Japanese corporate integrity in a disintegrating Europe

I’ve made a screencast (12 minutes with captions – ably edited by my son) of my keynote speech at a Dutch Embassy event for Japanese companies on a clipper ship on the Thames last month. It looks at the challenges facing Japanese companies trying to build their employer brands in a disintegrating Europe. I explain how difficult is is for Japanese companies to build ‘virtual trust’ across Europe when they are used to implicit communication, sticking to Japanese processes and working as homogenous, Japanese speaking teams huddled into one office.

I introduce the five competencies Japanese companies and their employees need to build trust across cultures – ability to communicate, understanding mutual interests, respecting European and Japanese processes and regulations, being reliable and accountable and having a shared vision and values.


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Why rising stars quit their Japanese companies

Myth 1. Young Japanese aren’t loyal to their employers

“They just use the company as a stepping stone”

Japanese companies have been worrying for a while now that young people are job hopping far more than previous generations. A Mynavi survey shows that only 22% of graduate recruits starting work in 2019 said they would be interested in staying at their company until retirement, 8% for over 10 years, 10% 6 to 10 years, 15% 4-5 years, 22% up to 3 years and 24% were “not sure”.

According to Nikkei Business, in their special feature on the myths of why young people quit, the reality is that because young Japanese people like the company they chose, they can’t bear to watch it decline. The Nikkei gives an example of an anonymous new graduate recruit who left her company after 3 years.  She had studied abroad, had good language and communication skills and a strong interest in human resources. She thought working for a Japanese manufacturer had a romantic appeal, and the HR department wooed her heavily. Her reasons for quitting were that the general manager level was resistant to change, and when a new President took over, the direction of the company turned 180 degrees, making her worry about the lack of corporate governance.

Myth 2 Young Japanese lack perseverance

“They immediately complain when work gets tough”

The Nikkei points to a survey of managers of people in their 20s and early 30s which discovered that most managers thought that a much higher proportion of their team were proactive and willing to take up challenges than were not.

If anything, it’s the bosses who do not persevere, says Nikkei Business. They cite a young employee who quit a major insurance company in 2019 after 4 years who said that he was was highly motivated by tough challenges. He had looked forward to putting his energies into sales, but was repelled by how his boss – who took no responsibility and only thought about promotion – was so well evaluated.

Myth 3 Young Japanese quit because their pay is too low

“They prioritise pay because they are worried about their future”

A survey by Japan Net Bank in 2017 showed that 21% of 18-25 year olds did not expect to earn more than their parents over their lifetime, and 43% thought it was unlikely that they would do so.

Nikkei Business comments that the key concern of young Japanese employees is whether their job has meaning, and is of value.  It quotes a young bank employee who thought that by working for a regional bank, he could support local businesses. However he did not see the point of the products he was selling and his request to transfer to a different department was refused. So he quit after  7 years.

Myth 4 Young Japanese quit out of youthful impetuosity

“They don’t have any responsibilities, so they quit on impulse”

It is true that Japanese are marrying later than before (75% of men are unmarried at 29, over 60% of women), so family responsibilities do not weigh so heavily on people in their 20s. “If I think about my future, I care more about how I am valued outside of the company than inside” says one high flier who quit a very prestigious trading company job. He had hoped to use his corporate finance and accounting skills and venture capital experience to help people in emerging markets. However he was placed in a division which did not make use of his expertise and was unexpectedly asked to transfer to another area.

Myth 5 Young Japanese quit because of too much overtime

“They want to have an easy life and hate overtime”

“I’m happy to do overtime, if I feel it’s adding value to the world” says a young Japanese rising star who quit her company after 2 years. She thought the company seemed very diverse and liked the way board level directors were involved in recruitment. However after an exhausting worklife, she felt she would be better in a job where she really felt she was contributing to society.

It’s hard to see any major cultural difference or something uniquely Japanese about this mismatch. I have vague memories of similar frustrations and worries when I was a young person thinking about joining a big multinational organisation after university 30+ years’ ago.

The dangers of going for the obvious solutions

The second part of this feature goes on to look at what Japanese companies could do to improve retention, and points out that the tactics that are usually proposed may be mistaken.

For example, thinking that there should be more 1:1 meetings between younger staff and their bosses could just increase frustration, if nothing is done as a result of the meetings. Having a system whereby young staff can request transfers is also pointless if the transfer is not approved, and often the dissatisfactions continue even in the new role. Internal commendations can also feel hollow, mentors often fail to turn up for mentoring meetings and simple pay rises don’t address key concerns about personal development either. Talking up the bright future of the company can also seem like just so much hot air.

