Sharptongue wrote:

>>They aren't well trained in critical thinking
> 
> Apart from an education system which, traditionally anyway, has
> stressed rote learning, are there any particular reasons for this ?

Too much television and video games hampers the development of mental 
capacities.  Of course, that we have in other countries.  In most 
countries, children who don't like television read books.  But in Japan, 
children born to parents who care about academic performance are sent to 
juku (cram schools).

I've seen a 15 year-old do his juku homework.  The boxes he could fill 
in he filled in, rapidly.  The rest, he just copied off directly from 
the back pages.  After observing this behavior I told the student: "When 
you grow up, you'll face problems and there won't be any answer sheet at 
hand."

I've seen what happens when this kind of person grows up and gets usenet 
access.  This opinion appeared in a debate whether replies should be 
posted or e-mailed: "You should always post.  This is because if there 
is a mistake in the reply, there is a possibility that someone will post 
a correction."

I hope you can see the philosophy which leads to the education system as 
it is now from the above examples.

How can workers without critical thinking and discussion skills 
contribute to kaizen (factory-process improvement)?  We should keep an 
eye on this.