Japan: The fifth generation: A quantum jump in friendliness

Japan's reputation for productivity and efficiency notwithstanding, the country is now suffering a severe productivity bottleneck in its service industries. Production costs and consumer prices in the labor-intensive service industries continue to rise sharply, even though the same costs and prices have risen only modestly in automobile manufacturing or have even decreased in electronics. An example of the effect of this imbalance in productivity between the service industries and the manufacturing industries is the price of a dinner in a good Tokyo restaurant, which can easily cost as much as four electronic calculators.