Implications of Fujiya's Problems for Japanese Business
Fujiya is caught in a scandal concerning the use of ingredients past their sell-by dates. Now apparently other poor practices, including "lax quality control systems and poor information handling," have been uncovered.

As I've mentioned before, I was often told while working in Japan that the country's vaunted reputation for quality did not extend to industries that center on domestic consumption. I haven't studied if the stories coming out of Japan on poor quality control in the food industry are more numerous than those in the US; but they do seem to occur (mislabeled beef, tainted milk) with regularity. I wonder at what point these stories -- along with bad publicity about Japanese products that are in fact used overseas, such as Toyota vehicles and Sony notebook batteries --begin to seriously damage Japan's reputation for quality goods.

Another revealing line in the article was "The environment was one in which employees observed experienced workers and emulated their skills." We usually think of this as a positive in the Japanese training system, the story of master craftsmen, their skills honed by years of on-the-job experience, patiently explain to young employees their insights and tools of the trade."

The downside of an emphasis on the way things are done instead of the way things should be done -- as would be taught in formal training classes -- is that bad habits can be handed down from generation to generation. Although graduates of formal training classes will do their postgraduate study in the school of "the way we do things around here," it's also likely that some of the admonishments of doing things by the book will rub off on them.