Johannes Hirschmeier - The Development of Japanese Business 1600-1980

ROUTLEDGE LIBRARY EDITIONS: BUSINESS AND ECONOMICS IN ASIA

Volume 8

THE DEVELOPMENT OF JAPANESE BUSINESS 16001980

Second Edition

JOHANNES HIRSCHMEIER AND TSUNEHIKO YUI

First published in 1975 by George Allen & Unwin Ltd

Second edition 1981

This edition first published in 2019

by Routledge

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

and by Routledge

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1975, 1981 George Allen & Unwin Ltd

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

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

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

ISBN: 978-1-138-36793-7 (Volume 8) (hbk)

ISBN: 978-0-429-42949-1 (Volume 8) (ebk)

The publisher has gone to great lengths to ensure the quality of this reprint but points out that some imperfections in the original copies may be apparent.

The publisher has made every effort to trace copyright holders and would welcome correspondence from those they have been unable to trace.

1600-1980

Johannes Hirschmeier, S.V.D.
and
Tsunehiko Yui

Second edition

First published in 1975
Second edition 1981

This book is copyright under the Berne Convention. All rights are reserved. Apart from any fair dealing for the purpose of private study, research, criticism or review, as permitted under the Copyright Act 1956, no part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form or by any means, electronic, electrical, chemical, mechanical, optical, photocopying, recording or otherwise, without the prior permission of the copyright owner. Inquiries should be addressed to the publishers.

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George Allen & Unwin Ltd 1975, 1981

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The first edition of our The Development of Japanese Business: 1600-1973 has been very kindly received and has found favourable acceptance, in spite of some minor errors and grammatical and stylistic imperfections. In view of the growing interest in Japanese business we asked the publisher (George Allen & Unwin Ltd) to print a revised paperback edition. In order not to raise printing costs unduly, we agreed to leave the first two chapters as they were except for minor corrections. The third and fourth chapters have been entirely rewritten and enlarged. The third chapter covers the war period which had been left out in the previous edition; the fourth chapter provides more detailed information concerning industrial development and trends up to the present.

Meanwhile a Japanese edition was published in December 1977, larger than the English version and adapted for Japanese readers. This Nihon no keiei hatten (The Development of Japanese Management) was awarded a prize by the Nippon Keizai Shinbun (The Japan Economy Newspaper) as one of the four best books in the field of social sciences of that year. It has since been reprinted three times and is being used as a textbook in many universities.

Some critical remarks concerning our position with respect to big business, submitted to us privately, seem to call for a clarification. The fact that big business and especially the zaibatsu and their leaders receive much attention does not mean that we necessarily approve, in an ethical or sociological sense, of all that was done by these men themselves or in the name of big business. Personally, we do not approve of power concentration, of differential wage scales between big and small businesses, of political lobbies that twist policies in favour of big business, of the personal ambitions of business leaders, and other less desirable aspects of big business in Japan.

But then we do not condemn big business simply because it is big. We evaluate performance on its own merits, and the results are not only negative. We refuse to take an ideologically fixed viewpoint according to which the label monopoly-capital attached to big business makes it of necessity an evil force which can only be overcome by either a state controlled economy or a splitting-up of big business into many uneconomically small units.

As business historians we are primarily concerned with the contribution towards the development of Japanese management. From this vantage point, the greatest contribution was undoubtedly made by big business and its leaders. The less conspicuous middle-management levels have also contributed enormously towards the resulting economic growth and technological advance, especially in the postwar period. The medium and smaller enterprises bore many burdens, and their contributions are of great importance also, but the pioneering was mainly done by the largest firms. Much of what some or even many of the leaders of big business did may have been done for unethical reasons. But then, as historians we have to evaluate the impact of their actions. We must admit that their objective achievements in the long run have created the fast pace of economic development which brought the Japanese people the high living standards they enjoy today.

This introductory chapter is not intended to provide a detailed analysis of business structures and business development during the Tokugawa period (1600-1867). During this time the socio-economic conditions underwent considerable change, and the spread of the market economy released forces and created tensions which eventually prepared the ground for the Meiji Restoration of 1867. For lack of space none of these aspects can be dealt with properly as they should. Our approach relies upon an almost static picture of business practices and institutions as they existed roughly between 1750 and 1800. The reading of this chapter will provide a background for a better understanding of modern Japanese business development since the Meiji Restoration. It was during the long Tokugawa period that those basic attitudes and institutions were shaped which partly helped and partly hindered business modernisation. Among the most important assets which modern Japan owes to the Tokugawa period are basic attitudes like maintenance of communal discipline, dedication to hard work, desire for learning, respect for seniority and hierarchy, loyalty to communal groups, submission to authority and adherence to tradition.