Strategic management in major Japanese hightech companies

Since the early 1980s, there has been remarkable progress in advanced technology in Japan and in leading Western countries. What is the present situation in technological development in major Japanese industries and what are the implications for strategic management? The author describes how Japanese industries have harnessed new technologies and suggests a number of concepts which underly these trends. Given the imperatives of advanced technology, he emphasizes the importance of positioning the technology development strategy in the context of strategic management paying particular attention to developing an open organizational culture through a flexible corporate planning system.     

Japanese management philosophy: Can it be exported?

Japanese organizations have three prime characteristics. They are innovative firstly. They are growth oriented and they are sensitive to new opportunity. They are flexible organizations. Jobs are ambiguous and employees are willing to do any related jobs. They are also community organizations and the company will take care of the employees for their life-time. The organizations provide more opportunity for promotion and wage increase with small differentials. These features began to take clear shape after the war. Some of them have their roots in Japanese culture but many are the results of rational judgement, and many were transferred from the U.S. and other countries. It is therefore a misconception to think that these features are too indigenous to Japan to be transferred to other countries.     

Management Buyouts and Restructuring Japanese Corporations

This article presents the first examination of management and leveraged buyouts as a tool for restructuring Japanese corporations. Using archival research, a survey of private equity firms and management buyouts and case study evidence, this article examines the issues concerning the pressures for change. It studies what factors are facilitating the use of buyouts in the Japanese economy and how buyouts might contribute to the restructuring process. It argues that pressures in Japan are more likely to give rise to revitalising buyouts than buyouts focusing solely on efficiency improvements.     

Japan's new industrial era— I. Restructuring traditional industries

If the 20-odd years preceding 1973 were to be described in the history of the Japanese economy as a period of rapid growth, the following 10 years would be marked as a period of slow growth, or one of economic adjustment to the high cost of energy in the aftermath of the oil crises. Having adjusted to high oil prices, Japan is about to set sail on a brand-new course of further economic development. The mainstream of the new development is bound to be microelectronics technology and the progress of information and service-oriented industries. Although this emerging trend is unlikely to spark in the economy a momentum as powerful as was seen in the period of rapid growth, it has already demonstrated a revolutionary force in all levels of activity, from commodity, corporate and industrial levels to even the social level. Adding steam to the economy is the vitality of the private sector, offsetting the budgetary deficit with its well-timed, increased participation in infrastructural investment. Indeed, the Japanese economy has gathered enough momentum to grow at 5 per cent or more on the average in the coming years. In the meantime, developments on the international front have made it much easier to identify areas with and without growth potential; the former include the Pacific Basin region as it prepares for action in the front lines of the world economy. In the midst of these new trends, there is mounting pressure on Japan to commit itself to the world economy and bear its share of the leadership. This commitment will be the greatest challenge for the Japanese economy during the remaining years of this century.     

Conflict in foreign subsidiaries of Japanese and western multinational corporations: The impact of cultural distance and differences in home-host country combinations

This article investigates the degree of conflict between different groups of employees in MNC subsidiaries in relation to different home-host country combinations. More specifically, we compared the degree of conflict of Western subsidiaries in Japan and Japanese subsidiaries in the West. We based our comprehensive investigation on data from 617 US and German subsidiaries in Japan as well as Japanese subsidiaries in the USA and Germany (and, for comparative reasons, US subsidiaries in Germany and German subsidiaries in the US). Possibly rather surprisingly, our results indicate that different degrees of cultural distance between home and host country do not lead to different degrees of conflict in MNC subsidiaries. We suggest that expected conflicts, due to substantial cultural differences, induce employees to actively counteract such problems, leading ultimately to a reduction of real conflicts. Furthermore, while previous literature suggested that in particular Japanese subsidiaries in the West are prone to a high degree of conflicts, our findings suggest that Western subsidiaries in Japan are even more conflict-laden. This should caution Western companies against complacency when operating in Japan.     

日本经济发展与中日贸易的经济计量分析

基于向量自回归经济计量模型,分析中日贸易与日本经济发展的长期关系和因果关系等 问题. 将多变量时间序列间的单方向因果测度理论应用于中日两国宏观经济的实证分析,从因 果关系角度揭示了7 个主要宏观经济指标间长短期关系及相互作用机制,并从经济计量学的 角度阐明了在过去20 年中日经济发展的互补关系.     

