This chapter examines Japan’s contributions to industrial and human resources development with a focus on manufacturing as the core of modernisation. It begins by describing the feature of human beings as homo faber. Japan’s on-the-job training (OJT) based on apprenticeship ethics became central to its post-war development cooperation. The chapter situates Japan’s cooperation in manufacturing in the context of Southeast Asian anti-Japanese movements in the 1970s and 80s. In response, Japan advanced the Fukuda Doctrine (1977) and the ASEAN Human Resources Development Project, establishing training centres across the region. Notable examples include Malaysia’s Centre for Instructor and Advanced Skill Training (CIAST), which exemplified Japan’s ‘teaching the teachers’ approach to capacity development in vocational education. Second, Thailand’s Eastern Seaboard Development Project received macro-level support for industrialisation in the form of large-scale infrastructure development financed by yen loans, which galvanised export-led growth. Finally, the chapter discusses Costa Rica’s Centro de Formación de Formadores y de Personal Técnico para el Desarrollo Industrial de Centroamérica (CEFOF), where Japanese experts introduced the kaizen methods to promote worker participation and sustained skill development. Collectively, these cases demonstrate how Japan’s cooperative projects increased industrial capacity and disseminated manufacturing knowledge in diverse cultural and historical settings.