More innovative approaches to retention

Nikkei Business recommends more innovative approaches, to address the fundamental reasons young people leave their companies.  They point out that even good contributors, or employees who were reasonably happy in their work quit their employers, for reasons which are more to do with wanting to expand horizons, develop specialist knowledge or skills, or to have a job which better fits their lifestyle.

One recommended approach is to transfer young people abroad, or to more challenging environments.  I would add a note of caution here, which is that I have often seen young people enjoying the freedom and challenge of living abroad, and then not wanting to return to their traditional Japan HQ, and quitting.  Nikkei Business also suggests an “intermediate” mentor – closer to the junior employee in age and seniority, who acts as a go-between with the more senior mentor.  Finally they recommend using AI to understand the motivations and fit of the person with various job roles.

I would add to this that Japanese companies might need to consider setting up continuing professional development associations similar to the ones we have in the UK – whereby members advance through a professional hierarchy through self study and examinations, in professions such as HR, accounting, finance, IT etc. Then, even if the company cannot offer them roles which have an instant career development impact, young employees can gain satisfaction from developing their knowledge and skills, supported by their employer.

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職業人としての説明責任

日本企業で行われる無意味な会議の話がトレーニングのワークショップ中に出ると、私はよく自分の経験をシェアしています。日本企業で働いていた時に、経営企画チームを代表して本社での会議に出席しなければなりませんでした。私にはまったく知識のないトピックの会議でした。ただ稟議書を読んで、いっさい発言せず、最後に「了解」とだけ言うよう指示されて会議に臨みました。会議では、赤字工場の開設に携わった2人が、稟議書に書いてあることを一字一句たがわず読み上げ、続いて数億円の損失処理の承認を求めました。明らかに承認済みの話でしたので、出席者は全員「はい、承認します」と言いました。この会議に何の意味があったのか、いまだに分かりません。ある種の罰ゲームだったのかもしれません。人生の貴重な2時間を無駄にしました。

日本企業には説明責任を社内的に示す同様のメカニズムが存在します

でも、考えてみれば、この会議の目的は、社内の説明責任を確立すること、いわば「筋を通す」ことにあったのでしょう。意思決定が下され、行動が取られ、その理由が説明されたという事実形成です。ほとんどの日本企業には、説明責任を社内的に示す同様のメカニズムが存在します。また、問題が生じた際、経営幹部は社外的にも説明責任を負うとされ、ゆえによく見かける謝罪の儀式が行われるのです。

けれども、ここしばらく相次いだ日本企業のスキャンダルには欠けている要素がひとつあり、これは欧米のメディアやエンターテインメント業界のセクハラ事例にも共通しています。それが、職業人としての説明責任です。日本企業がグローバル化して社員も多様化するにつれ、この要素をコーポレート・ガバナンスやコンプライアンスのシステムに取り入れなければならなくなるでしょう。

欧米社会の幅広い職業、例えば弁護士、医師、会計士といった伝統的な職業から、最近では人事、金融、エンジニアリングなどの職業まで、あらゆる分野でその専門職者になろうとするのであれば所属が前提となる職業者の協会というのが存在します。加入に際してその倫理規定に従うことを宣誓し、試験を受けて進級したり毎年一定時間の研修を受けたりすることが期待されています。

説明責任は多様性のある労働力を構築するのに役立つ

国境を越えて専門職の資格を相互に認定するプロセスは複雑ですが、とはいえ専門職の資格を有する社員を雇うようにすれば、多様性のある労働力を構築するのに役立つでしょう。専門職の資格というのは、性別、年齢、障害、人種といった属性に左右されないためです。

また、日本企業にとっては、専門職者を雇うことにより、海外事業の説明責任を社内的にも社外的にも確立しやすくなるはすです。職業人としての説明責任を有している社員は、倫理規定に従わなければ、その職業を営む資格を失います。このため、上司や顧客から非倫理的なプレッシャーがかかる状況でも、それに抵抗する強さができます。

ただし、説明責任とは双方向のプロセスです。社員が社内だけでなく職業者の協会に対しても説明責任を負う一方で、管理職者は今までどおり部下の行動に関して社内的にも社外的にも説明責任を負います。つまり、管理職者は、信頼を育み、達成可能な目標と十分なリソースを提供しなければなりません。

この記事はパニラ・ラドリン著「ユーロビジョン: 変わりゆくヨーロッパで日系企業が信頼を構築するには」に出てます。Kindle版とペーパーバックはamazon.co.jpでご注文できます。

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TDK President Ishiguro – quietly magnetic

TDK is in our top 30 largest Japanese companies in Europe, with over 7,000 employees – mainly working their factories in the Czech Republic and Hungary. But we’ve never blogged about them before as their senior executives tend to stay rather quiet.  In fact I wonder if that many Europeans are even aware of them as a company, or that they are Japanese.

