Entry 5 (24 feb 2025)

Kevin Delaney

Contrasts w/ Japanese engineering companies including his own companies as an engineer w/ nihon plast in the shadow of Mount Fuji

→ worked in japan as a mechnical engineer

→ UCD graduate from 1993 - 1997

  • Designing, making, fixing cars etc.

  • Net soc → netscape = internet access back in the time.

  • Decided to leave abroad for work

  • Government trying convince foreign businesses

  • Tiny foreign companies to invest in ireland.

    sending engineers everywhere, getting training and gaining experience. goal was to have these foreign companies to set up factories in ireland. 30 engineers sent to Japan (including kevin), 20 in taiwan, china, usa etc.

→ Japan is a land of contrast

68% of Japan is actually covered in forest

There were cheap companies dorms that paid for the apartment complex, utility and their food. Demolished now, it was in Fuji city near Mount Fuji

→ Mix of industries after ww2

  • the industry; residential; shopping areas in Japan have been bundled up into one area.

  • smoking was very popular, frequently happened in offices, restaurants and bars etc.

→ seniority

→ Speed limits: if it says 60km, it’s actually 80km. japanese police won’t do anything much apparently.

However, drink driving is absolutely strict in Japan, back then to avoid the police the driver would have to stop and park in a nearby traffic light and wait out the police before driving back out again. The new laws of drink driving was changed 15 years ago, making it more strictly forbidden. If the driver and a party of people in a car is caught EVERYONE gets cat penalty points; if a person is without a driver’s licence then it is kept in record for when they do get it. Mad right? It has become effective within Japan, it has almost a 100% elimination of drink driving over the years.

Dec 2024 trip for Kevin.

  • Christmas in Japan, KFC tradition. Most people buy kfc for some weird reason, because of a marketing scheme that needs to be looked up N.B.

  • Worked with Nissan and Honda, working on airbags and how to make them safer, limiting injury and improving their quality.

  • Computer simulations are played before testing them out in reality with crash dummies. Sensors are placed all over the dummies to emulate where injuries can occur in a crash site.

  • Robots may assemble parts for the cars but humans have to help them out as well.

→ Japan’s firms

Japanese firms perform more post bachelor degree level education and training of engineering, more so than their international counterparts. At UCD most engineering students would go into business aspects.

Japanese universities are focused on teaching team work rather than business education.

Japanese engineers tend to stay as engineers unlike the international engineers who go into business education.

There is a chain of command when working in a team at a company:

  • circulating document; everyone needs to read and stamp when understanding the material

  • group agreement

No one realises that Toyota is more than a car brand, they own housing, forestry etc.

Japanese firms can have less rigid job boundaries unlike the US firms for example.

  • Advanced qualifications

  • over deliver under promise

  • overtime → in ireland overtime is paid normal only for hourly, japan has both hourly and salaried, although there is a limit of hours per month due to the intense work environment in Japan.

    tradition of when the boss leaves, the employees are free to leave. becoming more lax now as the newer generation has started to avoid this type of ingrained tradition and leaving whenever they want

  • punctuality is expected

  • company parties are always evident and employees are expected to attend them.

    • Hanami = flower viewing, reserve a whole area under a tree to watch the cherry blossoms

    • Summer festival

    • Sports day

    • company bbq

    • company relay races…

→ female participation in the workforce

  • lots of female truck drivers back then, as well as in the drawing offce.

  • There was a lot of posters that had female truck drivers on it.

    some people found it like some omen to beware of them driving in the area but they just wanted to encourage more females to work more but sadly numbers decreased by then

  • female employees are in the popularity of working part time in japan rather than full time, meaning less pay than men…as you may know hours in part time are not set.

→ breakdown analysis/reverse engineering

  • Taking vehicles apart and studying the parts of their competitors.

  • Patent improvements to prevent competitors from improving their products.

    • can last up to 20 years until a renewal

    • it’s a monopoly of sorts

Made the Nokia 3110

  • thought to only have 20 million sold but it was in reality 500 million sold.

Nokia N90 was invented to not only be used as a communication device but also a camcord for efficient recordings and photography.

→ Improving emergency responses

  • man holes in parks for example can be converted into emergency porta potties

  • benches can be converted into emergency stoves

    N.B. could research this more.

→ who was toyota’s biggest threat/competitor?

  • people would think it’s nissan, honda, tesla. but in reality

    GOOGLE is the real final boss.

  • Data centres → the use of high quality sensors and what type they are using.

    Tesla relying on cameras, other companies are using LiDAR, used to be really expensive to create but now there are cheaper options.

Kevin worked in Japan as a mechanical engineer after graduating from UCD between 1993 and 1997. He always had a passion for designing making and fixing cars so when the opportunity came to work abroad, he took it. Back then Netscape was how people accessed the internet and the Net Soc was a big deal for staying connected.

At the time the Irish government was trying to convince foreign businesses to invest in Ireland. Their strategy was to send engineers abroad to train and gain experience with the goal of bringing that knowledge back home. They hoped that by doing this these foreign companies would eventually set up factories in Ireland. About 30 engineers including Kevin were sent to Japan while others went to Taiwan China the USA and other places.

Japan is a land of contrast. Around 68% of the country is covered in forests yet it is also one of the most industrialized nations in the world. After World War II different industries residential areas and shopping districts were all bundled together creating these mixed-use spaces that are still common today. Kevin lived in a cheap company dorm in Fuji City near Mount Fuji. The company covered the cost of the apartment complex utilities and food which made things easy. That dorm has since been demolished but back then it was a great setup.

One thing Kevin noticed was how popular smoking was. People smoked everywhere in offices restaurants bars you name it. Another thing was the strict seniority system in workplaces. Speed limits were also interesting. If a sign said 60km per hour people actually drove at 80 and the police wouldn’t do much about it. However drink driving was taken very seriously even back then. People would park at a traffic light and wait out the police before driving again. About 15 years ago the laws became even stricter. Now if a driver is caught drunk every passenger in the car also gets penalty points. If someone doesn’t have a license at the time it stays on record for when they eventually get one. Sounds crazy but it worked. Japan has almost completely eliminated drink driving over the years.

 

Kevin took a trip to Japan in December 2024, spending Christmas there and experiencing some of its unique traditions. One of the most unusual customs is the widespread tradition of eating KFC for Christmas dinner. Almost everyone buys KFC, which is the result of a highly successful marketing campaign from decades ago. The origins of this campaign would be interesting to look up.

During his time in Japan, Kevin worked with Nissan and Honda, focusing on improving airbags. His work involved making them safer, reducing injuries, and enhancing their overall quality. Before real-world crash tests are conducted, computer simulations play a crucial role in predicting outcomes. Crash dummies equipped with sensors are used in these tests to analyze where injuries are most likely to occur in an accident.

While robots handle much of the assembly process in car manufacturing, humans are still essential. Workers assist the robots, ensuring the precision and quality of the final product. Japan's approach to engineering education also stands out. Unlike many international universities where engineering students often transition into business roles, Japanese firms invest heavily in post-bachelor education and training for engineers. Japanese universities emphasize teamwork rather than business education, and engineers in Japan tend to remain in their technical roles rather than shifting to management or finance.