During its heydays, the nineties, everything Japan did and produced turned into a global rage. As a student, Japanese management was a much sought-after course, especially, for people majoring in production. Swept up by this fascination, I tried learning the Japanese language and approached a wizened, old Parsi living in a leafy Dadar house full of knick-knacks from the Land of the Rising Sun. He had lived in Japan for decades and had even tied the knot with a local there. Curious about my interest, he wondered why I wanted to learn the Japanese language. While I picked up the production techniques in my college, learning the Japanese language was tougher for want of good instructors and so I spent the evenings in Dadar. One learning that has stayed with me from those days is that the Japanese are able to manufacture things with zero defects because of their obsession with details. While we marvel at our jugaad in putting things together in a cost-effective manner, the ugliness of our products is quite apparent.
Japanese look at beauty as creating order out of chaos and putting small things together in a neat manner. If you were to create depth and atmosphere in a limited space, all you have to do is look at Japanese gardens. These green spaces create illusion by sizing trees in a manner that they keep growing smaller as the distance increases. This gives an appearance of depth in a limited space. The Japanese learnt this from the Chinese, perfected it, and now own it, but that’s another story.
An unfortunate part in an otherwise perfect relations with Japan is that very few learnings have crossed over despite strong inflow of funds. Even now, Prime Minister Modi is interested in bringing the bullet trains to India while the beauty lies in the details of Shinkansen, the near-failproof train management system.
Astonishingly, in over 50 years of its existence, the Japanese train system has never failed due to a human error. The first derailment occurred during the Chuetsu earthquake on 23 October, 2004, when eight of the ten cars of a train derailed but not a single passenger died. Compare this to India, in 2014 itself we have had five major train accidents which have killed 20 people on an average. Japan is as populous as India and its trains, particularly the suburban ones, are equally crowded but there have been no fatalities because of a system failure. So what is desirable is the Japanese technology, especially its anti-collision and anti-derailment technology, and not just bullet trains. We can also pick up their coach designs which are safe even during accidents.
In a chat with me in 2012, Modi, the then-CM of Gujarat, narrated how he had organized medical camps wherein he spoke with each district magistrate personally and sought the minutest of details about the site, patients, doctors and special offers in the camp. The same kind of approach is needed in India's relationship with Japan. Modi will have to keep an eye for detail. If we need to engage with Japan or if he have to bring the Shinkansen system, we have to bring the softer aspect of the management techniques first, the hardware is too expensive and may not be suited for a country like India.
Besides bullet trains, the Indian government has also expressed interest in signing the long-pending nuclear cooperation deal with Japan. After the Fukushima incident, Japan has slowed down its investment in and focus on nuclear energy for civilian use. But what is worthwhile to learn from Japan is how nuclear disasters can be handled as well as how will liabilities in the case of a disaster work. US companies have been lobbying hard to reduce the liabilities to civilian contractors in case of a disaster. Therefore, besides an alternative source for nuclear reactors, Japan can help India craft its liabilities laws for nuclear disasters.
Even on the defence front, there is talk about India becoming the first country to buy 15 amphibious patrol aircraft in a deal valued at $1.65 billion. It is not enough to look at Japan as just a supplier of hardware. India has opened up FDI up to 49 percent in defence and will approve higher stake on case-to-case basis.
Japan should look at India as its manufacturing hub. Japan needs young, skilled engineering workers and India can offer them in plenty. Raksha Sahyog or Bōei kyōryoku needs to be taken to the next level in this visit of PM Modi.
‘Manufactured in India with Japanese Technology’ (Nihon kara Indo gijutsu de seizō) needs to become the new slogan for defence manufacturing in India.
To paraphrase a famous Japanese Haiku,
The future starts now,
and decisions
now becomes destiny
K Yatish Rajawat is a senior journalist. He is the founding Editor in Chief of Business Bhaskar, the first hindi business daily in India and former Managing Editor of Dainik Bhaskar group. He tweets at @yatiishrajawat
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