An Investigation of Japanese Corporate Culture, Its Trends and Changes

Today Japan has the third largest economy in the world – their economic boom in the 1980’s, solidified their status as one of the leading countries, when it comes to buying power and technology, even with a working culture that seems foreign for the majority of western countries. With their at least +40 working hours a week, one has to be committed to both the work as well as the workplace. So committed to their work, that death-by-over-work, is a common phrase in Japan. During the 80’s the most prestigious job one could get would be a ‘life-time-job’, and the only way to get such a job, was if one had perfect marks on everything. This has created privately owned kindergartens, middle- and high schools, which all have ties to different prestigious universities and respected companies, where only the rich can afford to admit their children. This also means that a plethora of lower- and middle- income families basically are excluded from these schools. Only if the parents get a second, or perhaps a third job, would they be able to afford these, or if the child is gifted enough to be

Increasing productivity and sparking motivation in employees, are challenges that managers, businesses, and organizations have struggled with for centuries. While there are many beliefs about which method(s) yield the best results, and what is considered to be the desired result, a ‘one-size-fits-all’ management technique still does not exist. The current movement in psychology, called Positive Psychology, focuses on what is “right” in an individual, and not on their faults. This basic concept is starting to extend its influences into the workplace, making it seem that Positive Psychology may become the key ingredient corporate culture, and all places of employment alike, have needed to promote success and satisfaction in their lines of work.

To understand the organizational culture of a company, one needs to start by looking at the history. Lakeshore Learning Materials was born from a divorced mother of three named Ethelyn Kaplan, who took a dream and a chance by moving her family to California in 1954 to open a toy store. When she started noticing that teachers were interested in her material, Ethelyn realized that she needed to expand her business into educational materials. 60 years later, Lakeshore Learning Materials has grown into a company with over 2000 employees, 60 retail stores throughout the United States and growing. Lakeshore Learning Materials is currently headed by Ethelyn’s grandsons, Bo and Josh Kaplan. Under the supervision of Bo and Josh, Lakeshore continues to be a leader in the Educational Materials, yet still able to keep the family culture that their grandmother started. Highest quality customer service and hard work are the core values that shape Lakeshore’s Organizational Strategy. These high expectations aren’t hard for employees at Lakeshore because the company is so loved by everyone that works there, that they give nothing less than the best.

Economic force refers to those forces that affect how much money people and organisation can spend and how they choose to spend it. This force examines the economy as a broad picture and its performance owing to the global trends. This consists of the deflation rate, and inflation

In today’s modern world, we encounter a wide diversity of people from Americans to Japanese. However, as we encounter such people, we ask ourselves, how much do we know about their culture or even about their family roots. Personally, the encounters with many Americans have been peacefully satisfying to point of acknowledging their culture and traditions. On the other hand, the Japanese community is still a cloudy subject that needs a clear path of understanding. Therefore, as more information integrates to our multicultural world, the Japanese community need to be valued, unified, and appreciated by many other cultures, including ours.

The United States business culture is based on a direct and informal approach. This means that “rolling your sleeves up” and getting down to business is respected and expected when working in the United States. (Executive Planet) On the other hand, the Japanese culture is a complex and multi-layered system, which developed over thousands of years. This is very much apparent when analyzing the business culture. The Japanese put a lot of focus on having a hierarchical, group-oriented society, and aim to avoid direct confrontation, maintaining the workplace harmony on a high level.(Export.org) The long-term focus on culture and tradition caused the business culture to be very formal and complex, a complete opposite of the American culture.

Japanese culture is a blend of modern western culture and traditional Asian culture (Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Japan, n.d.) And great value is placed on the need for harmony, consensus decision-making and social conformity and especially close co-operation between government and private enterprise, this emphasis on consensus will need to be taken into account in business negotiations (Griffin & Pustay, 2015, p. 61) Positive market aspects are Japan’s high! Education levels, with universal elementary education and literacy (Abe, 2013; Institute of Export, 2015). However, problem workforce skill levels should the need arise to employ local labour with 83% of employers having problems filling vacancies; these positions include sales representative, engineers and IT staff (Manpower Group, 2015). This may require sourcing staff from Australia. Should this be the case it will be necessary to apply for a certificate of eligibility and a visa for periods of 3 months, up to 5 years, processing for this usually takes 3 months (Embassy of Japan in Australia, 2014).

