Abstract
Japan's morale and economy were devastated by World War II and postwar they had to start nearly from scratch to rebuild them. Two of the more impactful factors that helped them to grow from GDP $102 billion in 1945 to $420 billion by 1961 were the work of Moral Re-Armament (MRA) and the manufacturing quality movement led by the Japanese Union of Scientists and Engineers (JUSE) with the assistance of W. Edwards Deming, Joseph Juran, and Kaoru Ishikawa. The latter roles are well known and memorialized in several ways such as the Deming Award, one of the most prestigious honors in Japan. MRA's influence was arguably more significant, but its abundant activities have largely been lost to history. MRA developed support at all levels from Prime Ministers to union employees through international meetings, person-to-person conversations, and staging plays. JUSE extensively promoted major training efforts by Deming and Juran, in particular, to rally Japan’s manufacturing to unprecedented levels. This article looks at both these efforts as they emerged and their substantial impact on Japan's recovery as an international economic power.
