Introduction

My trip to Japan in 1983 included participation in the Japan Institute of Labour seminar on ‘Japanese industrial relations in action’ and the International Industrial Relations Association Conference in Kyoto. However, the underlying purpose was to discuss the potential for collaborative and comparative studies of engineers in Japan and Britain. All the aims were achieved. Not only were the organised events very informative and stimulating in themselves, but the contacts made and the very positive responses from Japanese researchers have sustained a programme of comparative studies of engineers in Japan and Britain over several years. During the 1980s, Japanese companies and schools became a source of much-discussed models and exemplary lessons-to-be-learned, not only in Britain, but more widely in Europe and America. Japan was no longer of interest simply as a model for third-world aspirants to join the list of industrialised nations. Japan appeared to have ‘lessons’ for the regeneration of flagging industrialised economies. For both the first and third worlds, Japan appeared to offer exemplary models of economic growth and a seemingly boundless capacity to bounce back from adversity.