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Some Cultural Aspects of Japanese Organizations
Publication Date:197910
Book title: unpublished paper (submitted to Institute for US-Japan Relations)
Some Cultural Aspects of Japanese Organizations (19791000)
Submitted to Institute for US-Japan Relations, San Francisco State University
One of the basic themes in Japanese culture is that the people of Japan are essentially "achievement-oriented" rather than "ascription-oriented". Of course, there are some areas where ascribed status is dominant. For instance, the status of the masters of traditional arts such as the tea ceremony or flower arrangement is usually ascribed, passed on from a father to his son over the centuries. The same process may apply to those in family-owned small businesses as well. But the key positions of power and wealth are more or less held by those individuals who achieve status through their own energy and ambition.
A good - and the most famous - example of such an achievement-oriented figure in Japanese history in the past was Toyotomi Hideyoshi, a renowned hero of the 15th Century. According to historical evidence, he was born into an obscure family of poor peasants in the central part of Japan. In his childhood, he decided to move out of his village, and after a series of incidents, he finally succeeded in becoming retainer of Oda Nobunaga, the local lord. Hideyoshi worked very hard for Nobunaga, who, by his military strength, expanded his power over almost all of Japan. After the death of Nobunaba, Hideyoshi succeeded to his position and continued to expand this power. As a result, he found himself to be the most powerful and dominant individual in the whole of Japan. He was eventually appointed by the Emperor as the supreme military commander and, substantially, as governor of Japan. In a word, he reached the top position in the country through a series of military excursions and diplomatic negotiations.
Hideyoshi's biographies, I many different versions, have been widely read among the public since the 16th Century, and he became the model for "success stories" in Japan. Similar achievement-oriented figures appeared in the middle of the 19th Century. As historians of modern Japan agree, those who took initiatives in the Meiji Revolution of 1868 were, without a single exception, young people who belonged to the lower-class Samurai. Under old feudal regime, such people were not even permitted to see the lords. But they managed to design and succeed in the revolution against them, and early in the 1870's, these young rebels became ministers of the new government. They also demonstrated that, regardless of one's family background and place of origin, a person could achieve social, economic, and political success.
This tradition of achievement and success has been inherited by contemporary Japanese society. Indeed, many of the internationally famous industrial manufacturers of Japan today started their businesses at the bottom of the business world. Mr. Honda, the founder of Honda Motor CO., was a small businessman who ran a bicycle shop in the 1940s. The top executives of the Sony Corporation were young Navy engineers who found themselves jobless at the end of the war. Mr. Matsushita, the man who built up the electronic kingdom of Panasonic, came from a small rural village. Former Prime Minister Tanaka of Japan was born in a poor peasant's family in the northern part of Japan and received no education beyond primary school.
Many foreign observers in the past have tended to look at Japan as a hierarchical, vertical, and rigid society, and these observations may be justifiable. But at the same time, it should be emphasized that Japan has been, and still is, one of the most flexible societies in the world as far as internal social mobility is concerned. One may argue that the upward social mobility as depicted in "success stories" belongs to mythology rather than reality, but the major reason that Japanese today are so eager for education is that they remain firm in their belief that a good education is the key to success. Indeed, the Japanese are more or less uncertain about their individual futures; a person from a poor family may "strike it rich", while the son of a millionaire may lose all the money he inherited from his father. A closer look at family histories in Japan will reveal that, very often, the status and occupation of a family change drastically within four or five generations. Ups and downs are very common, and in Japanese usage, according to Yanagita Kunio, "ancestors" usually means only the previous three generations of the family. In other words, "ancestors" in Japan are almost synonymous with one's great-grand parents, and it is very rare that people associate themselves with remote ancestors of, say the 15th Century. As a matter of fact, there is an expression in Japanese, "I will be the ancestor" - meaning that the person decides to become a success to build a foundation for the generations to come.
As is apparent from the preceding discussion, Japan is a very competitive society. For instance, Japanese children have to go through what is known as the "examination hell". The entrance examination to major universities is very severe, and often only one out of twenty applicants can pass the exam. It is rather common for high school graduates to spend a year or two at preparatory schools until they finally are admitted to one of the universities. Sometimes the "examination hell" takes place even at the primary school (or kindergarten) level, since many of the most reputable private universities have affiliated primary and high schools.
Moreover, graduation from a good university does not guarantee graduates good job opportunities. The graduates of prestigious institutions may have an advantage, but to be recruited by big business and government, an applicant must pass yet another very competitive examination. In other words, the life cycle of a Japanese is an incessant series of examinations and competitions. Even if a person is fortunate enough to become an employee of a big business corporation or a government agency, he or she must prepare for another series of competitions with peers. For instance, a business firm may employ 100 new university graduates every year, but these new employees know that only one or two of them will stay on as candidates for the top executive posts, and that the majority must leave the company at the age of 55 or 60.
