Japan's Business Growth

While America is still a formidable economic force in the world, Japan has become number one in many industries. What is most interesting is how quickly it happened. The purpose of this research will be to look at the reasons behind Japan's dramatic growth by analyzing the differences in business practices and decision-making between the two economic powers. In doing so, a brief review of their historic, cultural and social dissimilarities will also be included.

The strongest elements in Japanese business relations are loyalty and trust, the virtues upon which all decisions are based. The history of relations between the United States and Japan has been one of long, mutual distrust, thus coloring the growth of and current business activities between them.

This distrust began when the United States, under the leadership of Commodore Matthew C. Perry and the U.S. Navy, first forced open the "bamboo" gates of Japan to the trading world in 1853 (Manning, 1989, p. 14). The country had been closed and isolated for two hundred years by the "shoguns," the military rulers of Japan, who were attempting to preserve the traditional Japanese way of life by keeping out all Western influences. Though America succeeded in its endeavor, the shoguns were overthrown by the militant young Japanese samurai (warrior) who were intent on making Japan a first-rate military and industrial power able to fend off Western aggression (p. 14). Over ninety years later, this nearly-realized dream

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yees. 2. Quality must come before profits, pursuing it with such techniques as statistical quality control. 3. Every employee deserves the same kind of respect as managers and, good management is "democratic management" (Wood, 1989, pp. 72, 74). The Japanese, once a feudalistic and militaristic people now humbled by military defeat, were willing to listen and take advantage of the advice given. Many believe America has forgotten the lessons. Today, Japanese companies own nine of the world's 10 richest banks, and the country is the largest contributor of foreign aid to the developing world (Tarshis, 1989, p. 18) Further, it leads in the electronics, the semiconductor and the machine-tool industries (p. 18). When it comes to running companies, the Japanese have followed some of the most basic rules: win the loyalty of employees and consumers and keep producing better products (Tarshis, 1989, p. 18). In addition, they adapted principles from the traditional Japanese family structure and incorporated them into business life, creating a corporate culture increasingly unlike America's. And, where quality control became Japan's trademark, lack of such controls became America's ultimate downfall. Quality control is not a

Category: Foreign - J