KAWASAKI EXECUTIVE

Shin Kitamura, 29, is an assistant to the vice president of the legal department at Kawasaki Motors Corp. USA in Irvine. Before coming to Irvine a year ago, he spent five years at Kawasaki Heavy Industries Ltd. in Akashi, Japan. Kitamura first moved to the United States at age 12, when his father was transferred here, and stayed for four years. In his current job, Kitamura serves as a liaison between Kawasaki operations in Japan and the United States, dealing mainly with liability suits filed against the company in U.S. courts. The following was taken from an interview with Kitamura by Michele Lingre, a Van Nuys free-lance writer.

Japanese people are not used to suing. It’s an American thing. In Japan, we try to talk over the problems, while in the U.S., I guess, they do that in court.

If somebody gets into an accident in Japan, they wouldn’t think there was anything defective with the product. They’ll think, “I was speeding,” and deal with their insurance company. In the U.S., they’ll say, “Yes, I was speeding, but that bolt came loose, the brakes didn’t work”--they’ll think of something. The Japanese blame themselves first.

Japanese companies know that’s how it works in the U.S., but it is hard for them to understand it from the heart; they get upset when American people sue us.

Prefer American Way

So communication is a problem. Here, Japanese people do a pretty good job of communicating, though. And when they think they didn’t communicate well; they just write a memo, since most Japanese write English better than they speak it.

In a Japanese company, you have to be careful if you show off. Most people don’t. You don’t (go over your boss’s head) to the higher level. There, they don’t get impressed with that way of working. “Deru kugi wa utareru, “ meaning “the nail that stands out gets hit”--that’s a pretty good example of the Japanese corporate world.

I like the American way better. I have more opportunity to do things on my own. In Japan, at my age, I would handle only one-tenth of a project and not get to know all of it well. In U.S. companies, it’s more free. My Japanese boss is pretty open. He wants me to handle things, and he wants a report afterward. But I’m still young, so I’ll have to go back to Japan and work there.

Is the U.S. an open market and Japan a closed one? I think these are half-truths. The Japanese buy expensive foreign products, like a BMW, as a status symbol. Japanese companies (export successfully because they) make products that will suit the market.

At Kawasaki, we have motorcycles for the American market that are different from what’s sold in Canada or in Europe. U.S. companies try to sell products that are sold here, and that might not be what the consumer in Japan wants.

Japanese companies look into small things and make improvements for more consumer satisfaction, and that makes the difference. In the motorcycle industry, the Japanese dominate the world. How we got there is because of that kind of thought, looking at details, refining details.

Of course, labor was cheap, and we were able to make good things at a cheap price. The market for motorcycles is getting smaller, but as long as we can find new products to satisfy consumers, we can grow.

In Japan, however, people don’t think they have succeeded as much as the world thinks. Japanese people never get to the point where they think they accomplished a lot. They work long hours--10 to 12 hours a day--yet they don’t feel their level of living has improved that much.

Americans think the Japanese are benefiting unfairly from trade. The allegations of unfair trade practices by the Japanese are a big concern, but Japanese executives don’t think the problems are as great as Americans charge.

The Japanese resent the accusations. There is some feeling that it is going too far, but somehow they understand; they tend to take things as productive criticism. That is the Japanese nature, they think people who criticize are looking more deeply into them, are understanding more deeply. Americans, when you criticize them, try to explain that your criticism is wrong. They tend to think they are always right, that their way of thinking is the standard.

I don’t think the American public has hostile feelings toward the Japanese. However, about eight months ago, I was walking in downtown L.A. and two gentlemen shouted at me from their car, “Go home.”

I think what Japanese companies need to do from now on is not only to pursue profits but also to get involved in the community. The American public is trying to know Japan, I guess, but the (public relations) by the Japanese is not sufficient.

If Japanese companies in the U.S. were run by Americans, that might help. But we don’t know too much about each other, and there is some fear that it wouldn’t work well. It’s a matter of who is going to be first to try. If it works, fine, others will follow.

Unless people in Washington understand that, in Japan, to get anything done, you have meetings, and that takes time, the pressure on Japan will be greater and greater. Americans are used to fast decisions and countermeasures. I think they understand the Japanese process, but you can’t tell them to be patient, that’s the basic nature of Americans.