2. Japanese Management: Changes and Survivals

The chapter looks at personnel and employment practices and the internal decision-making structure of Japanese companies. It traces the changes in these systems over the last quarter century, examines the current situation, and analyzes what has changed and what is likely to survive into the future. Following the collapse of the bubble economy in 1990, many companies began to reexamine and reform their established practices. Since the beginning of the 2000s, however, especially with the collapse of Lehman Brothers in 2008, many Japanese companies have begun reevaluating the systems introduced in the 1990s and have shifted tactics again to cope with problems arising from those systems. Watanabe scrutinizes this process and gives a view of what the systems will be like in the future.