, Columnist
Japan's Battery-Powered Recovery
The partnership between Tesla and Panasonic shows how the Japanese economy can recharge its battery.
Research and development.
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As Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe looks for ways to reboot Abenomics, he could do worse than heed the advice of Kurt Kelty. Delivering a public speech on a recent Friday evening in Osaka, Tesla's director of battery technology captured all that's wrong with the Japanese economy. "We need to take risks, otherwise there will be no prosperity in business,” Kelty said in fluent Japanese. “We take risks, but it seems not the case in Japan.”
Japanese are often sensitive when outsiders (known as gaijin) criticize their country, but Kelty's criticisms couldn't be ignored. He's a 15-year veteran of the revered energy solutions lab at Panasonic, Japan's iconic electronic companies.