Tokyo: U.S. Workers Outproduce Japanese: Report Follows Criticism of Americans
TOKYO, Jan. 7ÛÓThe diligence, quality and productivity of American workers won a ringing endorsement today from an unlikely source: the government of Japan.</br></br>Japan's Ministry of Labor issued a detailed report showing that Americans rate higher in productivity and in buying power per hour of labor than workers in Japan or in the three biggest West European countries.</br></br>"We issued this document on the theory that, if weÛªre going to be talking about productivity, we ought to have the objective facts,Û said Labor Minister Tetsuo Kondo.</br></br>Over the past three weeks, Japanese politicians have caused a furor in the United States with public comments belittling American industry and workers.</br></br>The Japanese leaders apologized to the United States after their comments were reported in the West. But they were expressing a fairly common view among Japanese politicians.