Catherwood LibraryILR School

Masakazu Kanazawa takes pride in his work as a 31-year veteran at a Nissan plant, fighting seconds to ever so perfectly and delicately put in axle parts. Japan is much like other industrialized nations in viewing an office job requiring a college degree as more desirable than blue-collar assembly line work. But employment at Nissan Motor Co., Japan's No. 3 automaker, is putting Kanazawa and other workers like him solidly in the middle class in pay, and winning them respect as craftsmen at a time when the population is shrinking from a stagnant birth rate. Although Nissan went through tough times and near-bankruptcy in the 1990s, it has recovered under a seven-year alliance with Renault SA of France. That included a turnaround plan that slashed 21,000 jobs.