Japan fears its quality standards are slipping

SONY'S EXPLODING batteries and IT product recalls in Japan are spooking the nation who are starting to feel they are losing their reputation for quality.

According to the New York Times, radio talk shows and leader articles are full with people expressing their opinion that the nation is starting to lose the plot on quality. It is considered so important over there that Sony's and Toyota's recalls have frequently topped coverage of wars in Iraq and Lebanon.

The Times couldn't really see why. Television factories still carefully wipe down tellies so that punters do not find a fingerprint on it and return it. But in a nation where the trains run on time, people are looking for scapegoats.

As in most societies, the old blame the young, the young say that the old are too incompetent, others say American-style management is to blame, says the paper.

Hiroshi Okuda, the retired chairman of Toyota and elder statesman of Japan's business world, called on his countrymen to do more about what he saw as the declining competitiveness of Japanese manufacturing.

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