The "era of major competition" in which companies compete with the world is increasing in pitch regardless of the product or money areas. We have entered the era of borderless administration. Simultaneously, it is an era of timeless administration in which "head office time" is no criteria for companies that have established operations overseas. The meaning of the following declaration, which I have been making for some time now, lies here. "There is no need to restrain ourselves to 8 hours of administration. The time is near when we must select organizations and a management style in line with the 24-hour company."

  Kato Spring's internationalization began with Kato Spring of California, a US corporation, in 1971. Since then, production bases in the West have expanded to include Kato Spring of Georgia, and in England, Kato Precision and Kato-Entex. In 1997, we established Kato Fastening Systems in Virginia (USA) for research and development and marketing related to special fasteners for airplanes, and the aerospace and automobile industries. Strategic moves have also been repeatedly instituted in Asia including the establishment of Kato Spring (Singapore), Kato Precision (Malaysia) and Kato Spring (Thailand). Further, Kato Precision (Hong Kong) has been established as a sales center with targets on the Chinese market.

  As indicated earlier, our scenario for overseas expansion is not in the mindset of "forced internationalization," in which we are being forced to make bases overseas since major clients have done so. It is rather a form of "wanting to internationalize" because there is a market there and we have never changed the policy of "made in market."
  We originally sent over capital, people and technology all from Japan, but we have proceeded with localization from a relatively early period. Currently, almost all of our overseas bases are operated by only local people.
  There was also a time in which, in my desire to localize, I sought to reduce the number of Japanese. However, now my judgment is based entirely on abilities and suitability without any regard for nationality. An approach that always breaks matters down into local and Japan is not a global approach. A true concept of globalization is one that hires the person necessary at that time regardless of whether or not the person is from the head office, is Japanese, is from such and such, is male or female, is a college graduate or some other quality. Globalization is being sought not only in the realm of global operations but also in the realm of conceptualization.