Chinese automakers are looking to poach engineers from Japan

Chinese automakers, seeking to become successful exporters, are importing engineers from Japan.

Anhui Jianghuai Automobile Co. and Changan Automobile Group Co. aim to poach the talent nurtured by Japan's top automotive companies.

Making less-polluting cars is key to meeting a government goal of boosting exports of vehicles and parts to $85 billion by 2015 from at least $19 billion last year and the equivalent of 10 percent of the global auto trade by 2020.

"Emissions regulations are especially tough in Europe," said Wang Wenjun, who heads a Tokyo recruiting and research center for Jianghuai Auto, China's biggest exporter of light trucks. "What we really need is people to help us with environmental technologies."

Hiromasa Torii was one of those people. Torii, a 65-year-old retired auto engineer, worked in Anhui Province in eastern China for three years through late 2009. He helped Chinese engineers select materials and experiment with different constructions to lighten vehicle weight and was paid as much as ¥1 million a month for his expertise.

"Until four or five years ago, Chinese carmakers were just known for their ability to copy foreign brands' designs, but things have changed," Torii said. "These days, they want the most advanced technology."

Since Jianghuai Auto began courting Japanese engineers in 2006, "a few dozen" have been sent to China, Wang said. While Jianghuai Auto also employs Italians and Germans at its headquarters, about 80 percent of its foreign engineers are Japanese, he said.

Changan has a research center in Yokohama and held two recruiting rounds in Japan last year, said Zhang Baojun, a company spokesman. The carmaker has seven Japanese engineers working in China, he added.

Changan, based in Chongqing, central China, also plans to open centers in Britain and Germany "soon," Zhang said.

"If they want to improve the exterior design, they go to the Italians," said Akira Ami, president of Global Business Support Marketing, a consulting company that has been sending Japanese engineers to China since 2002. "But for the guts of the car, they are looking to the Japanese."

"The quality of cars made by Chinese makers has vastly improved," Toyota Executive Vice President Takeshi Uchiyamada said recently at the Beijing Auto Show. "The speed of that progress is very fast."

The engineers are often asked to help reverse-engineer Japanese cars to make it easier to copy their designs, said Ami, the consultant. Others have been asked to hand over technology secrets of their former employees, he said.

Kiyoshi Kondo, 73, a former Isuzu engineer, said he had no qualms about advising Chinese carmakers.

"One day, they are going to catch up with us," he said. "There's no point in me standing in their way."

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