Homepage
PR Newswire
19-04-2012, 10:41 PM
How I wish I can find my 2nd life too..;p
Nearing retirement age, they find their skills in demand
Moulding expert: With 30 years' experience, Mr Aida now supervises a production line at a factory in the township of Zhangan near Dongguan in Guangdong province
[DONGGUAN, China] Their technical skills helped Japan's corporate giants sweep all before them in the 1980s, and now thousands of ageing Japanese engineers are finding a new lease of life in booming China.
"My profession is going out of business in Japan," said 59-year-old Masayuki Aida, who made moulds for a Tokyo-based firm for 30 years but has spent most of his 50s in Dongguan, a gritty manufacturing hub in southern China's Pearl River Delta.
For Mr Aida and many like him nearing the national retirement age of 60, the choice was simple: face a few years without an income as Japan raises the age at which employees get their pension or work for mainland Chinese and Hong Kong companies.
"People aren't making products in Japan anymore," said Mr Aida, who makes moulds for goods ranging from toys and earphones to coffee machines. "I wanted to pass on to younger generations all the knowledge and technology about moulds I had obtained."
For Japan, marred by two decades of economic stagnation, the little reported exodus of engineers means rival Chinese firms are getting an injection of the technology and skills behind "Made in Japan" products.
Japanese government data shows 2,800 Japanese expats living in Dongguan alone, a city of more than 8 million people.
"From Japan's perspective, emerging countries are getting a free ride of the benefits we nurtured. So yes, it is a problem," said Yasushi Ishizuka, director of the intellectual property policy office at the Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry (Meti).
Japan suffered its first tech brain drain about 20 years ago when South Korean firms such as Samsung Electronics and LG Electronics Inc poached scores of front-line semiconductor and white goods engineers from big Japanese electronics firms.
Since then, South Korean electronics manufacturers have bounded into the global top ranks, helped along by this human technology transfer.
Japan's tech giants, meanwhile, have floundered. Sony Corp, Panasonic Corp and Sharp Corp - Japan's three main TV makers - are expected to have lost US$21 billion among them in the fiscal year that ended March 31, partly because of Korean competition.
Many of the Japanese engineers finding a second life in China do not have the cutting-edge technology that would deal another crushing blow to Japan Inc yet, analysts say, but the long-term impact could be severe because they will give Chinese manufacturers the skills to make high- quality goods efficiently.
China has pushed its own companies to innovate, but many experts cite an education system that prizes rote learning as an obstacle. For many firms, buying talent is the quickest fix.
"Skills related to production, like making moulds, are something that companies obtained after years of trial and error," said Morinosuke Kawaguchi, associate director at management consultancy Arthur D Little in Tokyo.
For example, the slightest tweak to a mould could lead to mass production of faulty items, said Mr Kawaguchi, himself a former Hitachi engineer who used to make household appliances.
"This exodus of Japanese engineers will raise the quality of products made by Chinese companies and allow them to produce efficiently," he added.
Mr Aida said the skills of Chinese engineers have improved over the past 10 years.
"When I first came to China, a product was considered good as long as it didn't fall apart," said Mr Aida, one of seven Japanese engineers in Dongguan interviewed by Reuters. "They've caught up rapidly since then."
That shows in recent trade numbers. China's exports of higher-valued machinery and electronic products rose 9.1 per cent in the first quarter from a year ago, when they gained 7.6 per cent, to US$253 billion, according to trade data.
In addition to the large companies, there are thousands of smaller manufacturers across China. While not all have the deep pockets to hire expat engineers, some might find the cost of importing technology may not be as high as it used to be.
For one, there is no shortage of supply. Millions of Japan's "baby boom" generation - which makes up nearly a tenth of the country's population - are starting to retire, with many engineers among them.
It is not just financial considerations, but a desire to keep working beyond the rigid retirement age in Japan that prompts many to take up the offer of a move to China. - Reuters
Nearing retirement age, they find their skills in demand
Moulding expert: With 30 years' experience, Mr Aida now supervises a production line at a factory in the township of Zhangan near Dongguan in Guangdong province
[DONGGUAN, China] Their technical skills helped Japan's corporate giants sweep all before them in the 1980s, and now thousands of ageing Japanese engineers are finding a new lease of life in booming China.
"My profession is going out of business in Japan," said 59-year-old Masayuki Aida, who made moulds for a Tokyo-based firm for 30 years but has spent most of his 50s in Dongguan, a gritty manufacturing hub in southern China's Pearl River Delta.
For Mr Aida and many like him nearing the national retirement age of 60, the choice was simple: face a few years without an income as Japan raises the age at which employees get their pension or work for mainland Chinese and Hong Kong companies.
"People aren't making products in Japan anymore," said Mr Aida, who makes moulds for goods ranging from toys and earphones to coffee machines. "I wanted to pass on to younger generations all the knowledge and technology about moulds I had obtained."
For Japan, marred by two decades of economic stagnation, the little reported exodus of engineers means rival Chinese firms are getting an injection of the technology and skills behind "Made in Japan" products.
Japanese government data shows 2,800 Japanese expats living in Dongguan alone, a city of more than 8 million people.
"From Japan's perspective, emerging countries are getting a free ride of the benefits we nurtured. So yes, it is a problem," said Yasushi Ishizuka, director of the intellectual property policy office at the Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry (Meti).
Japan suffered its first tech brain drain about 20 years ago when South Korean firms such as Samsung Electronics and LG Electronics Inc poached scores of front-line semiconductor and white goods engineers from big Japanese electronics firms.
Since then, South Korean electronics manufacturers have bounded into the global top ranks, helped along by this human technology transfer.
Japan's tech giants, meanwhile, have floundered. Sony Corp, Panasonic Corp and Sharp Corp - Japan's three main TV makers - are expected to have lost US$21 billion among them in the fiscal year that ended March 31, partly because of Korean competition.
Many of the Japanese engineers finding a second life in China do not have the cutting-edge technology that would deal another crushing blow to Japan Inc yet, analysts say, but the long-term impact could be severe because they will give Chinese manufacturers the skills to make high- quality goods efficiently.
China has pushed its own companies to innovate, but many experts cite an education system that prizes rote learning as an obstacle. For many firms, buying talent is the quickest fix.
"Skills related to production, like making moulds, are something that companies obtained after years of trial and error," said Morinosuke Kawaguchi, associate director at management consultancy Arthur D Little in Tokyo.
For example, the slightest tweak to a mould could lead to mass production of faulty items, said Mr Kawaguchi, himself a former Hitachi engineer who used to make household appliances.
"This exodus of Japanese engineers will raise the quality of products made by Chinese companies and allow them to produce efficiently," he added.
Mr Aida said the skills of Chinese engineers have improved over the past 10 years.
"When I first came to China, a product was considered good as long as it didn't fall apart," said Mr Aida, one of seven Japanese engineers in Dongguan interviewed by Reuters. "They've caught up rapidly since then."
That shows in recent trade numbers. China's exports of higher-valued machinery and electronic products rose 9.1 per cent in the first quarter from a year ago, when they gained 7.6 per cent, to US$253 billion, according to trade data.
In addition to the large companies, there are thousands of smaller manufacturers across China. While not all have the deep pockets to hire expat engineers, some might find the cost of importing technology may not be as high as it used to be.
For one, there is no shortage of supply. Millions of Japan's "baby boom" generation - which makes up nearly a tenth of the country's population - are starting to retire, with many engineers among them.
It is not just financial considerations, but a desire to keep working beyond the rigid retirement age in Japan that prompts many to take up the offer of a move to China. - Reuters
