H.T. Shimazaki - Vision in Japanese Entrepreneurship: The Evolution of a Security Enterprise

ROUTLEDGE LIBRARY EDITIONS: BUSINESS AND ECONOMICS IN ASIA

Volume 35

VISION IN JAPANESE ENTREPRENEURSHIP

First published in 1992 by Routledge

This edition first published in 2019

by Routledge

2 Park Square, Milton Park, Abingdon, Oxon OX14 4RN

and by Routledge

52 Vanderbilt Avenue, New York, NY 10017

1992 H. T. Shimazaki

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ISBN: 978-1-138-48274-6 (Set)

ISBN: 978-0-429-42825-8 (Set) (ebk)

ISBN: 978-1-138-35122-6 (Volume 35) (hbk)

ISBN: 978-0-429-43533-1 (Volume 35) (ebk)

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First published 1992

by Routledge

11 New Fetter Lane, London EC4P 4EE

Simultaneously published in the USA and Canada

by Routledge

a division of Routledge, Chapman and Hall, Inc.

29 West 35th Street, New York, NY 10001

1992 H. T. Shimazaki

Typeset in 10/12pt Times by Witwell Ltd, Lord Street, Southport
Printed and bound in Great Britain by
Biddles Ltd, Guildford and Kings Lynn

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reprinted or reproduced or utilized in any form or by any electronic, mechanical, or other means, now known or hereafter invented, including photocopying and recording, or in any information storage and retrieval system, without permission in writing from the publishers.

A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library.

ISBN 0-415-08357-5

A catalogue record for this book is available from the Library of Congress.

ISBN 0-415-08357-5

The data on which this study is based was amassed from the Japanese and English language literature, personal correspondence, and interviews conducted from 1988 through 1991. The bulk of the Japanese data was collected during the first half of 1989 when I was on sabbatical in Japan.

I could not have completed this project without the generous help and cooperation of Makoto Iida, SECOMs founder and Chief Executive Officer, particularly in giving me access to corporate documents. Mr Iida does not like to look back. The only time he reflects on the past, he says, is on the anniversary of the companys founding. Over the past three years I have asked him to think and talk about the past a great deal. He has graciously accommodated me, for which I sincerely thank him. Quotations in the text attributed to Makoto Iida are excerpts either from taped conversations with him or from his personal statements which are included in corporate documents. This is true as well for quotations from other SECOM personnel.

I would like to express my appreciation to the members of SECOMs public relations office, especially its head, Zenjiro Kato, and Minoru Yasuda, for their assistance with this project from beginning to end particularly in data collection and field trip arrangement. I am indebted too to all the personnel from SECOM and its affiliated companies with whom I spoke in Japan, Korea, Taiwan, and the United States. They helped me to paint a broader picture of the corporation and the man at its helm. Although Mr Iida preferred that his private life remain just that private a few of his family members were willing to let me catch a glimpse of Makoto Iida, the man, and to them I express my thanks.

There are many others to whom I am indebted for their time and the information they shared with me. I would particularly like to mention Haruo Nishimura, former chairman of the department of crime prevention and juvenile studies at the National Research Institute of Police Science, and Dr Osamu Asano, physician and writer.

Editorial assistance was graciously provided by Aldo Opel, Alberta Research Council; Jim Langston, QC, Chief Crown Prosecutor; and Geoff England, professor, Faculty of Management, University of Lethbridge. Bruce Freeman assisted in both a research and editorial capacity as the project was nearing completion. Hitoshi Wada of SECOMs International Division carefully perused the manuscript to ensure its accuracy.

I am grateful for both the moral and practical support received throughout this undertaking from the Faculty of Management at the University of Lethbridge. George Lermer, the Dean, has been considerate of my time requirements. Karen Eriksen and Holli Tamura have graciously complied with my numerous requests to type and retype the manuscript. The support and help extended to me by Beverly, my wife, is appreciated.

This book focuses on Makoto Iida, Japanese entrepreneur, and SECOM, the company he founded, Japans first and, today, largest security corporation. A study of one illustration of Japanese entrepreneurship, it also encompasses elements of a biography of Makoto Iida and a business history of his company.

Various influences were at play in my selection of SECOM as the subject of my present study. SECOM forms part of the service sector industry. While some investigation has been carried out on entrepreneurial endeavour in the manufacturing sector in Japan studies on Soichiro Honda, Akio Morita of Sony, Tadao Yoshida of YKK, Kazuo Inamori of Kyocera, Takeshi Mitarai of Canon, and Konosuke Matsushita of Panasonic come to mind in the English language literature little has been reported on the service sector.

Having determined to study entrepreneurship within the service sector, I chose to focus on SECOM, a comprehensive security/communications firm. Japan is recognized both domestically and abroad as one of the worlds safest industrialized nations. SECOMs phenomenal success in marketing security measures in a country where there was little perceived need for them before their introduction was a strong indication of entrepreneurial processes at work. My interest as a cultural geographer in peoples creative responses to their surroundings and events triggered a desire to learn about the person or people behind these processes.

The phenomenal success of certain Japanese companies has captured the attention of business leaders around the world. As interest in Japanese management has widened, English language publications about Japanese business have multiplied. Some attempt has been made to explain the nature of Japanese corporate behaviour and its economic success emphasizing particularly static institutional factors and operational excellence. On the macro level, discussion has centred on Japan Inc., the economic machine created out of the partnership between government, academic institutions, industry, and business associations. A lack of innovativeness and copy cat mentality are often said to characterize the Japanese industrial circle. Likewise, much of the discussion on Japanese management has focused on bottom-up rather than top-down decision making. What has been neglected is an appreciation of the vibrant entrepreneurial activity within the contemporary Japanese business world. The participation of Japanese entrepreneurs in the creation of new economic activities in the service sector in particular and the implementation and actualization of entrepreneurial aspirations deserves more attention.