How I spent my Vacation

I recently got back from a 10 day family vacation in Japan, mostly in Tokyo.
Much of the time was spent on what my children affectionately call "Death Marches", where SWMBO rousts us out at 7 in the morning or so, and we walk and take subways to various sites of cultural or retail importance, until 10 at night. Interspersed with copious eating several times a day, of course.

So I didnt get to do anywhere near as much of what is dispargingly called "boy stuff". I did make it to the Tokyo Transportation museum, which was mostly trains, including the very first locomotive in Japan, an 1840's Vulcan from England. Also parts and pieces of many locomotives up to and including a bullet train.
Someone was speaking about doing cutaway's of engines recently- in this museum there was a WW2 era Mitsubishi Steam Locomotive, and the whole thing, including the coal storage area, was artfully cutaway, with the edges of every cutaway painted contrasting colors. They also had a nice cutaway of an entire 66 Datsun Sunny, which was identical in most ways to the 411 wagon I used to drive.

But the most interesting thing, from a metalworking viewpoint, was a variety of small shops and factories I snuck into. Since we were in Tokyo proper, which is a mere 11 million people (23 million or so in the metropolitan area) I didnt get to see any big factories, except out of train windows on the way to and from Narita. No room for em in town.

I did, however, spend 5 days in a neighborhood of Tokyo that was very manufacturing oriented. Many tourists would have found this uninteresting, and they all left the hotel every morning and hightailed it off to "cultural" neigborhoods. I, on the other hand, took a lot of strolls thru the neighborhood at all times of day, and stuck my head into just about any interesting open door. Sometimes I would get chased right back out, other times they would smile bemusedly at me while I checked out their machines.

There were all kinds of tiny factories and shops in this area- Minowa, in the Northeast of town. Many were smaller than a single car garage. There was quite a bit of metalworking, along with all kinds of little wood shops, a sizeable printing and paper industry, and a lot of luggage and purse, and sewing shops.
One of the things I found interesting was I saw nothing that resembled a job shop- they may have em, but every shop I saw was producing a few specific things, and they had the tools to do that, and nothing else. About the most general purpose shops were the wood shops, some of which only had a big sliding table table saw, but others had jointers, planers, and bandsaws. Every tablesaw I saw was a sliding table, by the way. Even if there wasnt room in the shop for anything else, they had a big, cast iron table saw with a good sized sliding table.

All the woodworking equipement I saw was pretty old, heavy cast iron, and made in Japan. In fact, every tool I saw in every shop was either made in Japan, or else Japanese labelled, and possibly made in China- hard to tell, as I dont know how to read "made in china" in japanese. But it all looked pretty japanese to me. Even the cheezy small drill presses, which here would be chinese, looked and were labeled as Japanese. The japanese dont seem to mess around with cheap tools, or home shop sized tools- if they were gonna make something, they were gonna use a big, industrial tool.

For instance, I walked by a small sign making shop, which was doing cutout mirrored plexiglas signs. In addition to the obligatory sliding table saw, they had the coolest jig saw I had ever seen- some japanese brand, with about a 4 foot throat, new and very heavy duty looking. It was doing very accurate freehand work in 1/8" plex, which is not the easiest stuff to saw. Especially with a very tiny blade.

