This comprehensive analysis of Japanese management treats four related but distinct subject matters: the economic, social, cultural, and political environment pertinent to Japan's industrial and managerial system; the ideologies and background of the Japanese business elite; contemporary industrial structure and the relationship between government and business; and managerial practices (organized structure, personnel practices, decision-making).
Since large-scale industrialization began nearly one hundred years ago, Japan's managerial system has sought to sustain an ideology of continual adaptation and innovation in terms of the socioeconomic and political environment. It is this ideological flexibility, Dr. Yoshino maintains, that has been chiefly responsible for the high efficiency and effectiveness of Japan's modern industrial and managerial system. Ideology is crucial to Japanese big business, and during the chaotic, crisis-filled years immediately following World War II - with a whole system of private enterprise verging on total collapse – a business association called the Doyukai was formed to articulate a new ideology. At that time (1946), when Japanese management was exhausted by a militant union movement involving five million laborers, the Doyukai adopted the role of “partnership” with union leaders. It was subsequently able to shift its role to “ultimate harmonizer” of conflicting interests (1956), and later to a bold assertion of the legitimacy of the profit motive in private enterprise (1964).
The industrial and managerial system has been a relatively unknown segment of Japanese contemporary society, and in a remarkable chapter on the new business leadership, the author reveals that the managerial elite occupies a prominent position in society. Public opinion polls frequently cite prominent businessmen as “most respected or admired,” and publications on business leaders and their philosophies often reach the best-seller list.
The Japanese corporate environment, however, is undergoing rapid change. There is a growing awareness among the more progressive managerial elite that today a basic reassessment of traditional managerial practices is necessary. One of Dr. Yoshino's objectives has been a study of the manner in which leading Japanese firms are carrying out modernization techniques and the problems they have uncured is the process. In the search for Nihonteki Keiei, or Japanese way of management,” industry has emphasized departure from the traditional paternalistic system; yet this erosion of paternalism necessitates a new ideology, central to the Japanese industry depends to a great extent on how thoroughly and immediately management can close the gap between management can close the gap between past practices and the modern environment.
Based on material obtained from lengthy interviews with over 200 executives in leading Japanese manufacturing firms, as well as from a variety of secondary sources, Japan's Managerial System will be of unusual interest to both business executives and students in comparative management. Dr. Yoshino provides a long-needed insight and explication of internal management organization of internal management organization and practice within Japan's historical and environmental framework. His work is germane to all industrial management organization and practice within Japan's historical and environmental framework. His work is germane to all industrial management, for the problems that challenge Japanese's management are shared by a large corporations in every highly industrialized society.
