Japan in the Passing Lane: Insider's Account of Life in a Japanese Auto Factory (Counterpoint)

by Satoshi Kamata

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• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0043381111
• ISBN13: 9780043381113
• Release Date: April 1984
• Publisher: HarperCollins Publishers Ltd
• Length: 251 Pages
• Weight: 0.49 lbs.

Customer Reviews

Surprising Book

This is a very surprising and interesting view of working in a Japanese auto plant in the 1970s. The author worked at Toyota's main plant as a temporary worker. For those who are studying Toyota's Production System the book provides a perspective that must be delt with. The translator did an excellent job and the book is an easy an interesting read.

And I thought *my* job was rough

A well-written shop-floor view of the Japanese auto industry in the mid-to-late 1970's, when Japan's automakers were struggling to meet America's demand for small cars during the oil crisis. Kamata worked as a contract employee on the assembly line of a Toyota factory and tells of 12-to-16 hour shifts six days a week, managers who increased production quotas beyond the limit of human endurance with no regard to safety, and the consequenses of a draconian employment contract. Compare this to Ben Hamper's "Rivethead," which provides a similar (more humorous) shop-floor view of the auto industry during approximately the same era, but at a GM Plant in Flint, Michigan.