OPEN UNIVERSITY

9136 OU7 - Filming in Japan

 I was very keen to film Toyota in Japan, but everyone else said it couldn't be done.  First of all, they said, we'd never be allowed to film on the production lines.  In fact, when we got to Japan, we found that not merely could we film on the production lines but they had a special visitor centre through which something like a quarter of one million people a year passed; to be shown all over the production lines.

Then they said we couldn't afford it.  This was true, in as much as taking a full crew to Japan would have been prohibitive.  Fortunately I managed to get in touch with the deputy ambassador in London and after a meeting with him -- which was fascinating not least because of the way that the women in the embassy (including the English women) moved to the side and bowed to us as we went past -- he agreed to put our case to the Japanese government.

I think they were much more impressed by the BBC, or at least the idea of the BBC, than the OU. Anyway, whatever the reason, they agreed to fund our filming in Japan.  We still had to pay for the core team travelling there, but they would provide the rest of the crew.

It was a nightmare getting there, since it was at the time of the start of the first Gulf War.  This meant that the airlines had moved there staff facilities to the next  - safer - point down the Gulf.  In this way we had to make two stops in the Gulf, each of an hour or more long.  This managed to get us to Hong Kong just after the connecting flight had taken off for Tokyo. As the BBC had put myself and cameraman on the cheapest flight, where the director and production assistant much more comfortably went over the Pole, this meant we had to wait another four hours for the next flight -- even though regular flights were taking for Tokyo every half-hour.  The cameraman retreated to the hotel room, which was booked for us, and caught up on his sleep.  I decided to take a tour of Hong Kong.  I picked up a taxi outside the hotel, which was in Kowloon, and asked the driver to take me round Hong Kong.  What I hadn't reckoned on was the fact that the Kowloon taxi drivers know nothing about Hong Kong Island and I found myself directing him around it.  In addition it was pouring with rain. Even so I saw many of the sites of Hong Kong, with most impressive being from the Peak, looking down on the skyscrapers below us.             The view from the Peak

We eventually took off for Tokyo and landed there after something like 30 hours travelling time.  I collapsed into my very comfortable room at the Intercontinental.

The next day we set out on filming in some style.  The Japanese government had provided us with a minibus, the rear of which had been converted to carry our camera equipment.  This vehicle was essential, since it had a government driver who had to keep on circling around the various locations; where there is very little parking available in Tokyo.  In addition they had hired for us an assistant cameraman, sound-man and, most important of all, two interpreters.  Of course, we had our own cameraman, who had flown out with me.

 Filming at the Diet (parliament building)

In those days we were still filming on 16mm.  The changeover to digital was just about starting, and we were already filming in the UK using such electronic media.  Overseas, though, we were still uncertain about the standard of the equipment.  Having said that, the assistant cameraman said that in Japan they were filming ballet with hand-held (or at least steady-cam mounted) mini cameras. Even so, the main difference between the two seemed to be the lenses. With 16mm the camera-man had to have a full set of lenses; costing something over £100,000. With the new digital equipment all that was needed was a single zoom lens. At around £50,000 this cost much more than a single standard lens; but only one was needed.

Our first interview was with the CEO of Toyota. It went very well, but the camera crew were as irreverent as usual.  Thus, getting his office set out and lit for the interview, they moved all the furniture around and in particular the plants. BBC camera crews love to see their victims framed by plants -- just as if they're in the jungle.  Unfortunately while moving everything around the broke at least one of his artworks.  But that's par for the course when you invite in a television crew.  The CEO gave a very workmanlike performance, of which the most memorable thing was - when asked what Toyota's strength was - he had no hesitation in saying it was its people.

The next interview was with the head of the main commercial TV channel.  We conducted this in their news studio, so we didn't have to bring in our own lighting. Accordingly our crew got down to moving all the lighting to the positions they wanted for our work.  Eventually the CEO strode in, and we did interview.  Of course all his staff were very deferential to him, but I thought they were getting a little bit nervous as we overran on time.  Ultimately we did finish and the CEO swished out of the studio again.  Then all hell broke loose, because it was about two minutes to 12 noon; and apparently they were going on air for the main news bulletin of the day at noon!  I've never seen so many lighting engineers moving so fast, switching the lighting set up around to the one they normally used for their own news broadcasts.

We then took ourselves off to Toyota City.  We got there by the Shinkansen, the bullet train.  This was very comfortable, and very fast when we got moving. 

 On the Shinkansen, with (circled) Richard, the production assistant and Hugh; as well as myself

On the other hand, it slowed down quite often and overall was not significantly faster than the British Rail trains at the time.  It was comfortable, though, as we whisked along the coastal strip of Japan.  The fascinating thing was that it was almost all suburb, from Tokyo to Nagoya where got off for Toyota City.  Admittedly, in parts, there were ricefields - actually very small ricefields - planted amongst the houses; but the overall impression was of unending suburbia for over 100 miles.  The only time we saw anything different was the tea plantations as we cut through mountains; but they didn't last for very long.  At Nagoya we transferred to a minibus and drove to Toyota City. This was a city dedicated to Toyota -- to the four or five of its enormous car-making plants that were located there. We stayed in a very typical Japanese hotel, in which the rooms were minute and I never could get the air-conditioning to suit my requirements.  After a rather restless night we moved on to film the production lines.

The night before we went to the Toyota plant, however, we were entertained to a meal at the local restaurant by the managers of Toyota.  If I am afraid I rather disgraced myself in the eyes of the Japanese.  The key to this meal was that you had meat which was cooked in boiling broth heated in a bowl in front of you.  This was shared with the person opposite you.  To do this you used very long chopsticks.  I'm not very good with using chopsticks at the best of times, but these long ones were beyond me.  Accordingly I kept dropping the bits of meat.  This would not have been a problem, since I could do with losing weight. The real problem was that tradition said you had to feed the person opposite you.  Eventually the Toyota manager opposite me gave up and, losing face massively himself, had to feed himself!

