cwerdna
Well-known member
Discuss general Japanese auto industry and manufacturing topics here. 
Sorta related to our labor union discussion at http://www.mynissanleaf.com/viewtopic.php?p=501040#p501040, I recently was doing some research for a possible next trip to Japan again (would be my 6th, all for vacation), so for kicks, I Googled for Subaru Gunma since I knew that plant produced the BRZ and Toyota 86, beside Gunma coming up in some other touristy stuff.
Interestingly, I stumbled across this article:
Subaru’s secret: Marginalized foreign workers power a Japanese export boom
http://www.reuters.com/investigates/special-report/japan-subaru/
I had no idea this was going on in Japan at Subaru and its suppliers, who also supply to other automakers.
Maybe if I visited Ota, I would see a lot less homogeneity of people there. Every time I'm in Japan, it looks like virtually EVERYONE is Japanese. Most non-Japanese err... non-Asian in appearance usually really stand out. (I have a couple times run into the surprising Chinese person amongst them. I assume they're Japanese until they start trying to speak Mandarin Chinese with me when I try to ask for help in English. I can kinda converse in my terrible Mandarin.)
Sorta related to our labor union discussion at http://www.mynissanleaf.com/viewtopic.php?p=501040#p501040, I recently was doing some research for a possible next trip to Japan again (would be my 6th, all for vacation), so for kicks, I Googled for Subaru Gunma since I knew that plant produced the BRZ and Toyota 86, beside Gunma coming up in some other touristy stuff.
Interestingly, I stumbled across this article:
Subaru’s secret: Marginalized foreign workers power a Japanese export boom
http://www.reuters.com/investigates/special-report/japan-subaru/
I had no idea this was going on in Japan at Subaru and its suppliers, who also supply to other automakers.
Maybe if I visited Ota, I would see a lot less homogeneity of people there. Every time I'm in Japan, it looks like virtually EVERYONE is Japanese. Most non-Japanese err... non-Asian in appearance usually really stand out. (I have a couple times run into the surprising Chinese person amongst them. I assume they're Japanese until they start trying to speak Mandarin Chinese with me when I try to ask for help in English. I can kinda converse in my terrible Mandarin.)