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The performance of a new detergent‐free dry cleaning machine has been investigated and compared to conventional machines. The new machine includes a highly efficient system for solvent purification, and effectively cleans wool, cotton and synthetic fibers without the need of detergent. Its performance is similar or in some cases better than the conventional machines, which contaminate the clothes with detergent. Since detergent is not needed and solvent is efficiently used in the new machine, environmental impacts and operation costs are reduced, and the negative side effects on the properties of clothes are eliminated.

This paper sets out to explain the poor nature of industrial relations in Meiji Japan (1868-1911), especially the puzzling lack of Neo-Confucianist values.

This paper combines two approaches. First, it draws on and scrutinizes the major literature. Second, it uses a case approach.

First, we find that a widely accepted assumption used in many management (and other) studies on Japan, namely, that Neo-Confucianism was institutionalized in Tokugawa Japan (1603-1867), is distorted. Second, we find that the poor nature of labor relations in Meiji Japan can be explained by and is the product of a multitude of factors, both indigenous and imported from abroad.

First, this paper provides a novel explanation for the poor nature of labor relations in Meiji Japan. Second, this paper corrects a widely held assumption on Japan that is frequently used in management studies.