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Japanese Nationals Involved in Toyota's F1 Program
• First off, I heard somewhere that you had set up an apartment in Cologne…
Yes, that’s true. This year I have two official duties within TMG. It’s only been six weeks (*this interview was conducted on February 25, 2005), and I’ve already been to Germany and back three times. In other words, I travel to Germany and back every other week. I think I’m going to drop the pace to once every two weeks. The jet lag is what’s really tough.
• That is a tough schedule. Does that mean that it’s too difficult to keep staff in Japan and Germany coordinated without someone making frequent in-person trips?
Exactly. I’m a vice-president at TMG, but my role incorporates technical aspects, and involves giving the go-ahead on all technical decisions.
Keeping Japan and Germany on the Same Page
• I would think that the position of keeping everything and everyone in agreement is very difficult…
The development capacity in Japan has improved by leaps and bounds over the last year. For example, Japan now has a greater capacity to perform mathematical calculations than TMG. (*A high-capacity CPU was installed at the Toyoda City headquarters to aid development at the Higashi Fuji research facility).
The Japanese group is responsible for lead development, but it would be a waste to allow an unbalance to develop between the two sides. Someone has to see the situation on both sides and make sure balance is maintained. Last year we started video conferencing, but after only a few weekly conferences, we could see that one side or the other would be a week behind. Of course, we couldn’t hold a daily conference or no work would actually get done. We figured it would be more efficient for one person
to look at both sides, helping information flow and reducing the time lag as much as possible.
• I see. By the way, are all of the staff working at the Higashi Fuji Research Lab Japanese?
Most are. There are some who are Japanese born and raised in other countries. America is ground zero in the field of economics. The calculations for aerodynamics is what I’m talking about here. America has a large-scale space and aeronautics industry, but there’s no way to actually test a lot of the machines they build. In other words, what they can’t test physically, they have to test using simulated mathematical models—something that the Americans have become very good at.
That’s why there are Japanese-Americans who have been trained in the U.S. working at Higashi Fuji.
• How about Cologne? Does Toyota send Japanese specialists in aerodynamics over there?
Yes. We are working the wind tunnel in Germany 24 hours, using three shifts. One of the test group leaders over there is Japanese.
• Including the aerodynamics department, how many Japanese staff are at TMG?
I think it’s right around 30 or so.
• I heard that you first look for volunteers who want to move to Germany.
Yes, that’s correct. The core of the first wave that went to Germany were engine people. Last year, there was a large number of staff from our first transfers who came back to Japan. With a change in emphasis in Cologne, the next wave of engineers were mainly chassis specialists.
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