Japanese Supply Chain Relationships in Recession

The remarkable nature of Japan’s supply chain relationships has been identified as a significant factor in its industrial success, especially in the automotive and electronics sectors. Yet, Japanese companies do not recognise the term ‘supply chain management’. For four decades Japan’s industrial giants developed sourcing strategies based on highly-pressured, customer-dominated supply relationships in which sub-contractors enjoyed the benefits of the success of their customers at the expense of yielding their autonomy. In 1991, the Japanese economy plunged into deep recession and has yet to recover. Large corporations now appear vulnerable and almost all Japan’s banks are technically insolvent. This article explains the ways in which recession has affected the supply chain relationships in Japan and the domestic and international sourcing strategies that shape them. Japanese industrial customers are now putting increased pressure on their suppliers to provide technical solutions and to develop links with other customers for the first time. The sub-structures of the keiretsu appear to be giving way to open competition with ‘parent’ firms selling equity in subsidiaries. Profound changes appear to be underway in Japanese industrial sourcing strategies—suppliers can no longer rely on retaining business simply by obedience and hard work. Instead, they face an open, fiercely competitive environment—at home and abroad. In this new order, Japanese suppliers are developing new competitive technical and commercial capabilities, enabling their Japanese industrial customers to concentrate on real-time, market-driven configuration of products, without needing to hold stocks in their supply chains and distribution channels. Meanwhile, Japan is seeking to re-establish its position of leading player in East Asia.     

A Longitudinal Study Exploring Value Changes During the Cultural Assimilation of Japanese Student Pilot Sojourners in the United States

This study explored longitudinally the value changes of Japanese student pilot sojourners attending pilot training in the United States for two years. Throughout their stay in the United States they are exposed to the United States Western culture, and assimilate some of that culture, because in order to achieve equilibrium, they will change some of their values, attitudes and behaviors (move toward the similar) and assimilate some of their new culture. This study explored the cultural assimilation of those pilots by exploring value changes using the Rokeach Value Survey; exploring values upon arrival, after one year in the U.S., after two years in the U.S., and one year after return to the Japan. The research results showed significant cultural assimilation as demonstrated by value changes between time of arrival and departure from the U.S., and continuing one year after return to Japan.     

Long range planning— Japan-USA— A comparative study

This article reports on a comparative study carried out in the U.S.A. and Japan. He concludes that in the U.S.A. long range planning is used to integrate the strategies of divisions and to control the divisions. The planning process is usually bottom-up rather than top-down.In Japan, long range planning is used for improving strategic decisions of top management, so the planning process is a centralized interactive process.Project emphasis rather than quantitative planning is a common characteristic in both the U.S.A. and Japan. However American corporations are more advanced in this respect. Many Japanese corporations suggest that project emphasis is the key success factor for planning.To cope with uncertainty, American corporations tend to update their plans every year or even at shorter intervals, while adopting contingency plans.To the same end, Japanese corporations are using two time horizon plans which are composed of a long range strategy and a medium range plan.With respect to follow-up and implementation, American corporations follow-up more closely and long range planning is used for the evaluation of managers of divisions. The quality of plan and accomplishment are reflected to the economic rewards.Japanese corporations are less inclined to follow up the long range plan itself, but it is considered as important to implement it through the budget and also through the project plan. Project teams are quite frequently used.     

Surfacing important but invisible issues in American companies in Japan

This paper explores cross-cultural conflict between Americans and Japanese working together in Japan. Drawing on participant observation, this study develops and pilot tests an application for facilitating group dialogue around organizational conflict, based on Arnold Mindell’s Process Work model of group facilitation. The model proposes several major concepts: (1) rank awareness and how people in authority use their authority; (2) roles and polarities, including primary and secondary identities; and (3) how the marginalization of views can spawn conflict. The application of this model to several conflicts between Americans and Japanese suggest three sources of conflict that often stem from unvoiced cultural assumptions. First, the case findings here suggest that the freedom to speak up is often taken for granted by Americans, but not by Japanese. Second, Japanese are more aware and constrained by social norms than are Americans. Third, Americans in positions of authority in this case are relatively unaware of how the way they use their authority impacts the Japanese around them.     

Long range planning of U.K. and Japanese corporations—A comparative study

The author conducted mail surveys on long-range planning systems in Japanese and British corporations. He also made a number of visits to corporations in both countries to analyse the similarities and differences in the planning systems.In the U.K., the clarification of goals and the resource allocation are emphasized but in Japan clarification of goals and basic problem finding are stressed.The strategic projects are not necessarily formulated in the long-range planning process. The relationship between the project and the long-range planning was analysed and in both countries, the trend of long-range planning is towards more strategy orientation than quantitative computation.The planning process in Japan is more centralized. The management committee plays an important role in reviewing and making the final decision. In the U.K., the plan initiation is more decentralized, and in the final decision the board of directors plays a more important role. The trends are, however, from bottom up approach to top down approach.Goals expressed in the long-range plan of the U.K. corporations put more emphasis on financial goals, but that of the Japanese corporations emphasizes growth and employee welfare.Regarding the style of strategic decision-making the subjective responses show that it is partly analytical and partly intuitive. There are some differences between two countries, but this problem needs to be analysed further.To cope with uncertainty, multiple scenarios and contingency plans are more frequently used in the U.K., whereas in Japan the sequential decision is more commonly used. British corporations are better prepared for uncertainty than Japanese corporations.The key success factors of long-range planning are similar in both countries. The involvement of top management and cooperation of line management are two important items. Differences are that in the U.K. the planning system is emphasized in addition to the other factors, but in Japan clear goals are more emphasized.     

