[swaggyBoatswain]

uh...

Japan was practically given a lot of American Technology right after WWII under Robert Demings. In fact, Toyota is partially the way it is today, thanks to the Ford Assembly Line, but they still paved there own means of success.

Germany arguably the same as well, around the same time frame. Can't recall the exact history of what US gave to Germany though, but it was most likely part of the Marshall Plan.

US is copying a lot of methodologies and philosophies from Japan. Any deriative of the Toyota way is in many management philosophies, from scrum, agile development, etc. Germany, much technology is still being shared between both our countries today. Japan is copying a lot of software innovations from America, and vice versa.

[vvanders]

Yeah, This American Life had a great podcast about the NUMMI[1] plant that covers this in great depth. Pretty fascinating stuff.

[1] https://www.thisamericanlife.org/561/nummi-2015