On April 7th, four of us flew to Tokyo. With the blue sky and white clouds, the air was as fresh as after a rain, and the bright sunlight made us all take a deep breath involuntarily. The airport, streets, subways, and hotels were all spotlessly clean with bright windows and tidy surroundings.

The Exhibition Booth of TFC COMMUNICATION Co., Ltd. in Suzhou

The next day, we visited our customers. The huge factory area, including the conference rooms, corridors, restrooms, and production areas, was still neat, orderly, and spotlessly clean. I couldn't help but think that the originator of 6S truly lived up to its reputation. Neatness, orderliness, and refinement have already become a part of their lives. In recent years, it has been Japanese customers who have come to visit and conduct audits at our factories in Suzhou and Jiangxi. We have also been implementing 6S, but the difference between us and them lies in the fact that we are "pushing" for it, while the Japanese have deeply ingrained the 6S concept in everyone's heart. Everyone is polite and values order. Employees spontaneously perform every action correctly and complete every product well from the bottom of their hearts. Thus, high-quality products are naturally produced.

 During the few days of our visit to Japanese factories, I deeply understood their meticulousness towards products. On one hand, Japan is the world's second-largest economy. With over a hundred years of industrial development, it has long entered the ranks of developed countries. People there pay great attention to perfection in all aspects of their lives, from food, clothing, shelter, to transportation. Their lives have reached the stage of pursuing delicacy, far from the early days of struggling. Therefore, they have an extreme pursuit of high product quality, refined design, and humanization. It is natural for products to be perfect in all details, including performance, appearance, and packaging. This is not being harsh or picky.

 At the FOE exhibition, the booths of Japanese participating companies were carefully arranged. It felt different from the OFC and CIOE exhibitions. Their product displays were also ingenious, with new product demonstration speeches, eye-catching logos for new products, etc., which were really refreshing.

The Entrance of the Exhibition

In terms of product strategy, Japan focuses on research and development. Its position at the chip level and material level is irreplaceable. With hundreds of years of capital and technological accumulation in companies like Mitsubishi, Sumitomo, NEC, and Fujitsu, coupled with the scarcity of resources and high labor costs, Japanese enterprises inevitably focus on cutting-edge research and development, so that they can have profits and room for development. At the exhibition, various Japanese universities also set up a long row of booths to publicize their research and development achievements, academic discoveries, or the development trends in a certain field over the next three to five years. The close connection between scientific research institutions and market demands is, I think, what the CIOE lacks. The industrialization of research and development achievements of scientific research institutions will bring a win-win situation for enterprises and universities. Especially for Chinese optical communication enterprises, which have only accumulated development experience for more than a decade, they have limitations in technology and capital compared with Japanese century-old enterprises. The combination of production, learning, and research is of even greater value.

 During the one-week trip to Japan, being in such a delicate atmosphere and thinking about China's optical communication industry, I realized that "operators only require a one-year quality guarantee in tenders", and a large number of enterprises are trapped in price wars, with the attitude that products only need to be usable. International standards and industry standards are ignored, and some enterprises only focus on immediate interests. There is indeed a big gap between China and Japan in terms of the development concepts of enterprises and products. "A thousand sails pass by the wrecked ship; ahead of the sick tree, thousands of saplings thrive." China is developing, and Chinese enterprises will also learn, mature, and grow during the development process. I believe that China will surely embrace a comprehensively delicate life, and exquisite products will surely become the mainstream.

 See you at FOE next year!

 TFC COMMUNICATION Co., Ltd. in Suzhou

 April 12th, 2013