Japan: Model Society of the Future?

Abstract

Japan's economic development has attracted the attention of the world. Can Japan be the economic model for the world of the twenty-first century? While maintaining its traditional value system, Japan accepted Western culture and technology successfully, overcoming gaps and tensions. Social and economic tensions have not been as serious as in other advanced and developing countries, and one of the important explanations lies in Japan's type of industrial relations. In analyzing Japanese industrial relations, however, we find that the so-called features special to Japan do not qualify Japan as a distinct model. The family principle of enterprise, which is the basis of Japanese economic energy, also cannot be considered a model. Regrettably, one cannot say that Japan is a model society for the future.

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References

1. Concerning the historical process here, see Mikio Sumiya , “The Emergence of Modern Japan,” in Workers and Employers in Japan: The Japanese Employment Relations System, ed. K. Okochi , B. Karsh , and S. B. Levine (Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 1973), pp. 15-48.

2. Peter B. Doeringer and Michael J. Piore , Internal Labor Markets and Manpower Analysis (Lexington, MA: D. C. Heath, 1971).

3. J. C. Abegglen , The Japanese Factory: Aspects of Its Social Organization (Cambridge: M.I.T. Press, 1958).

4. U.S. Department of Education , Japanese Education Today (Washington, DC: Government Printing Office, 1987).

5. Adam Smith , The Wealth of Nations (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1976), book 1, chap. 5.

6. Mikio Sumiya , “The Japanese Work Ethics,” in Cultural Tradition in Japan Today (Tokyo: Maruzen, 1987).