On February 1, 1997, fire broke out at Aisin Seiki’s Kariya No. 1 plant. Aisin made 80 to 90 percent of Toyota’s proportioning valves, a brake part. Toyota’s plants stopped from February 3 to 6 and returned to normal from February 7. About 70,000 vehicles were lost.
Other companies took over making the valves. According to a Ritsumeikan University paper, more than 200 suppliers are said to have taken part. Toyota sent a total of 1,200 people.
The earthquake of March 11, 2011 damaged the Naka plant of Renesas Electronics, a maker of semiconductors. Up to 2,500 people a day, including staff from automakers and other business partners, came to help restore it. In all, about 80,000 person-days were mobilized.
Partial production restarted on June 1, two weeks earlier than planned.
After the 2011 earthquake, Toyota built a database of its supply chain with Fujitsu. It shares the information in real time with its first-tier suppliers and uses it only for disaster response and prevention.
A case study published by the Cabinet Secretariat says that Toyota can obtain this information because of mutual trust built up over many years.
In December 2009, the SME Financing Facilitation Act took effect, a temporary law for about two years. It required banks to make every effort to change loan terms when small and medium companies asked. The law ended at the end of March 2013.
Mochitsu motaretsu (持ちつ持たれつ): holding and being held. Helping each other, sometimes giving help and sometimes receiving it.
Ayumiyoru (歩み寄る): to walk toward each other. Two sides with different views each give way on their conditions.
Itami wake (痛み分け): splitting the pain. In sumo, a bout declared a draw because one wrestler is injured. By extension, a dispute settled with both sides badly hurt.
Jishuken, the voluntary study group on the Toyota Production System, began inside Toyota. Managers from manufacturing, production control and production engineering found problems on the shop floor in a single day, pointed them out to the supervisors, and then worked with the floor every week on improvements.
Because the results were large, the activity spread to suppliers. Today it is mainly joint study among suppliers.
In 1974, monthly sales of Mazda’s rotary-engine cars in the United States fell to less than half of their level before the oil shock. In the year to October 1975, Toyo Kogyo, as the company was then called, posted a recurring loss of 17.3 billion yen.
Its main bank, Sumitomo Bank, put a deputy president in charge of the rescue in the summer of 1974 and sent in a manager in October. In January 1975, it set up a loan department for Toyo Kogyo alone. In January 1976, a Sumitomo managing director became vice president of Toyo Kogyo.
On September 7, 1923, after the Great Kantō Earthquake, the government issued a moratorium. It postponed the payment of debts for 30 days counted from the day of the earthquake. Wages and bank deposits of 100 yen or less were excluded.
A wide range of Japanese contracts contain a seijitsu kyōgi jōkō, a good-faith consultation clause. A typical version reads: “Matters not provided for in this contract, or doubts about its interpretation, shall be resolved by the parties through consultation in good faith, in accordance with the purpose of this contract.”
In July 1964, Matsushita Kōnosuke, the founder of Matsushita Electric, met the sales companies and dealers that sold his products at Atami. After the meeting, he gave his conclusion: Matsushita Denki ga warukatta, kono ichigo ni tsukiru. Matsushita Electric was at fault, and that says it all.
In August, he took over the duties of head of sales himself. A new sales system started in February 1965.