummation that causes the
environmental problem and ruined mind. Another good aspect of
this German unique structure is its concepts of
“Diversified Quality Production and Flexible
Specialization” (Deutschmann 51). These concepts are up to
date, because custom demands are changing and diverging in the
presence. Streeck, Piore and Sabel explain his situation in
detail. They say
“corrective goods” provided by these institutions
like (relative) industrial peace, high qualification and
commitment of workers enabled German corporations to adapt more
quickly and sensitively to changing and increasingly diverging
consumer demands than their Anglo-Saxon counterparts, whose labor
management orientated itself to a higher degree at a plain cost
minimization approach. (Deutschmann 52)
That is why I think the German unique industrial structure is
superior to the economic structure with mass production, and I
recommend it.
Since Germany has recently thought it is bad that their
economy is in depression: Germany has tried to adopt the Japanese
economy system. However, this challenge makes no sense, because
Japanese economy is also depressed, and has structural problems.
The solution to German economy’s depression exists in
German herself. That is the German unique economic structure as
explained by Deutschmann. At the end, because I can agree with
his assessment, I hope this structure spreads over the Germany
and other countries.
by Kanako Sakata
Works Cited
Deutschmann, Christoph. "The impact of Japanese Management
Concepts on industrial restructuring and labor relations in
Germany since end of the eighties." Kenkyugeppou
Keizaigaku. Vol. 56(1995): 52-61
“Structural reform of the Japanese economy.” News from MITI:
Ministry of International Trade and Industry.
http://www.jef.or.jp/news/97nov.html (10 July
1998)
“The action plan for economic structure reform: restraint of the public
burden from the standpoint of maintaining economic
vitality” MITI.
http://www.jef.or. jp/news/97nov.html (10 July
1998)
Tamura, Gen. "Germany initiate again in order to become strong country."
The Trend of Economy.
http://www.sumitomocorp.co.jp/econo/9611/j-kaigai.html
(16 July 1998)