I found the small size of the shops had a lot to do with what kind of tools they bought- for instance, I found a small screw machine shop- about a dozen little japanese screw machines, lined up in a room about 200 sq ft. Because they were packed in there so tight, there was no question of there being room for each one to feed big bars, so outside in the carport, they had a full auto cold saw, cutting round bar into big bins full of perfect 1" long pieces, which they then ran thru the screw machines. They ran up to a maximum size of about 3/8", judging by their material racks.
Another screw machine shop I saw, again about single car garage size, consisted of a bunch of big brass rounds and hexes lying on the floor, and one cnc machine with a bar feeder- and that was the whole shop. No drill press, no saw, no nothing except 1 machine. Bins and bins of finished parts, some kind of brass pipe fittings, all over the place. Metal came in, parts went out, as simply as they could do it.
I found another shop that only made fish shaped molds for baking a sort of breaded fish novelty food- a fish, about 5" long. The molds were actually cnc milled from aluminum, about 6 fish to a mold, so each mold was maybe 8" x 20". I didnt get into that shop far enough to find the cnc mill- but I did see a bunch of other 70's era japanese machine tools they used for support stuff, including a big pair of vertical mills that looked a lot like Shizuoka's, and some lathes that were probably Mori's.
One shop I saw was running a few pretty good size manual Mori's, making brass drain assemblies for 2" pipe, one at time. This sort of thing was all over the place- even though china is just across the water, they buy almost nothing industrial from china that I could see- everything is custom made in Japan, even if it costs more.
I ducked in one shop that was making hand trucks, maybe 4 guys, welding, bending pipe, painting em in one corner, bolting on the wheels. Now there is no way they could be any way competitve with a $15 chinese handtruck, but they seemed busy. They also made big garden cart style wood and metal carts, for moving freight thru crowded Tokyo alleys. Again, their final price had to be 20 times what the chinese would charge for the same thing, but the Japanese insist on buying local product.
The main fish market in Tokyo, which sells 4 million pounds of fish A DAY, has these really funky little motorised carts- a 3'x5' flatbed, with a round motor housing in the front, electric, 3 wheels. There are maybe 2000 of these things at the fish market, and as far as I can tell, they are used nowhere else in the world. Yet they support a factory to make these things, undoubtedly at 2 or 3 times the price of a generic chinese substitute.
The japanese are rightfully proud of japanese manufacturing, and in most categories, I saw NO imports. They buy plastic buckets from china, but not much bigger stuff. I saw almost no american cars- but quite a few Audi's, Mercedes, BMW's, and Porsches. They have enough money to buy anything they want- they just dont want much we make. A few luxury goods, some clothes, and some big brand name stuff like Coke- but not much else made in america was there. Except I saw quite a few BMW and Mercedes sport utilities- which are made in the US, and nowhere else.
Made me think a lot about what we could make, that somebody with enough money to buy whatever they want would buy.

Hey nice post, sounds like you had a great time, even if you had to steal away to look into the stuff that floats your boat (and mine) .
If you ever go again ask at the T.I. office for the Isuzu (pronounced eesoozoo) factory tour (it used to be on Tuesdays), it's just outside Tokyo and it's where they make the bodies for light comercials...it's totaly automated in an almost sureal sci-fi kinda way...you'd love it. I'd love to go again but with the cost of living over being sky high it aint gonna happen for a while...can't figure how they can afford to buy those Porsche's or pay $1M green fees ??????????

Great story Ries, thanks for sharing. I was in Japan for 1 hour on my way to Korea.

Thanks, Ries, for showing us the unseen and unremarked side of Japan. All you need now is that dividing head

John

Ries,

Very nice post. Do you speak japanese? How did you commnicate w/ the folks in the shops? Sounds like you had a lot of fun aside from your wifes "death marches".

Regarding the comments you made in several places of your post, regarding what appears to be a lack of products from china, US, and elsewhere. I always hear that the Japanese restrict or tariff heavely most imports? I wonder if that is the case? Do you know anything about this? Or is it just the case that the japanese feel a duty to spend their money and keep it at home? Unlike the majority of americans where price is the only thing that matters. Irrespective of quality or the length of a useful items life in service?

If yes, that may be one aspect of the Japanese govt looking out for the everyday man. Whereas in the US the govt just lets anybody from anywhere in with there product w/o regard to the avg citizen. As long as the congress gets paid by the big companies who sell the imports, who cares. Just another and opposite side of "free trade" perhaps??

Great story.... I wish I were with you running through those little shops........ I want one of those fish market carts!!!! I have never seen anything turn like them..... make those fancy lawn mowers you see on TV look about as maneuverable as a hook and ladder fire-truck....... and I love the way you control them with that "wheel" thing on the top.....

Did you take pictures that you can post?.....please.

I'll be there in the fall....... in Itami (Osaka domestic airport area) and Yokohama..... and maybe China?

In the early 80's, while still in the service, I was in Okinawa. I used to do some of what Ries talked about. I didn't write much down but I do remember an Okinawan cabinet maker telling me how to say lathe in Japanese. Phonetically it's pronounced san ban key. Hope my memory is correct. Anybody speak Japanese? Please correct me if needed. Ries, thanks for the fascinating post. Bob

Don't quote me but I think the Japaneese government may put restrictions on imports of manufactured good as Japan imports so much of its raw materials (basically they have few raw materials)

I dont speak japanese- but the japanese people, by and large, couldnt care less. Many of them speak english, and the ones that dont still try to be as helpful to strangers as they possibly can.