Factors affecting the change of top executive nationality in MNCs’ foreign affiliates in Japan

Using archival data published in 2003 and 2007, we investigated factors that influence the change of nationality of the most senior executives in foreign affiliates of MNCs operating in Japan. Our results show that as the length of operation in Japan increased, the likelihood of a non-Japanese top executive in the affiliate being replaced by a Japanese one, was higher than that of a Japanese top executive being replaced by a non-Japanese one. We also found that when an affiliate had a Japanese top executive at time one, it was more likely that a non-Japanese executive replaced the Japanese one if the affiliate’s foreign ownership ratio increased at time two. In addition, there were notable differences between affiliates of Asian, North American and European MNCs in top executive staffing patterns of Japanese affiliates. Implications from this study and future research directions are discussed herein.     

Business innovation through strategic community creation: a case study of multimedia business field in Japan

For the last few years, the video conferencing system market represented by multimedia technology has enjoyed strong growth in Japan. Behind the recent upturn in this market was the strategic alliance of NTT, Japan’s largest telecommunications carrier, and PictureTel of the US, followed by the birth of business communities centered around or outside NTT, thus intensively creating and boosting a new market referred to as interactive video communication. This case study reviews the challenges that faced NTT, one of the big businesses in Japan, followed by PictureTel and other players within and outside NTT, all of which were lined up to create various strategic business communities. The article gives careful consideration to the measures taken by these players who achieved success in such a way as to alter employee consciousness, vitalize organizational morale, entrench the new NTT “Phoenix” brand (video conferencing system) in the Japanese market, and create an emergent new video conferencing market.     

日本企业的董事会改革

董事会是股份公司治理结构的核心部分。本文通过对日本企业董事会现状的分析,揭示出相对于欧美企业,日本的董事会具有人数多、内部董事比例高且同质化、决策职能、执行职能和监督职能没有分开等特点,其结果是董事会在公司治理中事实上已蜕变成仅是应商法要求而存在的机构。为改变这种状况,日本现正从修改商法入手对董事会进行变革。     

The changing Japanese human resource development system

This paper describes dynamic changes in the Japanese HRD system. The focus of discussion is on two HRD models, current and emerging, which are used to examine linkages to human resource management and the work system in Japan. Implications relative to new HRD roles and possible interventions in the new model are also provided.     

Total quality control: Lessons European executives can learn from Japanese companies

This paper reports the finding of a Mission to Japan by 18 executives to study the total quality control activities of 8 companies from diverse industries. A number of the companies can be classified as world class. In the companies studied the dedication, vision and planning for total quality control, development of policy and setting of improvement objectives at each level in the organisation structure, and attention to detail in the production preparation stage is without equal in the majority of Western organisations. It is also pointed out that the housekeeping of Japanese companies is first class and all the companies studied said their greatest assets are employees.     

Women's Career Development and Divorce Risk in Japan

ABSTRACT In Japan, divorce rates have more than doubled since the mid-1960s, and female paid employment has increased rapidly in the past few decades. By applying a conventional economic model of labor force participation to micro-level data gathered from a nationally representative sample survey, this paper shows that Japanese married women who have contemplated divorcing their husbands are more likely to participate in the workforce as full-time paid employees. This finding suggests that an increasing risk of divorce has made a substantial contribution to the fast rise in Japanese women's participation in paid employment, particularly full-time work.     

The impact of government policy on technology transfer: an aircraft industry case study

This case study explores the interaction between domestic and foreign governmental policy on technology transfer with the goal of exploring the long-term impacts of technology transfer. Specifically, the impact of successive licensing of fighter aircraft manufacturing and design to Japan in the development of Japan’s aircraft industry is reviewed. Results indicate Japan has built a domestic aircraft industry through sequential learning with foreign technology transfers from the United States, and design and production on domestic fighter aircraft. This process was facilitated by governmental policies in both Japan and the United States.     

The Adaption of Management Accounting Systems to Changing Market Conditions: Japanese Evidence

This paper considers how Japanese management accounting interfaces with the new production environments being implemented in Japan. A review of evidence on the relative importance of the set of management accounting and production engineering techniques is presented. On the basis of these results the paper presents tentative predictions about the evolutionary path of future management accounting in Japan.