リード技研（従業員20名、川崎市）は金型部品を製作しています。経済産業省「工業統計」によると2014年の金型工業の事業所（従業者4人以上）数はピーク時1990年の半分に激減しています。三次元CAD/CAMなどのアジアへの普及により、標準的製品用の金型に関しては中国と日本製品の品質格差は急速に縮小し、コスト高の日本の金型業界の市場が侵食されたためです。

リード技研は公差±1μm（1,000分の1ミリ）といった超精密加工技術を用いた金型の部品や試作用の金型部品を製作しています。金型の中でもこういう高度の加工技術や創造的発想の必要な分野はICTの適用だけでは足りず、中国企業が追い付いていません。社長の小川登さんは半導体金型製造会社勤務で身に着けた、10種類以上の機械を操作できる技術を基に1981年に独立し、84年リード技研を設立、難易度の高い金型部品中心の製作で技術を磨き、そこから試作用金型の開発へと進出しました。小川さんは会社が休みの日にも一人で出社、新しい加工方法を試すなど、技術開発に余念がありません。自分が常に進歩していれば技術は追いつかれないと、海外からの視察にも工場はオープンにしています。

このようなリード技研も2008年のリーマンショック・世界金融危機激化の時には売上の85％がなくなり、若い人を中心にやめる人も出、人員は半分になりました。その後の売上回復も思わしくなく、人材も市場も豊富な海外への進出を図ります。日本で人材を育成し、海外で生産するという考えです。最初は中国を目指しましたが、来日していたベトナムの「ドンズー日本語学校」の校長グエン・ドク・ホエさんと知り合い、ベトナムを工業立国したいという考えに共鳴します。ホエさんは京都大学、東京大学に留学経験がある人です。ベトナムへの関心を高め、ホーチミン市に近いバリアブンタウ省の省立職業訓練校との関係ができます。ここの教員の教育などを行ったりしましたが、貸工場を作るので来てくれという要請を受けます。同省は電力は豊富で、ホーチンミン市と違い人件費も安いところです。要請を受けてから4年目の2015年に「リード技研ベトナム」を設立、ベトナムではまだ製作が難しい精密プレス金型製作や精密切削加工を始めました。仕事は日本で受注したもののうち納期に余裕のあるものを行っています。

現地の人員は7人で、横浜国立大学大学院を出、リード技研で4年半指導受けたベトナム人が副社長・工場長、ベトナムからリード技研に3年間実習生として働いてた人が1人、訓練校の卒業生が5人です。現在も3年たったら「リード技研ベトナム」に行ってもらうという約束で実習生が来ています。アジアに進出した日本企業の多くが人材教育に苦労していますが、リード技研は日本で教育した実習生を送り返すというシステムでこの課題に有効に対処しています。日本で研修をするのは工業立国に必要な人材を獲得するというベトナム側のニーズにも合います。日本企業の海外進出が地域の空洞化を引き起す懸念のある中、意欲ある海外の若者が来てくれることでそれも防いでいます。

小川さんは中小企業が日本で大きくなるのは難しい。ASEANには土地も人もある。ないのは技術だ。日本の中小企業の優れた技術で人材を育成し、ASEANと日本の中小企業がともに発展を目指すべきだと主張しています。

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Lead Giken (20 employees, Kawasaki City) manufactures mold parts. According to the Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry "Industrial Statistics", the number of mold industry establishments (4 or more employees) in 2014 dropped sharply to half of the peak in 1990. With the spread of 3D CAD / CAM in Asia, the quality gap between Chinese and Japanese products for standard product molds has narrowed rapidly, and the high cost Japanese mold industry market has been eroded. ..

Lead Giken manufactures mold parts and prototype mold parts using ultra-precision machining technology with a tolerance of ± 1 μm (1/1,000 mm). Among molds, the application of ICT is not enough for fields that require advanced processing technology and creative ideas, and Chinese companies are not catching up. Mr. Ogawa Noboru, the president, became independent in 1981 based on the technology that he acquired while working at a semiconductor mold manufacturing company and can operate more than 10 types of machines, and established Lead Giken in 1984. He refined his technology by focusing on manufacturing, and from there he advanced to the development of prototype molds. Mr. Ogawa is enthusiastic about technological development, such as going to work alone on days off and trying new processing methods. The factory is open for inspections from overseas, saying that technology cannot keep up if he is constantly improving.

At the time of the Lehman shock and the intensification of the global financial crisis in 2008, Lead Giken lost 85% of its sales, and some people, mainly young people, quit, halving the number of employees. Subsequent sales recovery is not good, and he planned to expand overseas with abundant human resources and markets. The idea is to develop human resources in Japan and produce with them in overseas countries. At first, he aimed for China, but he met Mr. Nguyen Doc Hoe, the principal of Vietnam's Dong Du Japanese School, who was visiting Japan, and he resonated with the idea of making in Vietnam to be an industrial nation. Mr. Hoe studied at Kyoto University and the University of Tokyo. He increase his interest in Vietnam and establish a relationship with a provincial vocational training school in Ba Ria-Vung Tau Province near Ho Chi Minh City. He was educating teachers there, when he was asked to work there because the school was building a rental factory.

The province had abundant electricity, and unlike Ho Chi Minh City, labor costs were low. In 2015, the fourth year after receiving the request, he established "Lead Giken Vietnam" and started precision press die manufacturing and precision cutting, which are still difficult to manufacture in Vietnam. As for the works there, he received orders in Japan that have a longer margin of delivery time.

There were seven local employees, including one Vietnamese who graduated from Yokohama National University Graduate School and received training at Lead Giken for four and a half years serving as the vice president / factory manager, one Vietnamese who worked as a technical trainee at Lead Giken in Japan for three years, and 5 graduates of the vocational training school. Even now, Lead Giken is accepting trainees from Vietnam with a promise to go to "Lead Giken Vietnam" after 3 years training in Japan. Many Japanese companies that have expanded into Asia are struggling with human resources education, but Lead Giken is effectively addressing this issue with a system that sends back trainees who have been educated in Japan. Training in Japan also meets the needs of Vietnam to acquire the human resources needed for an industrialized country. While there is concern that the overseas expansion of Japanese companies will cause the hollowing out of the region, some SMEs in Japan are preventing it by having motivated overseas young people to work with them in turn.

Mr. Ogawa says, it is difficult for SMEs to grow in Japan, however, there are land and people in ASEAN except technology. He insisted that ASEAN and Japanese SMEs should aim for development together by developing human resources with the excellent technology of Japanese SMEs.