21st Century Japanese Management

Japan's economy and businesses are entering this century with new management systems but their values unchanged. Drawing on the author's analysis of the 1950s, financial systems, personnel management methods, role of the corporation and R&D capabilities are re-assessed to provide a comprehensive analysis of Japan's financial and industrial changes.

Following the economic crisis, Japan is on its way to regaining its position as an economic powerhouse. The bubble burst in the 1990s, and a decade of recession led to numerous changes in Japanese society and management. J-Management: Fresh Perspectives on the Japanese Firm in the 21st Century presents a comprehensive overview of the reforms and changes in the Japanese economy and their impact on management processes. J-Management gives insights into the current situation of Japanese firms, explains Japanese views on current developments, and answers questions about contemporary Japanese firms, such as ● How have Japanese firms handled the recession, and how have they reinvented themselves after it? ● Is lifetime employment still relevant in today's Japanese society? ● Does the seniority system still apply? ● How has globalization impacted today's Japanese corporations? ● How advanced is gender equality in the J-firm? ● What challenges do foreign workers face in the J-company? Written by students at Sophia University in Tokyo, J-Management not only contains an overview of relevant sources on the topics, but also includes the personal experiences and opinions of these young, international writers who provide comprehensive, fresh, and insightful commentary from the Japanese perspective.

Why are businesses in Japan so successful? Can Japanese and Chinese "open" management styles be adopted by Western companies? These are just some of the questions the author, well-versed in Asian culture, sets out to respond to in this thought-provoking book.

Japanese management is currently considered to be in crisis. This book analyzes the degree to which the Japanese management model is changing, in order to regain its competitiveness. It brings together up-to-date research on this important topic by a number of the best known American, Asian and European scholars of Japanese management. A broad variety of management areas such as strategy, corporate governance, globalization, organization, finance, HRM, production, innovation, organizational learning and retailing is covered.

Following the burst of the “economic bubble” in the 1990s, many Japanese companies were required to reform their management systems. Changes in corporate governance were widely discussed during that decade in studies on “Japanese management.” These discussions have resulted in little progress, however, since Americanization became the dominant discourse concerning governance and the management system. There have been few studies conducted from an academic point of view on the internal aspects of organizations that practice traditional Japanese management theory. This book examines how, and the degree to which, the development of market principles accompanying the advances of globalization has affected the traditional Japanese system. It focuses on four aspects of corporate management: management institutions, strategy, organization, and human resource management. The aggregation of the new management system in Japanese companies is regarded as a distinctive Japanese-style system of management. With emphasis on these four aspects, research was conducted on the basic structure of that system, following changes in the market, technology, and society. Further, specific functions of the basic structure of the Japanese-style management system were studied. Those findings are included here, along with a discussion and analysis of the direction of future changes.

Between 2002 and 2008, Japan's economy saw constant expansion, a record among the world's advanced economies and Japan's longest period of economic growth since World War II. This remarkable achievement came about because of a transformation of Japanese business practices. This transformation was guided by strategies that enabled Japan's leading corporations, previously diversified to an exceptionally high degree, to become leaner, more nimble, and more competitive at home and in the global economy. In Choose and Focus, the first in-depth account of this strategic inflection point in Japanese business, Ulrike Schaede argues that the emerging practices and attitudes have created a New Japan. Drawing on profiles of several corporations, including Panasonic, Takeda and Astellas, Softbank, kakaku.com, and SBI E*Trade, Schaede explains how the fundamental principles of Japan's economy have been overturned. "Choose and focus" strategies, whereby corporations concentrate on core areas and spin off unrelated businesses, have completely altered the strategic logic of Japan's previous industrial architecture. These surprisingly aggressive moves, Schaede finds, have created new market opportunities for start-up enterprises and foreign investors, as well as a wave of mergers, acquisitions, and hostile takeovers that have shaken Japanese companies out of complacency. Unlike the advances made by Japanese firms in the 1970s and 1980s, the current transformation is taking root in component and materials industries rather than in consumer products. Because of the relative obscurity of the changes and the overshadowing story of China's ascent, the Japanese corporate revolution has gone largely unnoticed among Western observers. Choose and Focus is required reading for anyone doing business in Japan or trying to understand how contemporary Japanese business works and how Japanese corporations have reinvented themselves to face the challenges—and realize the opportunities—of the 21st century.

First published in 1991, Japanese Management succeeds in filling a major gap by providing a thorough account of the evolution and day-to-day practices of management within the Japanese firm. The 14 chapters not only build the historical framework and modern cultural, economic, and social setting, but also effectively deal with the process of management. The final two chapters address some future challenges facing Japanese firms as they operate in the global business environment. This comprehensive book is a must read for students of business management.