4. Japanese Management: Strengths to Preserve

The chapter analyzes the management principles that form the foundation of Japanese corporations’ strengths, and identifies the ideas and principles of behavior that deserve to be preserved. In Japan, it argues, the organizational principles and the structures of social relationships that originated in the traditional family system went beyond the level of the actual family unit and were transferred into modern corporations, and that the trust cultivated and reproduced in this process was accumulated as “social capital.” Four particular strengths of Japanese management born out of Japanese-style social capital are presented, drawing attention to several specific examples and showing how these qualities have helped fortify Japanese companies today.