Toyota is facing the worst crisis in its history. Until now, its management techniques — known as the "Toyota Way" — were widely emulated. "Many Japanese managers are convinced that the economics of homogeneity, of being ethnocentric, outweigh the advantages of being a globally integrated enterprise," explained Stefan Lippert of Temple University Japan. Jeff Kingston, TUJ’s director of Asian Studies, believes the lessons are clear. "This has to be a turning point for corporate Japan, a wake-up call. They need to become less insular and more international. They have to regain some of that competitive edge that they had in the 1980s," Kingston said.

February 24, 2010 | CNN International, CBS’s "The Early Show"

Akio Toyoda can't escape the media's hot seat. The young president is getting a harsh lesson in the art of corporate apologies. According to Jeff Kingston of Temple University Japan, a key reason why Toyoda is in the hot seat is because the company leadership responded in a very Japanese fashion. "Their decision-making process was painfully slow, but the international media and concerned customers don't want to wait so long for answers," Kingston said. Toyoda's long silence as the company deliberated what to do is a hallmark of the Japanese culture of consensus building.