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Four countries have dominated automobile manufacturing for about as long as automobiles have been around: Japan, America, China, and Germany. 

Japan, the land of precision engineering, sushi conveyor belts, and square watermelons, seems a natural fit on this list. That wasn’t always the case. In 1950 Japan wasn’t a manufacturing hub, it wasn’t an innovation hub, it wasn’t a hub for much of anything when it came to global commerce. So what changed?

Japan’s ascendance to industrial prominence and its relation to the Ford Taurus, which was for years the world’s best selling car, is the topic of this week’s post. It’s a remarkable rise that involves an exasperated General Douglas MacArthur, Robocop, the creation of the Japanese Census, and more.

This week’s format is a little different - I collaborated with Jason from Company Insight to create a video-essay. Let me know what you think!

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