Haneda airport may help Tokyo artisans leap beyond sea
TOKYO (Kyodo) — At a time when Japan’s big manufacturers are shifting production overseas and taking much of their business with them, small parts makers in Tokyo’s Ota Ward are feeling they may need to cross the waters, too, in search of orders.
In this, they may be greatly helped by the presence in the southeastern Tokyo ward of Haneda airport, which has recently resumed international operations. The ward government is seeking to take advantage of the airport to promote the overseas expansion of small businesses with cutting-edge technology and highly skilled workers.
Metal spinning company Kitajima Shibori Co. is one of some 4,000 such businesses in the area, which have had to survive waves of decreasing orders stemming from the slumping economy and a strong yen.
“We are doing what others cannot do,” said President Minoru Kitajima.
Founded in 1947, Kitajima Shibori makes a wide range of products using lathes and paddles to shape metal plates into commodities such as cooking pots as well as parts for aircrafts and rockets. Every product is made to order by hand by some 15 artisans.
Though the company’s high domestic reputation has helped it to survive the economic downturn, Kitajima feels the need to find clients overseas amid shrinking demand in Japan.
“Major Japanese companies are not only moving out but also procuring parts overseas. As we cannot beat foreign companies in terms of personnel costs and product prices, we will compete on making high-quality products fast,” he said.
Small factories in Ota Ward, many of which engage in mechanical and metal processing, have developed in a unique way to become what they are now — firms often said to be representatives of Japan’s sophisticated manufacturing technology.
Back in the early 1900s to 1940s, major Japanese companies such as Tokyo Gas Co. built plants in the area because of ample land there and its good accessibility to downtown Tokyo as well as Yokohama.
The plants were followed by many subcontractors in the 1960s and 1970s, coinciding with Japan’s high-growth era.
Many young people from rural areas gathered there to learn skills and became artisans. They spun off and ran their own small businesses with no more than two or three employees, boosting the number of businesses to more than 9,000 at the peak.
In the process of expansion, many of them refined their skills and developed expertise so that they could stand on their own two feet and not depend on orders from major companies. But those who remained dependent either left the area with the big firms or went out of business.
Among some 4,000 businesses surviving at present, roughly 80 percent have fewer than 10 employees, while half of the 4,000 businesses consist of three workers or less, according to Ota Ward.
“In Ota, there are companies with cutting-edge technology that can be utilized only by themselves and those which can offer solutions to big companies by using the networks they have formed among themselves,” said Yoshi Ishii, director of Ota Ward’s economic development division.
If the domestic market shrinks, they have to find new markets to make up for the losses, and one way is to win overseas orders, Ishii said. “We think that globalizing Haneda will be a chance to do that,” he said.
Ota Ward is studying means to help the companies communicate with overseas clients as many small companies in the area are likely to have difficulty in communicating in different languages because their business partners have been only Japanese companies.
Moreover, the local government is also aiming to bring foreign companies to the area by emphasizing the proximity of Haneda airport, located about 15 kilometers south of central Tokyo, Ishii said.
“It could be a Taiwanese, Chinese, or any other company which might build research and development facilities, for example,” Ishii said. “That would facilitate collaboration with the existing industry.”
Meanwhile, the Ota Tourist Association is currently conducting a joint study with universities to find ways to preserve the town, where many “machiya,” or traditional buildings consisting of both living space and a workshop, are located.
“It is difficult to have visitors stop by and engage in hands-on opportunities to learn about manufacturing because each factory is small,” said Yu Okamura, assistant professor at Tokyo Metropolitan University.
“But there is also a need to create an environment where visitors can have contact with manufacturing,” he said.
The important thing is how to get visitors to spend money in order to support the industry, and one solution could be turning vacant factories into guesthouses for tourists, Okamura said.
Through the study, the association and the universities aim to preserve the originality and creativity which the area has been nurturing. “We would like to hand down the soul of manufacturing,” Okamura said.
(Mainichi Japan) December 26, 2010 Haneda Airport