By Hiroko Tabuchi
TOKYO — A strike that crippled production at Honda Motor’s factories in China has come as a wake-up call to Japan’s flagship exporters as they seek to remain competitive and make a push into China’s burgeoning market with the help of low-wage workers.
The strike, staged by local workers to protest low pay and tough working conditions, has cost the automaker, Japan’s second largest after Toyota, thousands of units in lost production in the world’s biggest auto market. The walkout began May 17 at a Honda transmission factory in southeastern China and has shut down all four of the Japanese automaker’s factories on the mainland.
In Tokyo, the labor action has driven home a salient point: that as Chinese incomes and expectations rise in line with the country’s rapid economic growth while Japan’s own economy falters, the two countries face a realignment that will permanently alter the way their economies interact.
