An American in Tokyo: Jumping to the Japanese beat: During a year´s internship, an engineer from Westinghouse learns to move in sync with the hard-driving members of the Mitsubishi team

The production line at one Westinghouse Electric Corp. factory has a sharp bend in it because of the uneven foundation of the building. When Japan´s Mitsubishi Electric Corp., decades ago, took a license for the factory design, it modeled its entire operation after the Westinghouse factory ¿ right down to the crook in the production line. Since 1923, when a licensing agreement between the two was struck, the companies have enjoyed a mirror-close relationship that survived even World War II. During the war Mitsubishi kept track of the royalties it owed Westinghouse and later paid up in stock shares. Westinghouse today owns about 2 percent of Mitsubishi.