This post is also available in: JapaneseUp until now, Hitachi’s risk management team was mainly centered on the legal department – which I suspect is probably the case in most Japanese companies. Now Hitachi’s President Keiji Kojima has added the finance department to it, wanting the company to take a more proactive approach to global…

This post is also available in: Japanese“Many Japanese executives are unable to think critically”, says Hashimoto Takayuki, an external director (ex IBM Japan) and chairman of the nomination committee of Mitsubishi Chemical Holdings, in a recent interview with Diamond Online. “There is no right answer to how to manage a business now” he adds. The…

This post is also available in: JapaneseWhile there is no doubt that Japanese companies have expanded at a very high rate these past few years in the Netherlands, measuring this in terms of numbers of employees or companies has become increasingly complex. Partly this is due to the large proportion of potentially “brass plate” type…

This post is also available in: JapaneseI am sometimes asked in my training sessions what the retirement age and policy is in Japan, and I usually say something about how it is very similar to the UK, with the government raising the pension age from 60 to 65, and as of April 2021 to 70,…

This post is also available in: JapaneseThe latest Japanese Ministry of Foreign Affairs data reveal that the number of Japanese businesses in the EU rose a further 2% from 2020 to 2021, to 8,464, up 28% on ten years ago.  The only EU country to show any decline was Belgium. The picture for the UK…

This post is also available in: JapaneseJapanese employees don’t want to study or go abroad and don’t like their current employer very much either.  But at the same time, very few are considering changing jobs. These were some of the conclusions from a recent Japanese Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry report (Vision for Human…