Transferability of the Japanese Management and Production System in Africa: A Comparative Study with Asia, Central and Eastern Europe, and Central and South America

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The main results of this research are as follows. 1) As the managerial environment in Africa can be said as European style the production systems at the local Japanese plants must be influenced by its elements and so that similar to the cases in Central and South America. 2) The overall evaluation of transfer level regarding the Japanese production systems in Africa is a little less than the world average, including the both aspects: On the one hand, at the work sites, Japanese style flexible ways of “work-together” and multi- functional skill -orientation have been introduced to some extent but, on the other hand, various problems such as slow-moving of working people and their weak interest in quality of products can be seen. 3) Upbringing of the level of skilled workers and parts suppliers seems to be markedly insufficient. Toyota Motor Co.in South Africa has established its leading position among the auto makers there by having gathered its major affiliate suppliers together in Durban. Judging from the above, local productions by parts suppliers in Africa can be said to be very promising. 4) Active JV-type investments in development of natural resources by Japanese general trading companies are remarkable.