This is a useful point to discuss the food in Japan.  Before going out to Toyota City we had lunch in a noodle bar. The food was the normal food that the ordinary Japanese might eat but even so it was excellent, and that time I was able eat the noodles with my chopsticks. In the hotel, the American owned Intercontinental, the first morning I tried the Japanese breakfast -- which was a variation on sushi -- but thereafter I had the English breakfast!  At Toyota itself we had a typical executive lunch.  This was a cold lunch packed in a box.  Seeing as we were having lunch with the board of Toyota, however, this particular lunchbox was filled with absolutely superb food; from the soya bean curd through, in particular, to deep-fried shrimp. Best of all, though, was the raw tuna with wasabi.

The following morning we were shown to one of the main assembly lines.  The assembly lines started with pressed steel sheets being brought in on pallets and fed in to the welding plant.  The pressed sheets came from their own on-site press shop.  The whole logic of Toyota City was a matter of scale.  Thus, the various assembly lines, I believe it was something like 16 at that time, were fed by the one engine plant serving all of Toyota City. They then had four press shops serving four assembly lines each.  All this was on a Just-In-Time basis.  Thus, the welding plant we were filming had only one pallet of stamped parts ready to go into it.  Just as the pallet was about become empty a forklift truck brought the next one in.  This was one of the great secrets of their lean manufacturing setup.

The welding plant itself was a joy to behold, with robots doing all welding and not a human being in sight. The completed chassis emerged to then be sprayed and baked in a tunnel.  Then began the painstaking process of assembling the rest of car onto the chassis; and again it was a joy to behold.  It was more like a ballet than an industrial production line.  It has to be remembered that the staff on this production line typically had the equivalent of A-levels and some even had degrees.  Moreover, they had been doing this for years. Accordingly their movements were literally choreographed. As they were very loyal, this was the pay-off for the Toyota claim that 'what mattered was staff'. Even so, they were not an oppressed workforce, since at the time we were there was some discontent; though it was only because they wanted their free meals to be served on proper crockery rather than on plastic one-piece dishes.

There were many things to learn from the assembly lines, which I had plenty of time to study while the rest the crew were filming.

First, it is not true that the assembly lines worked 24 hours without a break. Indeed, every hour or so the assembly lines shut down, and the workers made tea for themselves and sat around talking for ten minutes so.  Even more impressive, perhaps every two hours or so, klaxons sounded throughout the factory and the whole assembly line came grinding to a halt. This was because someone had found fault.  As soon as anyone on the assembly line found a fault, with what had been done before their position, they had to hit the red button on their station. This brought the whole of the assembly line to a halt for anything up to 15 minutes while they sorted out the problem. I suppose if I'd been a western time and motion man, I would have said this was unnecessary. You could always have highlighted the fault and then repaired it at the end of the line; and that would have saved them perhaps half an hour a day of production time. But that was not the point. It was the psychological drama of the line coming grinding to a halt, and everyone wondering whether it was their fault, that had made it worthwhile.  Nothing could better persuade the workers to maintain a high standard quality. 

Indeed, while we were there - watching mass-market Corolla saloons rolling down the lines - suddenly amongst them appeared the new Lexus small saloon. Thus, these were being built on exactly the same line. The standards that were needed for one of the best luxury cars in the world were maintained on the same track as the ordinary mass production saloons.

We were royally entertained while we were there.  We were even given our own Toyota deluxe saloon car to sit in, to keep out of the heat of the day.  Not only did it have a conditioning, but it was the only one ever made by Toyota which had a massaging seat – of which I made full use.

One final anecdote about their production lines.  Their production system was known to the outside world as Just-In-Time (JIT), but within Toyota it was known as Kanban.  This was literally the ticket that pulled forwards the parts, as and when they were required on the production line.  In the west, even at that time, this would have done been by computer. In Toyota City -- however -- it was literally a paper card. The most fascinating aspect of it was that these cards were collected, from alongside the assembly line, by a little old man on a tricycle. This man, on his tricycle, was at the heart of Toyota Industrial Revolution!

We were entertained at lunch by half the board of Toyota.  I found myself sitting next to one of the marketing directors.  We talked endlessly about what made Toyota tick, which I found fascinating, but the one-story I remembered was as follows.  When I asked him about JIT, he paused and then said “...well of course, when you get it right, JIT is easy",  then there was an even longer pause which he followed by "...mind you it took us 20 years to get it right". Incidentally don't let anyone tell you the Japanese have no sense of humour.  I think he was exaggerating, since I believe it took them about ten years, but in comparison with all the experts flooding back to the UK from Japan - saying they would install it over the weekend - his point was very valid.

Once we got outside again, we found who had been occupying the rest of the Toyota board.  It was Edwina Currie, the (ex) Conservative minister who had been fired for stirring up troubled about eggs causing food poisoning.  She was the local MP for the Derby factory which Toyota was just about to open.  She was quite overwhelming, dressed in a pink dress with white polka dots, which was immaculate despite the heat. Best of all, she somehow oozed sex. I realised, much later, that this was just after John Major had dropped her when he became Prime Minister. Whatever the reason she was one of the sexiest women I have ever come across.

This end of the event was rather ignominious, for everyone - I think including Edwina - had to help push start our minibus; which had exhausted its battery while standing still with the air-conditioning running.  We took then took the bullet train once more back to Tokyo.

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