As far as tariffs go- I am sure the japanese have tariffs to protect domestic industry- but it seems to have no effect on the purchase of stuff they actually want. There are more stores in Tokyo than the rest of the world combined, and they are full of incredibly expensive imported goods- If they want something, they buy it, no matter how much it costs. Virtually every woman I saw was carrying an expensive imported purse- Louis Vuitton, Hermes, Chanel, and the like, much of which cost 2 to 5 grand. They absolutely frown on cheap knockoffs- your girlfriends would never talk to you again if you bought a chinese copy. Same thing with Swiss watches, Callaway Golf Clubs, Italian suits, or German cars. If its in style, and imported, it doesnt matter what it costs. Every big designer name of luxury goods has a huge store there, and they carry the stuff out of the stores with both hands.
So I have no doubt that if the japanese manufacturers wanted to buy Deckels, or Monarch 10EE's, or Haas VMC's, they would. In fact, I am sure there are Trumpf Laser turret punches in the bigger factories. But they always buy Japanese first, if at all possible- its more important to them to buy local than to save money, which, of course, is the exact opposite of our attitudes here. I dont know if they have Harbor Freight there, but my guess is it would go broke if they tried. Even in the small hardware stores, there just arent any cheap shoddy tools from china. I spent an afternoon in Akihabara, which is the electronics neighborhood that inspired the look of BladeRunner, and the books of William Gibson. Acres of flashing lights and 40 foot tall plasma screens, and literally hundreds of stores selling every electrical and electronic gizmo available. I particularly liked the insides of the blocks- the prime front street storefronts were occupied with 6 or 10 story tall megastores, full of brand new washers, stereos, tv's and cell phones. But down the alleys, there would be a little door that lead to a maze of 6'x6' stalls, each specialising in one thing- patch cords, or transformers, or led's, or capacitors. Kind of like an old farmers market, but electrons only. There were also stalls in there featuring some really oddball stuff- I wandered by one that was maybe 10' square, with probably a million dollars worth of high end stereo gear crammed in there- every square inch was full of luxman and marantz tube amps, preamps, $5000 turntables, and walls of exotic hi-fi gear. And right next door, the stall was selling $99 closed circuit security cameras, and novelty lightbulbs.

Some of the stalls featured tools, and every tool was a japanese made jewel, and not cheap. Beautiful little needlenose pliers, or side cutters, were $15 to $20 each. I didnt see a single screwdriver for less than about 5 bucks. Even the mini-lathes and drill presses looked to be mostly japanese- I think I saw one chinese mini-lathe- unimat size- but the rest were elegant little objects. Every tool was just nice- levels, squares, jewelers saws, heat guns- all quality, and all priced accordingly. Engraved, stainless and brass tools- no silk screened aluminum rulers in evidence. I am sure if they wanted 99 cent chinese pliers, they could get em, but there just doesnt seem to be a market for them.

Part of this is cultural superiority- the japanese believe that their stuff is by and large, the best there is. Part of it is just an innate respect for quality. The knive stores, for example, which are pretty common, dont carry any cheap chinese knives at all- a decent kitchen knife starts at maybe $25, and can easily go up to $200 or so. And it is important to chefs there, even amateurs, to buy a really high quality knife. They often buy a known maker- that is, the chef knows the name of the man who made his knife. Same thing with woodworking tools- the smallest corner hardware store will carry a set of 4 wood chisels, with sharkskin wrapped handles, that is hand forged, and sells for more than $200. It is inconceivable to them that you would want a 4 dollar chisel- everybody knows they are crap.

I really have no idea where all the money comes from- everything there is expensive. I did not see a can of pop in the whole country that cost less than $1.20. Doesnt matter what brand, or if you buy 6 at a grocery store, or one in a vending machine- thats what a coke costs. A beer costs $1.75- buy 12, buy 24, its still a buck seventy five- unless its more, for a fancy one. And everything in the country is priced like that- but most of the stuff is made by skilled japanese workers, in small family owned shops- and that seems pretty good to me. Many people dont have cars, of course, as there is no where to park them, and they often live in very small, or shared apartments, so they dont spend as much money as we do on cars and houses. But the subway aint cheap- a buck sixty minimum per ride, and rents in Tokyo start at about $650 per month for a closet sized studio apartment. They seem to have made a decision as a whole country that it is better to pay more for locally made stuff, even if their standard of living isnt as high. Guys might have one good suit, and wear it every day to work, rather than a whole closet of polyester from walmart.

Ries

I know what you meen

Part of this is cultural superiority- the japanese believe that their stuff is by and large, the best there is. Part of it is just an innate respect for quality.

