Apparently, there’s no word for “yes” in Japanese. “Hai” means “I heard what you just said” not “I agree completely and will act accordingly.” By the same token, the word “no” lacks the Western sense of finality. So when Toyota used the opportunity of New GM’s birth to signal the media that it may close its GM joint venture in California, that means it may close its GM joint venture in California. Which is more than saying it definitely won’t shutter the UAW-staffed NUMMI plant, and less than saying it definitely will shutter the UAW-staffed NUMMI plant. Let’s check the official inscrutability index: “GM’s decision to abandon NUMMI and discontinue its production of the Pontiac Vibe have prompted a set of difficult and complex decisions for Toyota,” the Japan-based automaker said in a news release. “Under the current business circumstances, Toyota regrettably must also consider taking necessary steps to dissolve the joint venture.” Reading between the lines, NUMMI is toast. Unless Toyota decides otherwise.
Toyota is in partnership with Motors Liquidation Corporation (aka “old GM”) whose entire purpose is to “liquidate” discarded old GM property, contracts, liabilities. Motors Liquidation Corporation wasn’t established to produce automobiles. it is to wind up the business of the old GM and die.
More GM induced collateral damage…
Why would GM or Toyota keep NUMMI? Historically militant UAW local, Bay Area cost structure.
Answer? Toyota will take great heat from California liberals for pulling out. GM had nothing to lose, beside a dead Pontiac product.
It’s really too bad. NUMMI was a potential turning point for GM, but the white blood cells in middle management eat the invading Deming principles.
Read the book: “The Machine that Changed the World”
http://www.amazon.com/Machine-That-Changed-World-Production/dp/0060974176
GM already decided to dissolve the joint venture so my “guess” is that Toyota will do the same as it is a bit difficult to have a joint venture alone.
Smart move. I can’t blame them the least.
One would believe a “joint venture” in the Bay Area would be successful beyond anybody’s wildest dreams.
Apparently, there’s no word for “yes” in Japanese. “Hai” means “I heard what you just said” not “I agree completely and will act accordingly.” By the same token, the word “no” lacks the Western sense of finality.
Apparently, then there’s no word for “yes” in English either, because teenagers and husbands around the world have long used “yes” to mean “I heard what you just said.”
But in any case, in response to an order, hai can be used to mean “I agree completely and will act accordingly.” Also, ryoukai (了解) is a word that literally means exactly “I understand what you just said, agree completely, and will act accordingly” in response to an order. It doesn’t even share any secondary meanings like hai. In response to a question or statement, there are words like sikari that definitely mean yes. Hai is just flexible because it can be used in lots of ways (including as a question in exactly the same ways as “yes?” in English).
You might as well say that there’s no word for “sayonara” in Japanese, since the English “goodbye” lacks the Japanese sense of finality. (The Japanese don’t use “sayonara” generally for someone that they know they’re going to see again later, having a lot of other words for that. Of course, English uses “sayonara,” but you can use “yes” in Japanese.)
The more important point is that Japanese people say yes even when they don’t intend to actually do it, because it’s important to seem agreeable on the outside regardless of what they’re thinking on the inside. But it’s not really so different from people everywhere.
I lived and worked in Japan for 5 years and can’t remember actually hearing no in Japanese, which incidentally is simply e-e-ah
Or something like that. More common (at least with the bunch I worked with) was dame des, or don’t do it. More suggestive than anything else, it was always suggestive when a request was made..
As for Nummi, dame des. They might actually need the joint venture with Toyota to build something they can sell. Toyota would do well to get out of the high cost area the plant is in and reopen a shuttered factory in the deep south. California is heading for C7 and they might have to sell a few cities to the Arabs to pay the bills.
NUMMI exists in Foreign-Trade Zone 18, not Fremont CA. It’s in Federal jurisdiction, not state. Back in the days when possession of small amounts of marijuana was a small fine in CA, several employees went down for five years because they smoked their joint in the parking lot at NUMMI.
What would the plant will cost Toyota, if anything? The California cost structure is insane, but people manage every day. The state and feds will do what they need to keep the jobs. Toyota is successfully making high quality vehicles there. When GM is out, it’ll just make things simpler. No need to stock Pontiac badges, and no need for a second interior in the Matrix.
I agree that NUMMI is toast, but the plant will live on as Corolla-Tacoma-werke.
Johnthacker:
Watashi wa kamaimasen.
As you said, Japanese have no problem with yes. They have “ha” or “ee” which you hear after every sentence you say, as a signal that they listen and haven’t fallen asleep. There is “Hai, wakatta” (yes, got it), and “Hai, wakarimashita” (yes, I understand.) If the gaijin thinks that’s a yes, he’s a fool.
For the more definitive yeses, see your post. For a very definitive one, try on “hai, chikai masu” (yes, I swear) in front of a priest, sign the brown form and you are married, watakushi no inochi no kagiri, till death do us part. That’s final until you sign the green form (for divorce.)
What they have trouble with is “no.” The word exists, it’s “iie,” but it’s rarely heard. They are just too polite. Instead, you will hear “we’ll think about it”, “this might be a problem”, or “this takes a great deal of thought.” All means no.
As long as the Vibe is better loooking than the Matrix (it is, by far), cheaper to buy (it is by far) and cheaper to buy replacement parts for, I as a consumer will regret Toyota’s decision.
The Vibe here in Canada is much more expensive that is the Matrix, the Matrix is built here in Ontario too, people who have purchased the “Vibe” had to be GM customers who where able to purchase it for zero down and zero percent, it was only recently that Toyota offered the same here in Canada.
When you go to trade this Car in, what do you think what the Vibe will be worth as opposed to the Matrix!?
The rationale behind NUMMI in the first place was to get GM in the small car business, learn how to do it better, and take it from there. GM clearly saw it differently and now has voted with their feet.
Since NUMMI started numerous companies have started factories in the US building their cars, none AFAIK are partnerships with domestic brands although they do share parts suppliers. It is the parts suppliers that is the real success story because if Toyota is using American made parts then US workers are getting paid.
Much noise has been made about how profits go back to Seoul, Tokyo, or Stuttgart but the domestics spent their profits abroad on factories and buying foreign brands. A lot of dollars left our shores for other lands.
Toyota should make the enviro cars California demands and use NUMMI as a mecca for production of these vehicles. Sure the costs are high but the image is important. But when the yen is added up this plant is history, taxes and labor costs are too high and the plant is dated.
Toyota should just find another partner to build a product with at NUMMI – I bet Chrysler would love to sell a version of the Matrix or Corolla. Or maybe Subaru, as Toyota is helping Subaru now.
I am waiting for a headline that says NUMMI is now to be known as Toyota/Chevrolet, or Toylet
bluecon :
July 12th, 2009 at 10:11 am
Of course Obama might step in and give Toyota a huge amount of dough to protect the UAW jobs. Politically impossible for Toyota to say no to that.
Toyota would then join the list of manufacturers I will NEVER buy a car from again. You hear that GM and Chrysler? I’m not alone.
There is a $2000 discount on the Vibe; none on the Matrix.
But: since all Pontiac shops are going to be shot, where do you take it for any warranty work? Toyota would just point and laugh, and the Chevy guys wouldn’t know what to do with it. Conundrum.
OK, not really, I’ve decided to keep pouring money into my ’91 240.