Reference no: EM13106325

During the 1950s and 609, Mr. T. Ohno of Toyota developed the k a n ProductionSystem. Subsequently many other Japanese automobile companies adopted it. The net result waa the Japan's automobile industry improved its productivity throughout this period relative to the US, which generally just kept up with inflation due to its already high rate of accumulated experience and relatively slow growth. Assume the Japanese industry started in 1955 with production of 100,000 cars per year and an initial cost of $2,000 per car and that production (demand) grew 50% per year for the next five years and then 25% per year for the next ten years. If Japanese relative costs compared to the US dropped 20% for each doubling of accumulated experience (the total amount ever produced), in which year would Japanese costs equal US costs if the US cost per car in 1955 was %1W? (In your calculation, you can assume that for comparative purposes the US industry's cost remained constant and would have remained constant even if they had supplied the Japanese market,) Given a real discount rate on Japanese government bonds of 6% during this period, by 1970 was the cost to Japan of protecting this industry recovered due to its improved long run productivity compared to having imported cars from the US?