Amunugama applauds Japanese example

 Minister of Special Assignments Dr. Sarath Amunugama 

Your Excellency Deputy Ambassador of Japan for Sri Lanka and all distinguished members of the head table, ladies and gentlemen, it is a great honour for me to be here this evening for inaugurating this research conference. 

I had the honour sometimes ago, for a very short time, to be the Minister of Higher Education and one of the objectives that I tried to pursue was to encourage more and more research to be done at our universities. So I am very happy that on this occasion many of the Sri Lankan graduates and their Japanese counter-parts are presenting research papers for discussion. 

Today I just want to make a few observations regarding the relationship between Sri Lanka and Japan. Japan has always been a great friend of Sri Lanka and we look upon Japan as a role model as Japan was the first country to industrialise herself in this region and thereby become a world power. Today there are many world powers from our region but it is an indisputable fact that Japan was the very first Asian country to achieve the status of a world power. 

Now there are good sides and bad sides to being a world power but in Sri Lanka we have always benefited from the good side. We have looked up to Japan to find solutions to some of our problems. However it is right to say that we have not absorbed those lessons as much as we should have and even today we can look at developments in Japan and assess how we can absorb more and more from those very important pioneering ventures. 

Education is key

If you look at the development history of Japan, education becomes the key I think it was in the Meiji Restoration, that is in the 1860s and thereafter when Japan which was closed to the world began to open herself to international contacts and open itself in such a way that it paved the way for rapid economic growth and industrialisation. 

Now the first thing that strikes us as distinct from the preceding period is the total commitment and the more democratic system in Japan which led to the expansion of education. Now it is very interesting to see that while in South Asia many countries formed part of the British colonial system and therefore followed the British way, Japan had the good fortune to establish herself openly with the education and cultural patterns of the United States. 

So right at the beginning in analysing the education systems you will find that we in south Asia were very much involved in the British system of higher education while the Japanese following the United States had a much more practical and results oriented type of education system. So it was this type of education I think that helped Japan to industrialize and also to become a model of the type of development that we are admiring. 

Today we know that the traditional British model of education with its emphasis on the humanities is the subject of debate. The questions are raised- what is the role of scientific education, what is the role of the humanities and so on. A humanities based educational system may have some very good aspects in regard to human development but I think the present universal acceptance is that as far as fast economic growth is concerned it is probably not the best model to follow, whereas if you look at the Japanese system of education where they have adopted the three tier model of the American system it has yielded many more results. 

I was looking at some of the reports on the Japanese education. Let me read a part of one report. In 1871 the Ministry of Education was established as a part of the central Government. America was the model of the school system which consisted of three levels of Schools: Elementary school, Middle school and the University. So the traditional Japanese system of education was transformed into this three tier type of education and this new education system not only adopted foreign curricula and foreign methods of teaching – basically American – but also encouraged foreign teachers. 

Initially a lot of foreign teachers, particularly language teachers, were brought in to come and transform the educational system. And they also posted a large number of Japanese who had studied abroad and who had acquired western knowledge to comeback and enter the Japanese education system. So in a short time the education system in Japan was transformed and became the basis for the scientific endeavour and industrialization that took place soon after. 

Priority given to education

So the first lesson that we can get from the Japanese experience is the priority given to education, the priority given to the more practical elements of education and the priority given to science and technology. This is an area we can learn from. Although there may be some good side to the traditional system of education too, unfortunately it is basically that system that we have had in Sri Lanka and which we have perpetuated to this date. 

If you look at the university intake – I think this year about 25,000 students are coming in as undergraduates to the university system – still a large slice of the people who come in, almost a disproportionate slice, is still going into that British type of humanities education. So there is a fundamental issue regarding growth and education which Sri Lankan authorities have to address. It is not an easy issue because university intake is the culmination of a whole educational process. You can’t just lop off at the top. It is very unfair and will cause a lot of social distress. Anyway the fact of the matter is that unlike the Japanese education system the Sri Lankan education system is still not technology oriented, science oriented and does not offer enough thrust for industrial and economic growth. And that is one point that we have to look at. 

This is well seen by some of the statistics that I was able to obtain from a number of institutions. For example if you look at the number of institutions of higher education in Japan, from year 1955 to 1990 the number of universities have grown from 228 in 1955 to 517in 1990. Then look at the junior colleges. From 264 junior colleges in 1955 the number has gone up to 593 by 1990 and most importantly, in regard to colleges of technology, in 1955 there was not a single college of technology. But by 1990 there were 62. So step by step the teaching in technology has expanded very fast both through junior colleges and colleges of technology, as well as the science and technology departments of the university system. 

