After this decision was made, however, they faced a difficult road. For a country like Japan, so lacking in raw materials, the inability to sell finished goods for export also meant an inability to earn foreign currency and hence an inability to buy the materials needed to create an upward spiral of industrial development. Thus a revolution in product quality became essential. In addition, as the result of the quality revolution, companies often found that costs were reduced and productivity was increased. Japanese culture, values and social structure might affect to some extent the success of its quality revolution.
Japan is a successful example of the value of introducing foreign cultures.
In a recent interview he was asked why companies should consider his endorsement of incremental improvement rather than a more radical approach. Imai replied that it is premature to declare companies that are prospering today as the long-term winners. American companies have cut costs and restructured, fired people, downsized, and closed down less profitable plants. As a result they have become lean, mean and more profitable, but this hasn't changed the way business is conducted within these companies. Imai says that in manufacturing gemba, nothing much has changed, except that there are fewer plants and people.