【英语中国】中国劳动力成本抬升令日本车企头疼

The dust may be settling on the now-ended strike at Honda's plants in China over the past couple of weeks, but Japan's auto industry has some serious thinking to do. How exactly is it going to serve growing demand in one of the world's most important markets?

At least, Toshiyuki Shiga, the newly appointed chairman of the Japan Automobile Manufacturers Association, believes it's a serious issue. At a meeting with reporters last week Mr. Shiga, also the chief operating officer of Nissan, said that while 'It's natural' that Chinese workers should ask for pay raises. After all, the strong demand for cars there means they'll have to make more and more cars. But for Japanese auto makers, seen as lagging international peers in making inroads in what is already the world's biggest auto market, rising labor costs are exactly what they don't need as they consider shifting production capacity to China to meet demand.

According to Mr. Shiga, there's still a clear way forward for Japanese auto makers to progress in China - drawing on their own experience at home. 'Low labor costs don't necessarily guarantee production continuing forever,' he said. 'Workers…need to improve productivity through efficient operations. Japan used to be a low-cost country…Labor costs are much higher now. But they are still surviving. That's because they have worked on improving productivity at the same time,' Mr. Shiga said.

Still, there could be a way for Japan's auto makers to serve growing demand overseas without actually building factories there. If incoming Prime Minister Naoto Kan's previously expressed wish a significantly weaker yen were to come true, for instance, Japan's auto plants could be in the envious position of being able to churn out high-quality, cheaper cars for export, much more productively than overseas plants. And that might be an enticing proposition for a government keen to spur domestic industries and preserve Japan's manufacturing backbone.

本田(Honda)中国工厂过去几个星期发生的罢工事件已经结束，或许一切都在回归正常。但日本汽车业界需要做一些认真思考。究竟应该怎样去满足这个重要市场日益增长的需求？

Zumapress.com本田汽车中国工厂的工人们5月份举行了罢工，要求加薪至少日本汽车工业协会(Japan Automobile Manufacturers Association)新当选会长志贺俊之(Toshiyuki Shiga)认为这是一个非常重要的问题。在上周会见媒体记者时，亦为日产(Nissan)首席运营长的志贺俊之说，中国工人要求加薪是正常现象，毕竟中国市场对汽车的旺盛需求意味着这些工人需要生产出越来越多的汽车。但是，日本汽车生产商在中国市场的扩张被认为落后于国际同行，在它们考虑向中国转移产能、以满足这个世界最大汽车市场的需求之时，不断上升的劳动力成本恰恰是它们所不需要的。

志贺俊之说，日本汽车生产商要在中国市场取得进展，仍有一条清晰可辨的道路可走，那就是利用它们在日本本土市场的经验。他说，劳动力的低成本并不一定保证生产永久持续，工人们需要通过有效的操作来提高生产率；日本曾是一个低成本国家，现在劳动力成本高多了，但汽车生产商仍在生存，这是因为它们在同一时间着手进行了生产率的提升。

而且，日本汽车生产商不必在海外市场建厂，同样也可以采用某种办法来满足当地的需求。例如，当选首相菅直人(Naoto Kan)以前曾表示希望日圆走软，如果他的这个愿望得以实现，那么日本汽车工厂就可以取得有利地位，生产出质优价廉的汽车用于出口，生产效率比海外工厂也要高得多。而对于一届渴望提振国内工业、保护日本制造业根基的政府来说，这或许会是一个充满诱惑的点子。