It is very clear that the higher education system is growing in Japan and growing in the direction of science and technology. There may be a debate even in Japan saying we are becoming mechanical men, we don’t have enough time for the arts and so on. That debate is there and that is a good debate but the fact of the matter is that the institutional background for economic growth is being established in the Japanese education system - something that we are looking forward to and going towards but have not achieved. 

Approach to innovation

Now the second thing we can deduce from this education system and especially from junior colleges and colleges of technology is the approach to innovation. Look at the history of Japanese industrial growth. After the war you can find small entrepreneurs and middle level entrepreneurs, through their experience and use of technology had been able to reach the highest levels of industry. If you look at Mr. Honda for example and many others who were almost mechanics to begin with, who started with one motorcycle, one car or one piece of technology and who over a period of time had developed their technology, patented their technology and bringing towards them all kinds of other scientific expertise today are global leaders in that type of technology.

Most of the Japanese products, I think I am right in saying, many of the big names Kawasaki, Honda or Mitsui or whatever, had started that way and still carry the names of those pioneers. They started small but were able to use this environment and culture to develop. So the role of the small and medium scale entrepreneurs in Japanese industrialisation is another aspect of the Japanese experience that we can learn from. 

Daibutsu System 

Another aspect of the Japanese system was the Daibutsu System where small entrepreneurs are picked up and helped along by large entrepreneurs. Now if you go to Hitachi or to Mitsubishi in Colombo they will put you in touch with some producer in Japan. They provide the contacts but are not really the producers in some cases. I can give you a wonderful example from my own electorate. There was someone who wanted to set up a sophisticated saw mill. He wanted this electric saw mill. Luckily there was an appropriate Japanese company here and I took my constituent there. They explained that they themselves do not produce that kind of saw mill but that they would put my man in touch with a middle level company in Japan which manufactures these sawmills. So that is the Daibutsu system where the mega company also functions as sponsors a support organization for lots of small and medium level companies. This is something that we can learn in Sri Lanka. 

Can you honestly say that a middle level entrepreneur in Sri Lanka can go to a big company and say I want this piece of equipment, can you find it for me? We have not reached that stage yet but this is a necessary stage in industrialization. That is another lesson that we can learn from Japan.

Let us look at the technology used at ground level operations in Sri Lanka. Take for example a garage. The apprentice starts without any formal training. He comes in first as a kolla, a sort of assistant to the garage owner. And I know this as a fact because some time back I did a sociological study on this subject. For the first six months he has nothing to do except to take an empty orange barley bottle to the boutique and bring tea for the baasunnehe and the others. After six months he is allowed to handle small jobs. All the training is on the job training in the workplace. He might later end up as a baasunnehe. Similarly the owners of funeral parlours are mostly those who have started life cutting up bodies under big companies. There is no formal training for a mortician. Therefore they have no support knowledge. This is a clear sign of a very low level of primitive industrial development. 

Industrial management

So these are a lot of lessons we can get from Japan. The Japanese model of industrial management is different from the Western model. When we studied management we studied how the American company evolved. In the American shop floor the lesson one had to learn was ‘don’t work too hard.’ The guy who works too hard is given a hard time. If you work too hard and produce five units per day when the current norm is three units, you set up norm and nobody likes you. The trade unions don’t like you. 

Now the Japanese overturned this model. At present because of the economic downturn and all that things may be a little different but there was a time when a worker in a Japanese factory could think of his son finding a job in his factory. He is a Mitsui man, his father was a Mitsui man, and his grandfather was a Mitsui man. He will he salute the Mitsui flag and wear the Mitsui T-shirt with pride. And so it was a model of management and productivity different from the American system. So we can learn a lot from those great management experiments that has made Japanese companies world leaders. We should look in to these very important alternate models. This is a tremendous opportunity for our management and technology faculties of our universities. I was the Investment Minister for a long time. Some of my friends of that time are here, all working for Japanese companies. I must say they have lot of respect for Sri Lanka especially for our middle management because our workers are quicker to learn than other labour, quicker to read the manuals and quicker to follow the instructions.

One of my Japanese investor friends had plants in Thailand and Philippines also. He said that ‘only in Sri Lanka we don’t have to fly out one of our guys to settle an issue’. Why don’t we try the Japanese systems in our big corporate, particularly the public corporations? Now look at Ceylon Dockyards which has Japanese investment. It is very productive. If you are not productive you can’t go on for sentimental reasons losing money. The Japanese would shut down a plant that goes on losing money. They will not continue with it for sentimental reasons. We have to be productive and make sure that our costs of production are optimal. 

I think this research conference will show us that we have to examine the Japanese example of growth and the Japanese example of productivity. Our large public corporates are at present extremely sluggish and are in need of a good dose of Japanese Sake!