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Japan in the Passing Lane
A journalist depicts his experiences on the assembly line in a Toyota factory in Japan and describes the harshness of the factory's working conditions
- GenresNonfictionJapan
211 pages, Hardcover
First published January 12, 1983
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Displaying 1 - 4 of 4 reviews
April 3, 2022
The robotic life revealed
Back around fifty years ago (1972), a Japanese journalist worked six months for Toyota to find out what life was like in one of those giant plants churning out thousands of cars. This is his report. Like Dennis Smith’s “Report from Engine Company 82”, this book provides a vivid picture of a life nobody knows who hasn’t actually participated in it. Automobile factory workers are not, after all, cowboys, top executives at snazzy companies, politicians, or astronauts. All of us meet teachers and shopkeepers in our lives. We almost never meet auto workers unless we live in those few cities where they work. We don’t see them at the movies either. Novels focus on detectives or soldiers. We hop into our cars, drive to the supermarket and seldom, if ever, think about the people who put our convenient machines together. Well, it turns out that at least in Japan (I drive a Toyota) life was not a bowl of cherries for the guys on the assembly line. It was more like hell. Dropout rates were extremely high. Accidents occurred often, involving injury or death. Japanese culture, which emphasizes group behavior and not rocking the boat, led to acceptance of conditions that similar auto workers in the US or Britain would not have put up with.
Single auto workers (they were all men) lived in shabby dorms with bad food. Privacy received little regard. Guards prevented easy visits by anyone, no women were allowed in, and mandatory overtime work was almost a daily occurrence, though it was paid. Weekend days off could be cancelled as well. Individualism, never well-accepted in Japan, was frowned on. The hours were long and working conditions brutal. It took the author a couple of months to be able to keep up with the assembly line production. He writes of his exhaustion and his mental depression—problems he shared with his workmates. Meetings full of exhortations filled up more of his time, the nominal labor union was hand in glove with management and did zip for the actual members.
Even today, robots have not replaced many of the workers at Toyota, though Japan is the world leader in producing industrial robots.
Yet, in his fascinating, well-written, day-by-day account of his time at Toyota, Kamata decries the conditions suffered by the thousands of workers at the same time as he himself becomes a model worker. When he’s leaving, his superiors implore him to stay. The picture is blurred then. If Western auto workers might have become alienated, the Japanese didn’t. There was little or no sign of open hostility or aggression. The Japanese workers conformed to the culture of a factory that treated them like disposable parts. Maybe that’s why the Japanese title of this book was “Automobile Factory of Despair”. It’s a fascinating, easily-read study of a life far away from most of ours.
Back around fifty years ago (1972), a Japanese journalist worked six months for Toyota to find out what life was like in one of those giant plants churning out thousands of cars. This is his report. Like Dennis Smith’s “Report from Engine Company 82”, this book provides a vivid picture of a life nobody knows who hasn’t actually participated in it. Automobile factory workers are not, after all, cowboys, top executives at snazzy companies, politicians, or astronauts. All of us meet teachers and shopkeepers in our lives. We almost never meet auto workers unless we live in those few cities where they work. We don’t see them at the movies either. Novels focus on detectives or soldiers. We hop into our cars, drive to the supermarket and seldom, if ever, think about the people who put our convenient machines together. Well, it turns out that at least in Japan (I drive a Toyota) life was not a bowl of cherries for the guys on the assembly line. It was more like hell. Dropout rates were extremely high. Accidents occurred often, involving injury or death. Japanese culture, which emphasizes group behavior and not rocking the boat, led to acceptance of conditions that similar auto workers in the US or Britain would not have put up with.
Single auto workers (they were all men) lived in shabby dorms with bad food. Privacy received little regard. Guards prevented easy visits by anyone, no women were allowed in, and mandatory overtime work was almost a daily occurrence, though it was paid. Weekend days off could be cancelled as well. Individualism, never well-accepted in Japan, was frowned on. The hours were long and working conditions brutal. It took the author a couple of months to be able to keep up with the assembly line production. He writes of his exhaustion and his mental depression—problems he shared with his workmates. Meetings full of exhortations filled up more of his time, the nominal labor union was hand in glove with management and did zip for the actual members.
Even today, robots have not replaced many of the workers at Toyota, though Japan is the world leader in producing industrial robots.
Yet, in his fascinating, well-written, day-by-day account of his time at Toyota, Kamata decries the conditions suffered by the thousands of workers at the same time as he himself becomes a model worker. When he’s leaving, his superiors implore him to stay. The picture is blurred then. If Western auto workers might have become alienated, the Japanese didn’t. There was little or no sign of open hostility or aggression. The Japanese workers conformed to the culture of a factory that treated them like disposable parts. Maybe that’s why the Japanese title of this book was “Automobile Factory of Despair”. It’s a fascinating, easily-read study of a life far away from most of ours.
April 30, 2026
Elske å skrive anti-kapitalistisk bachelor
August 31, 2018
Eye-opening. I work in engineering, so hear a lot about Kanban and Toyota. You hear very little, however, about the human cost. Another company I’m going to want to boycott, although given this was written in 1972 and updated in 1980, I may need to go on a fact-finding mission first.
April 24, 2023
Kamata, a Japanese freelance journalist, worked on a Toyota assembly line for six months in 1972 and published a damning account of his experiences, called Automobile Factory of Despair--which is now brought to us egregiously retitled but with a redeeming introduction by Ronald Dore .
Satoshi’s courage and endurance are nothing short of remarkable. He had the rare determination to uncover the truth about the workers' conditions at Toyota by immersing himself in their reality as a seasonal worker. His commitment to this investigative journalism, enduring six months of patience and hardship, is unparalleled—an act of dedication almost unheard of during that time.
While others might have dismissed the injuries and deaths as mere statistics in a factory of this magnitude, Satoshi refused to look away. His deep sense of responsibility and humanity set him apart, ensuring that these stories were not brushed aside but brought to light with integrity and empathy.
His work stands as a rare testament to the power of relentless journalism and the courage it takes to give a voice to the voiceless eventhough his work is not widly discussed or appreciated because it stands against general understanding of a factory worker in car production that can raise more questions regarding the safety and welfare of workers.
Satoshi’s courage and endurance are nothing short of remarkable. He had the rare determination to uncover the truth about the workers' conditions at Toyota by immersing himself in their reality as a seasonal worker. His commitment to this investigative journalism, enduring six months of patience and hardship, is unparalleled—an act of dedication almost unheard of during that time.
While others might have dismissed the injuries and deaths as mere statistics in a factory of this magnitude, Satoshi refused to look away. His deep sense of responsibility and humanity set him apart, ensuring that these stories were not brushed aside but brought to light with integrity and empathy.
His work stands as a rare testament to the power of relentless journalism and the courage it takes to give a voice to the voiceless eventhough his work is not widly discussed or appreciated because it stands against general understanding of a factory worker in car production that can raise more questions regarding the safety and welfare of workers.
Displaying 1 - 4 of 4 reviews