An observer may think that all this competitiveness must make people psychologically unstable, even neurotic. However, in comparison with other competitive societies, the incidence of mental illness among people working in big business or the government complex is surprisingly low. The only reason for this low rate of psychological trouble with the "organization man" in Japan is the fact that once one becomes a member of the organization, his employment is secure for his lifetime. Unless his conduct is extremely deviant from the norms set by common sense (such as to be convicted in a criminal case), his position as an employee is guaranteed by the employer. Of course, there are processes of "selection" on the part of the management. Some employees get promoted while others do not. But the wage system in Japanese organizations is usually based on seniority and on the number of years an employee has worked for the organization. Therefore, the amount of base salary earned by a person is determined by age, regardless of the person's status. Among those who were recruited in the same year, one or two may get positions as section chiefs while others stay without a title, but the base pay scale will remain the same. The only difference will be an extra "allowance" for those who have higher positions, and a difference in the amount of the "bonus" one gets from the management.
Not only that, in order to "save the face" of an employee who is behind on th escalator of promotions, the organization often provides devices to make the person feel comfortable in continuing his work. For instance, a company may even create a small subsidiary firm to provide a place for, to save, these potential drop-outs. As a result, there is much less psychological frustration and anxiety on the part of employees when the situation is compared with other competitive societies such as the U.S.
Moreover, once a person is "in", then the group protects the person in many ways. The employee enjoys fringe benefits such as low-interest, long-term housing loans, all kinds of recreational facilities, discounts for the purchase of commodities through company cooperatives, etc. Medicine in Japan is 100% socialized, and therefore there is no medical expense. Above all, management does not discharge anybody, even in extreme financial difficulties. During the recession of 1973 and 1974, when most textiles, electronic, and optical industries had to cut production to 70% of their normal operation, no company fired a single employee. Instead, the management somehow financed the paychecks and encouraged the employees to ""study" (quite literally; they read, attended company-sponsored lectures, or took more professional training) while the factories stopped production. Many foreign observers, especially those American businessmen who were quite used to layoffs and discharge of personnel under similar situations, were surprised at the way Japanese management handled the potential unemployment. Some thought that the Japanese were crazy in terms of their cost-profit calculation.
The managerial decision not to fire anybody came from two sources. On the other hand, there has been a well-established belief among Japanese management that the "people" resources, the human resources, are the most valuable. This belief is more ethical than logical, but management did not want to see the employees and their families "on the street" without a job. At the same time, management was very much concerned about morale. Since a company is a "family" where people are supposed to live harmoniously, such a "cruel" decision as to discharge employees might cause serious skepticism and demoralization the part of other employees. Because of these factors, management did not take "cruel" actions. Indeed, in many companies, executives decided not to take their own paychecks or cut down on their own salaries, while the factories were not in their full scale operation; instead, they guaranteed the paychecks of the employees.
Under normal circumstances, as well, management takes a very generous views vis-à-vis employees. Basically, they have an empirical philosophy known as "the law of 2:6:2", meaning that in any business firm, the top 20% of people bring profits to the company, while 60% are mediocre and the bottom 20% tend to be quite incompetent. According to American business philosophy, the 20% at the bottom should be discharged. But Japanese businessmen know that even if these people are gone, then there will be another new 20% at the bottom. In that sense, Japanese business executives are fatalistic, and they may be right. For the bottom 20%, therefore, a company creates positions such as the officer in charge of maintaining the company's archives, a position which does not have much to do with day-to-day business activities. This arrangement is usually called "tekizai tekisho" which means "the proper position for the proper person".
This managerial view of personnel affairs reminds me of a very philosophical "Rakugo" (comical vaudeville story) which most Japanese know as a favorite. The story goes as follow. Once upon a time, there was a merchant who had several employees helping him run his store. He and his wife also worked in the store. One day, however, the thought occurred to him that having so many people around might be a waste of money. So he fired three, and tried to run the store with two along with his wife and himself. To his surprise, he found that they could do the business as before, though each person had to work a little bit harder. Then, his second thought was that maybe just his wife and himself could carry on the business. So he fired the remaining two employees. After they left, he and his wife worked even harder, but, as a result, he found that they could still run the business. Then he came to another thought. Maybe he could run the store by himself, even without the help of his wife. He thought that his wife was just another waste, and so he decided to divorce her. Now he was the only person running the store, and he was astonished to learn that one man (himself) could carry on the business just as before, though he had to work much harder. After some more contemplation, he came to the conclusion hat he, too, was not necessary to run the business. Therefore, as a logical outcome, he committed suicide.
The implication of this joke is that organizational staffing may seem to include many unproductive people from certain viewpoints, but seen from another viewpoint, every single individual is indispensable, and this "Rakugo" story may be a clue to understanding some otherwise "irrational" Japanese organizational philosophy. Japanese management, in other words, is clever enough not to become the kind of person represented in the story.
In traditional Japan, family ties were very strong. They still are. However, many aspects of protection and security which used to come from families have been replaced by those provided by the business firms to which one belongs, though the lives of white-collar workers after their retirement is often difficult, especially in an era where the average life expectancy of Japanese people is getting longer and the country as a whole must anticipate a general trend of inflation almost semi-permanently. (Before the war, it was customary for those who retired to purchase two or three small houses out of their retirement bonus and to live on the rental income quite comfortably). As one of the top executives of a big corporation ironically said, Japanese business firms are working not only for business purposes but also serve as social welfare agencies.
In preparation for the world to come, in the 21st Century, the government is now trying to take over these aspects of familial care for individuals from business organizations. Very symbolically, in the Japanese language, the word "Kokka" stands for a nation-state, and the literal translation of the word is "nation family" or "family nation".
Kato Hidetoshi's Data Base
Document ID Number: 3193