Japanese culture is filled with creativity, especially in Tokyo. The best way to describe Tokyo is to compare it to New York. In America New York is the heart of fashion, business and music. Basically it was the place to be or go to if you wanted your dreams to come true. Tokyo is a mirror of these themes for the Japanese people. One of the attractions in Tokyo specifically is Anime. The first generations to begin Anime started in the late 1910’s. From then on Anime has become the core content to view one of the most famous animated series in the world. Especially since Anime started in Japan, it’s very likely that you’ll see a lot of the Japanese culture within every animated piece. Two animated movies that have been greatly obsessed with not only in Japan, but also all around the world are Akira and Michiko & Hatchin. Both movies were created by two different director who rose in the Anime popularity not so far from one another. Katsuhiro Otomo was the director who created Akira which was published in 1988, and Sayo Yamamoto was the director who created Michiko & Hatchin. With animation being a competitive field where directors are trying to create the most critically acclaimed filmed, some of the factors that are often ignored is whether the director was a male or female. If you were to watch these movies one after the other you would be amazed with the overall results of each one, but what is it that makes one movie better than the other and how does it play an effect.

I have decided to discuss the Japanese culture because we have the foreign exchange students visiting us October seventeenth though the nineteenth and I thought it would be nice to learn about their culture beforehand. I also would like to learn more about the Japanese culture because when I become a nurse, I want to be aware of cultural differences. I will be giving a brief overview of the culture, talking about their religion, community customs, family roles and organization, how they communicate, and their healthcare as well as how they view nurses.

To come to the point, the work ‘An analysis of Japanese capitalism’ analyzed clearly that the Japanese capitalism is not a proper capitalism, though it is the one that has a tumble, abnormal or savage character, which was retained basically by the military feature and semi-feudality in Japan.

The country of Japan is a country that has a very steep and rich sense of culture. There are many topics that play a factor in their culture and are key factors to understand to be able to obtain cultural awareness. The first thing to understand is what culture means, the national history, and how that contributes into their society today. You will also need to understand the geography as well as military conflict. You will also need to be able to understand the national weather. The last thing you need to be able to know are the civil considerations, as well as people that make of the nation of Japan

Modern day Japan’s culture is mainly like the the U.S. in many ways for example some of there music is called J Pop which is like our modern day Music the also goes by Pop some J Pop singers will include Ayumi Hamasaki and many others. In the us pop singers will be noticed by the name of Taylor Swift or Katy Perry. Even though Japan tries to modernize themselves ads best as the could the still use their language that they used long ago. They still have their ancient furniture that their great grandparents used before their time time of existence but it is mainly used for decoration.

Responsibly visiting another country is one of the most critical aspects to have as an international traveler. When you visit another country, whether it be for work, family, or vacation; you’re, per say, “not in Kansas anymore.” To the natives in the country you are visiting, you are foreign to them, and they expect a level of acclimation or respect to the culture they are used to. It takes a certain amount of cultural awareness to be able to properly visit that country while not disturbing the native ideals and ecosystems there. Many visitors of other countries will disregard social norms and customs; including violating the environment and other things that the native population might deem offensive. One great example is how to finish a meal at a restaurant. While in the States, finishing your plate completely is seen as a compliment and is expected in many cultures; however, countries throughout Europe see this as an offense to the chef, as it conveys that he did not prepare enough food and that you are unsatisfied with your meal. By acclimating to their customs when it comes to how much food is left on your plate; it can help avoid offending the chef and/or the server who assists you throughout your meal. Japan is a country that has deeply rooted cultural patterns that have been shaped throughout history. While its governmental and military history has been turbulent at times, it is a nation that highly values art, such as literature and theater. Being a country that

I have documented in the previous paper for this class my beef with the authors: that they have a ready-made set of excuses absolving workers of all of the blame for downward spirals in productivity - rather, it’s the cold sterility of computer technology, or mergers, or globalization, or cost-cutting, or reengineering, or outsourcing, or some combination of the above that is to blame for the unraveling of the corporate culture as we know it. In the words of Charlie Brown, “Good grief.” Perhaps it’s because I’ve never been a part of a strong, warm workplace culture, but I believe that the authors underestimate the value of just coming in, doing your job, and not worrying about having a social life or friends at work, and not carrying on about awful the employment landscape is today. Those things are all nice and might be life-affirming and lend "meaning" to a person 's life, but doing the job is paramount to all of the above. (It 's not politically correct to point this out.)

The most important concerns with management are similar in all parts of the world, they include making effective decisions, coordinating employment security with other needs such as productivity, flexibility, acceptance of change in the company, and emerging young professional managers. The Japanese apply different principles and have developed different approaches to handle these issues, especially in business behavior.