Click to expand...

20 years ago I used to make Hi-Fi bits, tone arms and such like, the most difficult customers to please in terms of quality expectations where you Americans and the Japeneese. you guys would send something back if it had a tiny scratch... say from packing...but the Japeneese would send back if the thing even had the slightest fingerprint on it , I found out from the Japeneese distributor that the customers wore white cotton gloves to unpack and then carefully inspect thier new purchase , we even got some stuff back because the card sleave was scratched or the polystyreene was flakey. Dealing with those gus and in later year dealing with some Japeneese manufactures helped me form a love and striving for perfection, God love 'em.

Great post Ries.

There was an article a couple years ago in one of the trade magazines where they profiled a small shop in the US and one in Japan, both making the essentially same product. (light fixtures I think). The focus was sorta "where are you now, where do you want to go, and what obstacles do you face in getting there?" The US responses sounded typical of what we hear a lot, but the Japanese ones were interesting. There was an interior picture of the Japanese shop, and it appeared to have every square inch of available space used, including stairs that went (steeply) up to some overhead offices such that they didn't interfere with floor space for machines and product. The guy said his biggest need was more space, as they were so cramped that it interfered with productivity. But, he said industrial property in his area went for the equivalent of $2.3 million per acre, and rental rates on anything other than the tiny spaces similar to where he was were priced in accordance with land values and very hard to come by. He also said a big problem was in finding workers. The average wage for manufacturing workers in his area was about $50K/yr and about $25K/yr for office workers, but the said there was a mindset among a large percent of the younger Japanese that made them willing to do office work at half the wage of manufacturing work because office work was considered by the younger generation to be more prestigious. He said there was additional market for his product, but that he was in a position of not expanding the number of outlets because the current sellers were buying all he could produce. He would have been willing to go into debt for high priced property to expand the business, based on perceived additional sales potential for his products, but was afraid he could not find additional workers to staff a larger production facility. He said advertisement for production help would often get zero response, but when he advertised for a secretary/receptionist type person he ended up with over 50 applicants, many of whom stated that they were willing to work for less than he was planning to pay if he would just hire them for this office job. Definitely a different set of problems than faces the typical small American shop, but nonetheless just as effective in keeping the guy from being able to take advantage of opportunities he saw looking him in the face.

The small work spaces over there result in some interesting solutions. Virtually every shop I saw had a big roll up door on the street, and all of them rolled the door up first thing, and started using the street and the sidewalk for a little additional space. If they had a truck, they backed that out first thing, giving them some open floorspace.
Right across from my hotel was a funny little building, maybe 15 x 30 feet. Upstairs was an apartment, and downstairs was a paper wholesaler. Every morning they would roll up the door, and back out the little Toyota 14 forklift (I am assuming that is 1400 kg- 3000lb capacity.) The space they parked that little forklift was the only clear floorspace in the whole building. They would proceed to shuffle out a few pallets of paper- I think it comes in 1 meter squares over there as a master sheet size, so they had 1 meter square pallets, stacked up on the sidewalk. Then they had a very high tech CNC paper cutter, with about a 2 foot x 3 foot open space in front of it to stand while loading and unloading it. Every other inch of the space was full of pallets stacked 8 to 10 feet high. When they cut paper down to the size ordered by their customers, they would use the forklift and a pallet to make a packing table, or else work on the front surface of the paper cutter. These guys were constantly shuffling paper in and out all day, loading boxes into a tiny Dihatsu pickup, and delivering to neighborhood printers. The real estate is so expensive that they had almost no space, but the paper cutter had to cost $25,000 if it cost a dime. The printers they delivered to were similar- I saw one shop, with the door rolled up, natch, with a pair of very new, high tech computerized sheet fed printing presses, probably about 17 x 22 capacity. The presses were about 2 feet from the rollup door, snug up against the wall on the right, and had a 2 foot walkspace on the left. There was a minimal gap between the two machines- just enough to sneak in there and load/unload. And they ran all day, every day. As work was completed, it was wrapped up and delivered. Makes sense that this country would have invented Just in Time Manufacturing, as there is no room to store inventory.
Very efficient use of machines, and no hesitation in any shop I saw to spend money on good equipment.
Its true though, most of the workmen I saw were pretty old- young guys want to wear high fashion clothes, and listen to their I-pods on the subway on their way to a fashionable computer graphics job.

