Black Holiday Mirror and Changing Japan's Business Norms

J

a

p

a

n

e

s

e

b

o

s

s

e

s

q

u

e

u

e

u

p

t

o

l

o

o

k

i

n

t

h

e

B

l

a

c

k

H

o

l

i

d

a

y

m

i

r

r

o

Japanese Bosses Queue Up to Look in the Black Holiday Mirror

The new leader of the Keidanren, Japan's all-powerful consortium of all the largest companies in Japan, is making people hopeful for much needed reforms in the Japanese work culture. The need for this reform is not only seen in the absolute tragedy of Japan's high suicide rate, but it is also seen in the fact that Japan, on a per hour basis, has the lowest worker productivity among OECD nations, but they work the most hours. Clearly the current work culture is unhealthy for the people and isn't even working efficiently for companies.

As the rest of Asia rises and the United States continues its strong growth, Japan is still stuck in the rut of losing decades. One big move that we discussed in class is the elimination of the binding "gentleman's agreement" that bound all companies to hire new-grads during a specific window. While there are those who argue that this will make a tight job market even tighter, the leader of the Keidanren responds strongly by saying the Keidanren has no role in creating and enforcing such rules. What really wows me about the Keidanren is how powerful it really is. If the US government created the, what are essentially regulations, rules the Keidanren all hell would break loose. The new leadership of Mr. Nakanishi is in my mind modernizing the Japanese company. The era of lifetime employment in a manufacturing space is not where Japan should be excelling. They need to shift to being more service orientated and flexible, these industrial era style rules aren't doing much more than limiting the freedom of these companies.