[emanuer]

Yes you are right, this is massive over generalization, and I am rather unhappy with my wording, unfortunately I can not edit my comment anymore. In my culture these almost „polemical statements“ are rather accepted and interpreted differently. I found especially english speaking people have a very hard time understanding my intentions. I should have known better.

Obviously there are not 129 million perfectionists, that was particularly misleading.

However I would claim that Japanese are more likely to favor and reward perfectionism than any other culture I experienced. I am only talking about a trend I may have observed.

[1stop]

As I implied in another thread. Germans seems pretty good at the 'perfection' side of things in their culture.

Which given Japan and Germany's history makes me believe the mindset of 'perfection' or continuous improvement/innovation comes from germany, rather than Japan.

disclaimer: I'm neither German, nor Japanese ;)

[calinet6]

Much of it actually came from W. Edwards Deming (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/W._Edwards_Deming), who taught it to the Japanese after World War II. The top prize for quality in Japan carries his name.

He was American; we've forgotten (or never learned), but they took it to an extreme.

[doctorstupid]

I wouldn't say he gave them perfection, but rather that he tought some companies how to achieve the perfection they already desired from mass manufactured goods.

[calinet6]

Yes, the How was the disconnect. It still is.

[emanuer]

Oh, I am Austrian (culturally very close to Germany) and I worked in a German company in Tokyo. I am not alone with my opinion, that Japanese are taking perfectionism to a whole new level, actually harming productivity.