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The 1990s are difficult times for many of Japan''s business leaders. They are realizing that the bursting of the bubble economy and the lingering recession of 1993 are not just temporary setbacks but urgent alarms about the country''s long-term competitiveness. At the core of the crisis is sagging white-collar productivity, a problem for businesses worldwide but a particularly severe one in Japan. Key to Japan''s past successes has been the strategic focus on production and the technical side of product development. Business leaders today must focus on improving white-collar work with the same level of national commitment and vigor. Even highly efficient manufacturing operations can no longer sustain the burden of overhead they have accumulated. As a result, many companies are beginning to downsize or look for ways to trim the size of their payrolls. But restructuring will not be enough. Japanese leaders must craft a solution that combines short-term cuts with long-term innovations in generating productivity, job flexibility, and continued worker commitment.