Traditional images of Japan as a monozukuri country, with special reference to education in Japan and Cool Japan abroad

This paper seeks to give present calls for Japan's ‘return to its monozukuri tradition’ a historical perspective, with special reference to the field of technical education. Firstly, the very concept of monozukuri, when the monozukuri tradition is invoked, is questioned in the introduction. Brief discussion of the present call for Japan's return to the monozukuri tradition will be outlined in the next section. Then, how the West traditionally viewed Japanese monozukuri is presented in order to illustrate its main feature: which is argued to be ‘spirit’ rather than ‘skills’. Two types of British oyatoi teachers' approaches towards Japanese ability are followed, which shows that emphasis on Japanese monozukuri tradition often varied depending on the individuals and the times. It is hoped that this kind of rethinking of Japan's monozukuri will lead to a new understanding of its tradition, which may help Japan to harness Cool Japan enthusiasm abroad. Furthermore, this might also help introduce the benefits of monozukuri education and human resource training into formal education and companies, both in Japan and abroad.