Exclusive Interview with Shuttle Pilot Robert Crippen

y Richard KatzJapanese business. Thus, Senator Adlai Stevenson, Jr. ofIllinois introduced a bill in Congress in 1980 that wouldpermit the creation of an American imitation of Japanesetypetrading companies, the multi-billion-dollar commercialconglomerates that do the buying and selling of mostproducts within Japan's domestic economy and in itsforeign trade.The secret behind Japan's achievement is neither intangiblycultural, nor is it a collection of managerial andstructural gimmicks, which can be easily copied. Thesecret is, in fact, as American as Abraham Lincoln, for itwas from President Lincoln's economic advisers that thefounders of modern Japan learned the ideas that turnedthe country into an industrial giant overnight.However, in Japan the American System ideas still guideday-to-day governmental and business practices, while inthe United States these ideas have been largely abandoned.Faced with a depressed market and serious competition,the U.S. Steel Corporation, for example, hasscrapped its steel investment and diversified into realestate and other quick profit areas.By contrast, Japanese steel firms, which were operatingat 67 percent capacity because of the orders collapse,launched a multi-biilion-dollar modernization drive thatemphasized investment in high-technology forms of energysaving such as continuous casting, and they aremaking profits again. Japan's top five steel firms plan toinvest $3 billion more in 1981, a 27 percent increase over-< A succession vf planned frontier industries has been thekey to japan's economic miracle. Yesterday's frontier industriesare arrayed counterclockwise on the field of theJapanese flag: a giant ladle crane manufactured by Hitachifor Nippon Steel; Mitsubishi Heavy Industry's new highspeed container ship; electric power plant equipmentproduced by Hitachi for Kansai Electric; and the electricbullet train operated by Japanese National Railways, whichtravels up to 210 kilometers per hour. The next phase offrontier industries is shown in the emblem: an experimental,magnetically levitated train designed to travel 500kilometers per hour; precise welding technology used inthe manufacture of fusion vacuum vessels; and an integrated,"intelligent robot" with grasping, pushing, andpinching functions.August 1981 FUSION 33