SMYRNA, Tenn. — The dairy farms that once draped the countryside here were paved over so Japanese automaker Nissan could build its first U.S. assembly plant. Eighty miles to the south, another green pasture was replaced by a Nissan engine factory, and across Tennessee, about 100 Nissan suppliers dot the landscape, making steel in Murfreesboro, air- conditioning units in Lewisburg and transmission parts in Portland.
Three decades ago, none of this existed. The conventional wisdom at the time was simple: Japanese automakers would not build many cars anywhere but Japan, where supply chains were in place, costs were tightly controlled and the reputation for quality was unparalleled.
“They were very unfamiliar doing anything outside Japan,” said Sen. Lamar Alexander, a Republican who was governor of Tennessee when Nissan opened its factory here in 1983. “They were tentative and awkward even discussing it.”
Today, echoes of that conventional wisdom can be heard within the U.S. technology industry. For years, high-tech executives have argued that the U.S. cannot compete in making the most popular electronic devices. Companies such as Apple, Dell and Hewlett-Packard, which rely on huge Asian factories, assert that many types of manufacturing would be too costly and inefficient in the U.S. Only overseas, they have said, can they find an abundance of educated midlevel engineers, low-wage workers and at-the-ready suppliers.
But the migration of Japanese auto manufacturing to the U.S. over the past 30 years offers a case study in how the unlikeliest of transformations can unfold. Despite the decline of American car companies, the U.S. today remains one of the top auto manufacturers and employers in the world. Japanese and other foreign companies account for more than 40 percent of cars built in the U.S., employing about 95,000 people directly and hundreds of thousands more among parts suppliers.
The U.S. gained these jobs through a combination of public and congressional pressure on Japan, “voluntary” quotas on car exports from Japan and incentives such as tax breaks that encouraged Japanese automakers to build factories in the U.S. Pressuring technology companies to move manufacturing here would pose different challenges. For one thing, Apple and many other technology giants are American, not foreign, and are viewed differently by politicians and the public. But it is possible, and the benefits might be worth it, some economists say.
The debate is not just economic, however. Increasingly, it is political. With high unemployment, the question of how to create jobs has taken a role in the presidential race between President Barack Obama and Mitt Romney, and both have traded barbs on outsourcing by U.S. companies.
Although the car and technology industries are different — and the eras are separated by 30 years — the resurgence of U.S. auto manufacturing in the 1980s is an example of how one industry created tens of thousands of good jobs. Since its first pickup truck rolled off the line here June 16, 1983, Nissan has produced more than 7 million vehicles in the U.S. It employs 15,000 people in this country. It makes more than a half-million cars, trucks and SUVs a year, with the plant in Smyrna building six models, including the soon-to-be-produced all-electric Nissan Leaf.
In the auto industry, the belief that U.S. workers could not match Japanese workers has long since faded.
“A big part of the reluctance of Japanese automakers to come to the U.S. was the belief that their manufacturing systems could only work with loyal Japanese employees,” said Stephen Cohen, a professor emeritus of international studies at American University. “Everybody was surprised how quickly the systems were adopted here.”
Within the technology industry, workers in Asia are viewed as hungrier and more willing to tolerate harsh work schedules to achieve productivity. The numbingly repetitive jobs of assembling cellphones and tablet computers, executives say, would be scorned here; they worry that many Americans will not make the sacrifices that success demands, and want too much vacation time and predictable work schedules.
Throughout his term, Obama has regularly gathered advisers to discuss manufacturing, according to former high-ranking White House officials.
Now, with unemployment high and a growing debate over outsourcing of jobs, manufacturing is on the political agenda. In March, Gene Sperling, director of the White House’s National Economic Council, outlined initiatives — including tax breaks for building factories here, infrastructure investments and going after “unfair trade practices” — to reinvigorate manufacturing.
