1 Japanese Business Concepts You Should Know Edited by Parissa Haghirian Sophia University Tokyo, Japan 2 Contents About this Book ......................................................................................... 4 The Editor ................................................................................................ 5 Japanese Business Concepts You Should Know ................................................. 6 Contributors of This Book ............................................................................ 94 Bibliography ............................................................................................ 96 Further Reading on Japanese Management .................................................... 102 3 About this Book This book is the result of one of my “Management in Japan” classes held at the Faculty of Liberal Arts at Sophia University in Tokyo. Students wrote this dictionary entries, I edited and updated them. The document is now available as a free e-book at my homepage www.haghirian.com. We hope that this book improves understanding of Japanese management and serves as inspiration for anyone interested in the subject. Questions and comments can be sent to [email protected]. Please inform the editor if you plan to quote parts of the book. Japanese Business Concepts You Should Know Edited by Parissa Haghirian First edition, Tokyo, October 2019 4 The Editor Parissa Haghirian is Professor of International Management at Sophia University in Tokyo. She lives and works in Japan since 2004 and is an internationally renowned expert in international management with a focus on Japanese management. Parissa Haghirian studied Japanese Studies at the University of Vienna (MA 1999) and holds a Master degree (2000) and PhD in Business Administration from the Vienna University of Economics and Business Administration (2003). She is also a visiting professor at HEC Paris, Keio University, Waseda University, Aalto University and the University of Vienna. From 2011 to 2012 she held a professorship in Japanese Management at Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität (LMU) in Munich. Parissa has published several books and articles on the topic of Japanese management, and is the author of Understanding Japanese Management Practices (Business Expert Press, 2010), Multinationals and Cross-Cultural Management: The Transfer of Knowledge Within Multinational Corporations (Routledge 2010) and Successful Cross-cultural Management: a Guide for International Managers (Business Expert Press 2011). She is also the editor of Japanese Consumer Dynamics (Palgrave Macmillan, 2011), Case Studies in Japanese Management (Wspc 2011), the Routledge Handbook of Japanese Business and Management (Routledge 2016) and Business Development, Merger and Crisis Management of International Firms in Japan: Featuring Case Studies from Fortune 500 Companies (Wspc 2018). In 2019 she edited the free e-book Japanese Business Concepts You Should Know. Professor Haghirian advises multinational corporations on Japanese management, intercultural cooperation and coaches top managers in search of new potential for success and perspectives. She holds keynotes at conferences and corporate events in Europe and Asia. She lives in Tokyo and Vienna. Contact [email protected] www.haghirian.com 5 Japanese Business Concepts You Should Know amae 甘え Indulgent dependency Behavior which shows your desire to be loved, your expectation that someone will take care of you, and your deep desire for acceptance— perhaps, even an unconscious desire for dependency, coupled with a degree of submissiveness—is characterized by amae. A person manifesting amae may beg or plead, or alternatively act selfishly and indulgently, all the while secure in the knowledge that the caregiver will forgive them. amae, then, signifies a wish for dependency, whether on one’s family, partner, or boss. Although amae may be found all over the world, Japanese culture emphasizes it particularly strongly—as reflected in the fact that the Japanese language assigns it a specific word. amae comes from the verb amaeru, meaning “to depend on the benevolence of others,” “behave self-indulgently,” or “to presume on some special relationship.” amae is mostly shown to members of one’s own group, and does not apply to strangers. The psychoanalyst Doi Takeo has elaborated on this aspect of Japanese psychology. According to Doi, Japanese people do not feel comfortable or right in any relationship that does not include amae, which he defines as an indulgent dependency rooted in the mother–child bond. amae is experienced by the child as a feeling of dependency or a desire to be loved, while the mother experiences satisfaction and fulfillment through overindulgence and overprotectiveness of her child. amae concerns the duties and sacrifices involved in belonging to a group. It is a strength of the group relationship, and plays a fundamental role in a collectivist society, as is the case in Japan, where group orientation is taken to be more important than individualism. A claim of amae is a claim of dependence. It often occurs when one first joins a company or school, where a person must quickly get integrated into a comfortable niche. The subordinate gets a channel through which to move upward; the superior gets someone to do their bidding; and, within the group, success is shared by all and guilt is diffused when something goes wrong. amae assists the process of creating harmonious interconnections within families, in companies, and between friends. Japanese do not usually confront each other, and it is very rare to see Japanese people arguing. amae is one of the tools which maintains this harmony. amae has many different manifestations and can be found everywhere: at home, in education and work relationships, in manga (漫画) and anime (アニメ), in Japanese pop music, etc. It is also relevant to business negotiations, where Japanese are more comfortable when they can identify the superior individual, who is expected to show benevolence and give concessions to the junior. It is interesting, though, to see how roles can be reversed during the negotiation process when it is the superior party who has to ask for concessions. Within a company, amae is an important part of the senior–junior relationship. In such pairings, the individual in the senior position expects the junior to accept unreasonable demands; meanwhile, the junior can expect help, indulgence, or forgiveness from the superior. Both presume some special relationship between them. A further example is the senpai–kōhai (先輩―後輩) relationship. The senpai is considered an older brother who is supposed to give guidance and show benevolence toward the kōhai. (J.B.) See also: senpai-kōhai, awase, giri, ganbaru and gaman amakudari 天下り Heaven descent 6 In its narrow sense, amakudari refers to the practice of providing top government officials with elite, high-paying jobs in private corporations after they retire. In a broader sense, it refers to two career paths available after retirement: entering public corporations, or the political arena. In their new positions, the former bureaucrats utilize their networks and insider knowledge from previous employment to maintain smooth relations with the ministries responsible for licensing and regulation. While amakudari is considered a central component of Japanese human management, recently this institution has come under criticism for being corrupt. Literally translated, amakudari means “descent from heaven.” Before World War II, civil servants believed they served the emperor, seen as a divine being that embodied every Japanese ideal. Working for the emperor was akin to being in heaven; the move from the public to the private sector marked one’s descent. While amakudari has historical roots in the Meiji period, it wasn’t until after World War II that it became institutionalized. Before the war, positions for retirees were individually negotiated; post-war, the secretariat’s office main responsibility became arranging jobs for bureaucrats, who were forced to retire by their early fifties. Faced with the need to respect the institutions of early retirement, lifetime employment, and seniority, amakudari was the perfect solution. In this sense, amakudari directly stems from the existence of these post-war institutions. Within a few years, the secretariat’s office had complete control over the best positions in the private sector. From 1949–1959 amakudari and yokosuberi (横滑り or sideways shift to another post) accounted for over 60% of post-retirement jobs. From a ministerial perspective, amakudari provides deferred compensation for civil servants, as well as enabling surveillance of private corporations. For government bureaucrats, obtaining an amakudari job is often equivalent to a promotion. These positions are highly sought after and intensely competitive, and so attract only the most talented personnel. amakudari thus provides the government with windows into the private sector, allowing the ministries to monitor them via their former staffers now working in senior private-sector positions. From a corporate perspective, amakudari helps private companies stay competitive in the market, reduce risks, and form a mutual basis of trust. After they move to their new jobs, the former bureaucrats provide their companies with information that would otherwise have been inaccessible, allowing them to stay current with the ministry that is regulating them and adapt accordingly. This engenders greater