The title poses an interesting and complex question. Personally, I think it was a combination of structured controls and incentives put in place by General Douglas MacArthur's reconstruction team after WWII, which meshed well with the inherent Japanese cultural of nationalism, teamwork, and work-ethic. But this too would be an over-simplification.
Certainly, arrogant American manufacturer's missed an oppotunity, secure in their own success, when they offhandedly snubbed Edward Deming when he posed his statistical quality contol methods (The Deming Way) to the Detroit car-makers and other in American Industry. His methods, for which Deming found acceptance in Japan has long been too-heavily credited for the gains that Japanese manufacturers made against American manufacturers during the eighties. But I feel that The Deming Way explanation was only one small part of it.
This question is worthy of a loton examination, but the excerpt from the authors paper found at this link poses a better underpinning, I believe, for understanding this issue. If interested, you may widh to start your furter reasearch ehre, after reading this blog.
In 1986, Deming published Out of the Crisis and changed the discussion. In that book, Deming describes how he first went to American companies in the 1950s with his statistical methods of quality control, which would enable them to control costs by reducing defects. The American companies were too proud to listen. So, Deming went to Japan, where companies such as Honda took his ideas seriously. As a result, Japanese companies became more cost-effective in their production and other operations. This experience became the basis for claiming that the Deming method was responsible for Japanese manufacturing companies out-performing American ones.
Having been an American working for two Japanese companies, one which began as a camera company, I feel that i at least somewhat understand the Japanse tendency for national cohesiveness, that set up a manufacturing edge, based largely of their state in histgory owing loargely to world events and timing. Let's not forget either, that the USA made incredibly large financial inverstments into the success of post-war Japan. Ironically, this is probably the largest single factor regarding this phenomenon.
Excerpt from this link: http://www.huaren.org/Text/1136833692484-5303/pC/1136759429609-1691/Articles
In 1986, Deming published Out of the Crisis and changed the discussion. In that book, Deming describes how he first went to American companies in the 1950s with his statistical methods of quality control, which would enable them to control costs by reducing defects. The American companies were too proud to listen. So, Deming went to Japan, where companies such as Honda took his ideas seriously.
As a result, Japanese companies became more cost-effective in their production and other operations. This experience became the basis for claiming that the Deming method was responsible for Japanese manufacturing companies out-performing American ones.
http://www.huaren.org/Text/1136833692484-5303/pC/1136759429609-1691/Articles