At the peak of the japanese real estate boom, a little over 10 years ago, someone estimated that the value of the imperial palace and grounds, in downtown Tokyo, strictly on a square foot price, was more than the value at the time of all the real estate in the state of California.

Nice posts Ries.

I'm of the same belief, we (Americans) control our manufacturing destiny by what we choose to purchase. I keep buying Oral B and New Balance and the Walmart has a permanent kibosh.

I'm just wondering if China-built/assembled cars can make it over here, even if the nameplate is domestic......

The descriptions of the shops remind me of the little basement shop my Dad built up and we shared as I was growing up. The exposed floor-joint ceiling was a living thing after all 4 walls were stacked as high as they would go with benches and drawers, each joist space was stacked with something or other and the entry door could only make a 45 degree angle due to stuff stacked behind it.

-Matt

Ries I'm glad you mentioned the side walk thing..... there are often little marks on the side walks that are property lines...... minutes after a business opens in the morning it is just like they open up the front of the building an expand out to their line on the side walk..... with clerks, cash registers etc....... especially true in retail shops in districts like Din-Din town in Osaka...... or that 20 some block pedestrian street in Yokohama.

I would suggest everyone especially those that want to own a business should go over there and look around..... the whole place is world of contrasts....... and you can't help learning things and be entertained at the same time!!!!

And your posts make me really wanting to go now...... so far about half the trip is planned but we have about 10 days we haven't planned anything for yet which why we're thinking maybe a side trip to China might be fun..... or maybe one of the Southern Japanese islands?

Side note: A few weeks ago the Chinese were staging protests about the trade deficit with Japan. (Gov. Organized, no doubt)

I remember a pic in National Geographic about 10 years ago of India or Pakistan, where ther was a business owner in shite shirt and tie standing in front of his shop which was an alcove in the wall on the street, with two or 3 guys on shelves, working away. Now that guy know ho to keep his overhead down!

Ries,

Totally facinating. Thanks for writing about it. Makes my 700sf in BK feel a whole lot bigger.

Did it rain while you were there? What did the sidewalk guys do then? Seems like a week of rain might take a big chunk off the Japanese GDP!

B

Ries, Vely interesting.Please add as time permits.

While we were in Japan, my kids and I made a habit of noticeing which american made, or at least named, products were available.
The obvious worldwide brands were there, of course, but mostly local franchises. Coke Pepsi, and Mountain Dew, McDonalds, and Colonel Chicken. Although I dont know if the Colonel really included sesame seeds and little bits of seaweed in his secret recipe- but that is what the fried chicken was coated with.
We saw maybe 3 american cars, in a city of 23 million people- 1 cadillac STS, 1 Chevy Pickup, and 1 Suburban. The japanese mostly do drive small cars- a third of the cars sold in Japan are "Kei" cars, which are around 675cc's, and are in a special low tax category, so they are much cheaper than bigger cars. But we saw plenty of larger luxury cars- Mercedes was the most popular. BMW, Audi, Renault, and Peugot's were plentiful, and Porsches, Land Rovers, Lamborghini's and even the odd Rolls Royce were there as well, and I am sure they all have the same high tariffs and distribution problems that ford and chevy whine about. But japanese people, for whatever reason, want these cars, and so they pay for them. And somehow, most american cars are just not cool enough for them.
We saw a few Harley's, but most japanese bike riders are pretty happy with the big Kawasaki's and Suziki's and Honda's.
Some american clothing lines were big sellers- Levi's obviously, but also Carhartt and some american surf and skate lines, along with high fashion stuff like Kate Spade bags. Oakley sunglasses were common, and I believe many of those are made in the US.
American brand shoes are big- Nike, obviously, but also Timberland, Cat Boots, Vans, DC, and all the other skate shoes.
Apple computers, and I-pods.
Comic books, movies, and music from the US, of course.

Made me think, though- what else besides trendy fashionable stuff do we really have to sell them that they would want? We dont make too many really high quality things here any more. We import everything we buy, cause its cheaper.

Ries, I'm heading out to the Minowa district this morning to attempt to see some of those shops. After reading your experience, I had a translation done of a brief description of who I am, what I do in the USA, politely asking if they would show me thier shop. I will staple my business card to this and hand it to whoever I encounter in these shops. Hopefully, I will get access to some areas you did not. I will report back later. I did go through a Nissan car assembly plant and Kirin brewery yesterday. Very nice tours. They had a stamping shop at the Nissan plant, but was not included in the tour.