Search results

During the 1950s and 1960s the Japanese government promoted industrial organization in the form of a “competitive oligopoly” and fostered the institutionalizing of the strong competitive investment‐drive among large‐scale enterprises which came to characterize her economy. Reviews the economy of post‐war Japan as an economic system, and the necessity for government intervention and market competition to promote industrialization.

Joseph A. Schumpeter advocated a corporatist principle of economic organization enunciated by Pius XI in the encyclical Quadragesimo Anno. Schumpeter insisted that a corporatism of associations could provide social leadership and economic co‐ordination to ensure a stable, high employment economy, while maintaining individual freedom. To implement a corporatist system, moral reform would be necessary. Recently, economists have asserted that post‐war Japan approximates to Schumpeter′s corporatist model. Suggests that Japan′s post‐war economy is in conflict with two of the fundamental features of Schumpeter′s corporatism. First, the problem of resource allocation is often solved by bureaucratic intervention rather than by co‐ordination by private producers. Second, Japanese morals and ethics emphasize group efforts rather than Schumpeter′s requisite individual egoistic ethic. Concludes that the practicality of Schumpeter′s corporatism is not substantiated by post‐war Japan.

It is difficult to unravel the thread of W. Edwards Deming’s impact on the post‐war industrial recovery of Japan and its transformation from a manufacturer of shabby copies of Western goods to a pre‐eminent producer of high‐quality goods. His name is woven, however, into the fabric of Japanese industrial history. Deming helped launch a campaign for institutionalizing “quality control” within the Japanese manufacturing sector, which adopted a number of the terms and concepts he advocated. In fact, his pedagogical approach dovetailed perfectly with, and helped to provide a philosophical basis for, the infusion of quality as an intrinsic part of the production process. Most importantly, Deming was conveying these concepts on the eve of the “electronics revolution”, where unparalleled precision, cleanliness, and consistency of product were essential metrics determining success or failure. However, the true extent of Deming’s influence may never be known as it was caught up in the complex dynamics that characterized Japan’s industrial resurgence from the late 1940s through the 1980s.

The purpose of this paper is to construct historical perceptions of coal use in India and Japan in different historical time periods through the process of analyzing the narratives and discourses in academic, media and trade literatures.

In terms of methodology, this paper will utilize discourse theories/analysis and interpretive history to study the subject matter. In this paper, specific literatures on energy as well as general literatures on themes like technology are utilized.

The finding of the paper is that discourses and narratives about coal energy for example are constantly negotiated, constructed and then deconstructed again to fit and adapt to new realities, including the availability of newer technologies or priorities and concerns about the environment.

The research implication and originality of the paper is to demonstrate empirically the idea of the existence of narrative communities debating the use of coal energy in India and Japan. It highlights the communities of stakeholders interested in coal energy resource. The practical application and value of the ideas is the intellectual process of categorizing various contemporary narratives about coal energy use specific to two of the largest consumers and importers of coal in Asia. Through historical narratives of its past and recent coal use, the role and function of coal in the overall energy mix of India and Japan are instructive. The research limitation lies in its non‐quantitative nature and reliance on a combination of academic and trade secondary sources.

The purpose of this paper is to open up the Anglo‐centred argument in gender and accounting by exploring the relationship of women and accounting in a different social and cultural context.

The paper draws on in‐depth ethnographical studies to explore the real‐ life experiences of 66 Japanese women (9 percent of all women CPAs) who have entered the accounting profession from a range of backgrounds and generations.

The paper finds that some women accounting professionals in Japan have brought about changes in accounting practice there by applying a uniquely feminine approach in their day‐to‐day work. Their strict approach is attuned to the ongoing globalization in the field of accountancy, and this has helped to widen the opportunities for women.

This paper demonstrates that, in order to understand the issues surrounding gender and accounting, it is important to consider the prevailing social context and its underpinnings. In the Japanese “interdependent” social context, gender is intertwined in the process of accounting to establish its “independent” status.

It has been argued that the unique social and cultural context in Japan will make it difficult for the country to converge its accounting and auditing with global standards. By incorporating a gender perspective, the paper aims to clarify the social assumptions under which accounting and auditing operate in Japan.

By making a close analysis of the process by which Japanese women have entered the accounting profession, the paper reveals the connection between the growing significance of auditing and the changing role and position of women.

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.

Increases in the number of jobs for part‐time workers has had little impact on the rate of unionisation for part‐time workers, the majority of whom are women. The argument run by union officials in Japan is that women, and thus part‐time workers, are not interested in industrial issues. This study explores an alternative explanation which is that union officials and “core” male workers are excluding women and part‐time workers in order to protect their own privileged position. Whilst it is acknowledged that the organisational structure of enterprise unions makes it difficult to incorporate the needs of part‐time workers, it is the attitudes of “core” male workers and union officials to women as paid workers that is the major hurdle to the non‐unionisation of part‐time workers. For women and part‐time workers there is no power in the union.

There are a number of reasons why entrepreneurship has struggled in the Japanese context. Since the historical period from post‐war Japan until the 1990s, a large‐firm “institutional logic” prevailed. For example, in post‐war Japan, large dominant firms emerged that were supported by government policies and heavily structured around sub‐contracting. Such firms strongly influenced Japanese human and financial capital and, because they offered life‐time employment along with better pay and benefits, they quickly became the employment of choice for talented individuals. As a result, few talented people chose to become entrepreneurs, which in turn led to a cycle of sluggish venture capital investment and the perception of high risk. This short perspective‐style article aims to focus on the recent institutional changes in Japan which appear to have led to more women engaging in entrepreneurship.

This is a practitioner‐oriented piece reporting on work being done to support the emergence of women entrepreneurs in Japan. The author considers whether the recent changes are sufficient to allow women to reach their full potential in the Japanese business landscape.

The fortress of traditional Japanese business, which largely excludes women, appears to be surrounded by the “cloud” of a growing and necessary group of women who are a vital resource amidst Japan's otherwise shrinking labor market. Women consumers played a critical role in the emergence of the digital economy of Japan and are now playing a key role politically.

This is only a practitioner‐perspective article.

A greater understanding of changes in institutional and regulative logic as well as the role of technology could potentially impact policy and practice.

This is an original study focussing on the world's second‐largest economy and an area of significance for stimulating innovation in the context of Japan. There is also potential for extending theory.

Provides a general description of the movement for library services for children and children’s libraries, together with the modern public library movement in post‐war Japan. The Bunko as a home library, or a community‐based small library, is quite characteristic of Japan. The Bunko movement played an important role in improving the reading environment of children and the library service for children. The Chusho‐report (1963) and Shimin‐no‐Toshokan (1970) changed the concept of the public library in Japan. They contributed to an increase in reading facilities for children and the establishment of new public libraries. Children’s libraries at the national, public and private level are also described.