Word: systemization
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Dates: during 1960-1969
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...pharmacologists also complain about the way doctors write their prescriptions. "Writing prescriptions in Latin is an obsolete affectation, conducive to misunderstanding and error," they say. With rare exceptions, the medicine bottle should be labeled with the name of the drug. "The obsolete apothecary system of grains, ounces and drachms is dangerous and unnecessary. The ancient symbols for ounce and drachm are nearly alike, and fatal over doses have resulted. The abbreviation gr. (meaning grain, 60 mg.) is easily mistaken for gram (1,000 mg.), also with catastrophic consequences." Instead of a dubious decimal point, the doctor should use a vertical...
This cozy system is capable of enormous dynamism. Once a decision has been reached, everyone who participated works single-mindedly to carry it out. But foreign companies are kept out of Japan largely because they might not abide by decisions of the day clubs, and those that are allowed in are prevented from becoming too pushy...
...Effluent Society. The consensus system also operates to perpetuate some startling inefficiencies that tend to keep consumers from sharing fully in Japan's industrial growth. Businessmen abroad complain about the low prices of Japanese exports, but prices inside Japan have been rising at close to the fastest rate in the industrialized world -5.3% last year. The 102 million Japanese now own more appliances per capita than any people except Americans but have practically no room for them. Housing space in metropolitan areas averages 40 ft. per person, no more than before World War II. To millions of people jammed...
Jobs for Life. Consumers are left out of the consensus, and they are becoming restless. Workers strike for giant wage increases-an average 15% this year-that aggravate inflation. Labor unrest is an ominous sign of discontent, for workers have also had their guaranteed place in the semifeudal industrial system. When a youngster fresh out of high school signs on with a company, both parties understand that he will stay on until retirement...
...Toshihiko Yoshino, research director of the Bank of Japan, concedes that opening Japan to foreign businessmen would help considerably to ease inflation. But he and other leaders plead for more time to strengthen companies against aggressive foreign rivals-and time to squeeze the necessary decisions out of the consensus system. Japan's exasperated trading partners are no longer in any mood to grant that time. For instance, Japanese companies do not invest much in research, but instead rely largely on buying foreign technology. U.S. companies, in particular, no longer want only to sell technology. They want...