The safe bet in the late 1980’s seemed to be that mechanization, computerization, and robotization would proceed. Political and economic pressure would lead more Japanese sectors to undergo the transformation to machine-intensive, high-productivity modes of organization that export-oriented manufacturing had already undergone (and that sectors like agriculture and distribution had undergone or were undergoing in the North Atlantic region).
20世纪80年代末的最靠谱的预测是，机械化、计算机化和机器人化将一一到来。政治和经济压力将引导更多日本行业经历向机械密集型高生产率组织模式的转变，这是出口导向型制造业已经经历过的（也是北大西洋地区农业和分销等部门已经或正在经历的）。