Akira Sueno - Entrepreneur and Gentleman: A Case History of a Japanese Company

Appendix

CHRONOLOGY OF AKIRA SUENO
AND THE SHOWA GROUP

PROFESSIONAL ACTIVITIES OF AKIRA SUENO

President, Osaka Prefectural Foreign Trade Promotion Association

Vice-president, Osaka Packaging Institute

Director, Japan Packaging Institute

Director, Osaka Prefectural Trade Association

Director, Osaka Merchandise Center

Director, Japan Citrus Importers Association

Supervisor, International Consulting Service Association

Consultant, Japan Packaging Machinery Association

Committee Member, Kansai Committee for Economic Development

Member, French Packaging Institute

Member, Osaka Club

Member, Toyonaka Rotary Club

Books to Span the East and West

Investing in Japanese Securities: Profit and Protection for the Intelligent Investor by John B. Bennett and Norman Doelling

The Japanese Employee by Robert J. Ballon

Toward an Orderly Market: An Intensive Study of Japans Voluntary Quota in Cotton Textile Exports by John Lynch

Modern Japans Foreign Policy by Morinosuke Kajima

A Brief Diplomatic History of Modern Japan by Morinosuke Kajima

Japanese Etiquette: An Introduction by the World Fellowship Committee of the Tokyo Y.W.C.A.

The Japanese Are Like That by Ichiro Kawasaki

Japan Unmasked by Ichiro Kawasaki

Japan and America: Language, Culture, and Personality by Bernice Goldstein and Kyoko Tamura

Bushido: The Soul of Japan by Inazo Nitobe

The Book of Tea by Kakuzo Okakura

Charles E. Tuttle Company:

Publishers

by the same author (in Japanese)

Hachijugo-Shunen ni Saishite, 1962
(On Our 85th Anniversary)

Sekai Akinai no Tabi, 1966
(Business Trips Around the World)

Shinobu-gusa (ed.), 1971
(Collected Essays in Memory of My Father)

Akinai no Dohyo, 1974
(Milestones in Business)

Entrepreneur and Gentleman

CHAPTER

Subsistence Business

HOW MARVELOUS that it can never be predicted at what age a person will find his calling! Is it not because of this fact that one dreams the eternal dream of future happiness and burns with the will to live, stirred to ardor by the work before ones eyes?

When young I had visions of globetrotting as a foreign service officer. At that time Japan was still basking in the victorious though minor part she played in the First World War, having not long before won wars against both China and Russia. Capitalism was in the early period of its expansion and growth in Japan, and beginning to spread its benefits. It was a time when becoming a mounted bandit in Manchuria was the dream of many a boy.

As I said in the Introduction, I was all of 38 years old when I embarked on my chosen career. It is difficult enough to begin amidst postwar economic chaos, but starting out when you are middle-aged has its own problems. Contending with these problems made up what I call my Subsistence Business phase.

My Fathers Counsel

Our Showa Boeki Co., Ltd. celebrated the 92nd anniversary of its founding in September 1969; it was January 25, 1952 when I reorganized it and gave it its present name.

Up until then I had been employed as the chief of the general-affairs section of Nissan Parts and Machine Tools, Ltd., after having spent 10 years in the army. Because of the postwar economic situation the family business existed in name onlythe affiliated Showa Building was our only enterprise left over from the bombing. Then, before we knew it, we were practically under occupation by our creditors, their patience worn thin. Since my father was on occasion incapacitated by illness, he could not continue to run the business; any mistakes would surely have shortened his life. Being the only son, I felt it my filial duty to help him out, and so resigned voluntarily from the company where I had planned to stay my whole life. It was November of 1950, and I had just passed my 37th birthday.