Prime Minister's Individuality
As another example of group-directed individualism, I take up the case of the present Prime Minister of Japan, Zenko Suzuki. Mr. Suzuki stressed team spirit in his inaugural speech when the ruling Liberal-Democratic party chose him as its leader. He said: "I believe the most important foundation of politics is the concept of wa to achieve unification of varied and different abilities for attaining a higher goal." Indirectly, he insisted on integration of the party members and warned against possible factional divisiveness.
This new party leader was placed on the scene unexpectedly as a consequence of the internal conflicts of the party. The former Prime Minister, Masayoshi Ohira, was thrown out of office by the opposition parties' vote of non-confidence, supported by the factional revolt in the ruling party. Then Masayoshi Ohira died suddenly during the general election campaign, and two capable factional heads went into desperate competition to succeed to the post of Prime Minister. The ruling party was internally divided and suffered a crisis bordering on a split. However, some political "fixers" behind the curtain created the necessary consensus and paved the way for the selection of Mr. Suzuki, who enjoyed a quiet reputation as an adroit practitioner of compromise. The split was avoided. The details of how it was done are not known to the public, but the important point is that the concord (wa) of the party was maintained and the fierce competition between the two factional heads was tactfully sup pressed. Thus two strong individual personalities were controlled and dissolved by the group.
As a result, the new Prime Minister was expected to listen to all the voices coming out of the factional groups. Indeed, when the opposing voices of the factional leaders became too strong, even the draft of his keynote speech to the parliamentary assembly was amended by his cabinet ministers. As the head of the cabinet, a Prime Minister has to observe the general trend of the group and set aside his individuality. Otherwise, he loses control. Taking action based on the consensus of cabinet members is what gives a leader the self-assurance to qualify for his role and to ascertain his personal dignity.
Group Approach to Quality Control
The quality control of products has been outstanding in Japanese industrial plants and has been considered the key factor in Japan's successful expansion of exports. Of course, this production technique did not originate in Japan but was imported from the United States. In assimilating the imported technique, Japanese management added a unique group-directed approach to it. They put a T in front of the QC and made it "total quality control." TQC encompasses the activities of the entire company and its members, extending even to the workers' emotions, and it directs the way that every group of workers plunges spiritedly into the job.
Japanese workers have been imbued with clear objectives of quality control and a sense that high-quality production is important to them, to their union, to their families, and to their country. Workers and management thus share the same objectives. Each plant has its white-collar and blue-collar quality control circles, in which three to ten employees meet on their own time and analyze work standards and ways to improve the product. Each QC circle works like a group of brothers and competes with every other group for gaining pride of workmanship.
The cultural traits of mutual help and competitiveness have fortified the system and fueled workers' enthusiasm. Individual idleness cannot be tolerated within the group. It is a competition of allegiance in which the rewards for applicable ideas are mostly psychological. In contrast to the employee suggestion programs in the USA, which often offer workers up to $10,000 for useful innovations, in Japan an award of $1,000 for a patentable idea is considered generous. Companywide credit goes to the group that makes the most valuable improvement and thus raises a competitive fever in the factory. Every group is challenged to capture the prize, and accordingly workmanship rises at the plant.
Educational as well as cultural factors have contributed to the success of quality production in Japan. It is well known that the Japanese educational system is extremely uniform in nature, producing good industrial forces at the prevailing level. The human resources for industry produced by the Japanese and American educational systems may be compared roughly as in Figure 2.
The Japanese educational system, with its highly uniform manner of teaching, produces fewer dropouts than the American system and at the same time fewer geniuses who are able to invent new technologies. But it produces many more standardized or average workers who are able to accomplish the routine jobs perfectly and who can learn to improve their skills. On the other hand, to my understanding, the flexible and developmental American system of teaching produces a lot of geniuses who rebel against being forced to conform but at the same time produces more dropouts (reportedly as high as 3 percent of the population) who are substandard as industrial forces. When one of these dropouts comes into the production lines of a plant, the quality of an end product is bound to suffer. With today's production process, which is divided into many interlocking steps, one substandard worker could spoil the whole production line. In terms of quality production, then, Japan is apparently at an advantage. Its major problem is improving its educational system to increase the number of geniuses, whereas America has the acute problem of reducing the number of dropouts.
In summary, total quality control has been deployed like a newly emerged religion in Japan, because the people are monolithic and easily fall into a feverish enthusiasm when it comes to maintaining the pride of their group. On this note, let us take a look at the religious background of the Japanese people.
Pragmatic Religion
Religion is a part of every society. It is a cultural product of mankind, a tool for survival. The often heard comment "The Japanese don't have any religion" is the most superficial of observations. It is true that in the eyes of foreigners the Japanese would seem to lack firm religious belief. A couple married at a Shinto shrine may have both a Shinto and a Buddhist altar in their home, and may also be members of a Bible study group in which they sing hymns praising Jesus Christ. When they die, they will choose Buddhist burial rites. Such behavior is often considered extremely odd by non-Japanese.
But in fact the Japanese are rich in religious feeling. What is Japanese religion, then? In a word, ancestor worship. In ancient times, the Japanese social structure was strictly controlled and regulated by the patriarch of ie (family or clan). The patriarch was responsible to the higher authorities of the nation as well as to his ancestors for his behavior. At the top of the nation, the Emperor himself was responsible to his ancestors for his behavior.
In this patriarchical value system, there could be no room for the concept of an "Almighty God," as in the traditions of Judaism, Christianity, and Islam. On the contrary, Japanese kami (gods) are not considered separate personalities from men. In need of salvation and help, people turn to the superiors of ie (that is, their ancestors), who are believed to be gods. Another traditional belief in Japan is that the dead go to the place of their ancestors and become kami. This heavy emphasis on ancestor worship is the basis of Japanese religious feeling and was a powerful impulse among the people in the isolated village communities in ancient times. The contemporary Japanese are no exception.