People of my age will remember TDK cassette tapes.  The company’s origins date back to 1935, when TDK was founded as Tokyo Denki Kagaku Kogyo (Tokyo Electrical Chemical Industries) and they began manufacturing magnetic tapes in the 1950s. TDK has pretty much phased out its magnetic tapes now and instead is focused on sensors, actuators and power electronic components.  It has acquired various companies in these sectors, including EPCOS in Germany, the Lambda Power Division of Invensys in the UK, and Micronas in Switzerland. As a result, more than 90% of its sales and its employees are outside Japan.

Global governance means empowering

The Nikkei recently interviewed TDK’s President since 2016 – Nasunari Ishiguro. Ishiguro is confident that TDK’s approach to global management by having a structure that encourages self-directed action is working well.  “We had to think about how to have effective global governance.  How to be disciplined as a group  but at the same time not impact society in a negative way.”

“It’s not something that a president can do on their own. We have a phrase “functional equality” at TDK, meaning every department should be functionally equivalent.  We thought the word “governance” didn’t really suit our culture.  It’s not about delegating authority – so we use the word “empower” instead.”

“Instead of just providing money, people and technology to group companies and leaving it up to them to get on with it, we encourage stakeholders to become more transparent with each other, in a spirit of give and take, so it is not a centralized organization, but autonomously distributed”

“For example, a subsidiary in China that makes batteries, then makes use of the structure to propose other things that they want to do, rather than being commanded to do things by the President.”

“So we have regional headquarters in China, the USA, Europe and Asia so that group companies can cooperate with each other. So for example, if a lawyer is needed, they can be sent from a regional headquarters, or they can share a finance function.”

TDK garitto philosophy

“We are currently developing a “Day 1″ book that summarizes our philosophy and the values to be shared, such as contribute to society/the industry, ensure trust, keep quality standards etc.  It should be no more than 3-5cm thick. Each group company can freely exercise their discretion in how they adhere to it.”

“All management meetings are in English, and because of “functional equality” each person is equal in the debate. So meetings can take more than 2 hours.  Overseas group officers are to point out problems without hesitation and feel free to give their opinions and voice doubts”

Ishiguro is worried that manufacturing has moved outside of Japan and wants to ensure that TDK’s monozukuri (craftsmanship) is systematized. He has started a “Garitto monozukuri” initiative with the aim of systematizing and conveying manufacturing know-how to future generations.  “Garitto” is Akita dialect (one of TDK’s original factories was in Akita) meaning “with all your might” and “sturdily.”

Equal global people

“We need to have global employee mobility too. The head of global HR is the Germany HR Director. We have established a cross border HR team as an organization that is not bounded by location.  For example the leader of one project is Chinese, and there are Japanese and German people in the team.”

As for a successor, Ishiguro says he doesn’t care what background or nationality someone has, it just needs to be “someone with a spirit of adventure, and a light in their eyes, who is not afraid of change.  We have to change in order to be of use to society.  They need to put out their antenna, even when the way forward is not clear.”

Although Ishiguro has been at TDK all his career, he actually dropped out of university and also spent some time working in Luxembourg, setting up a magnetic tape factory.  Perhaps this is where he got his un-Japanese tolerance of being equals in argument and thrashing out problems. “I’m not a flashy person” he says, “I believe I was asked to be president because I will consolidate our foundations. I think I have revived the company through open debate and steady reforms.”

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Record number of immigrants working in Japan, but unhappily?

It hit the headlines in Japan recently when the proportion of immigrants there rose above 2% of the population for the first time. For comparison, the average across the EU of people living in a country who were not born there is 13%. 40% of Londoners were not born in the UK. Much of the increase in Japan is in younger workers coming from Asian countries such as the Philippines and Vietnam, with new visa categories for highly skilled engineers or to care for the elderly. Chinese nationality residents are the largest group, as they were 10 years’ ago, but only represent around 25% of foreign residents now.  According to a special feature in the Nikkei Business magazine, in 2008 Chinese people made up around 45% of foreigners in Japan and there was also proportionately a much larger group of Brazilian residents (often Japanese ethnicity Brazilians working in car factories).  In 2016 Japan had the fourth largest number of new foreign residents, after Germany, USA and the UK.

Around 40% of companies in Japan surveyed by the JRI say they are currently employing non-Japanese, a further 4.5% say they have non-Japanese as temporary workers and 12.7% say they hired non-Japanese workers in the past. The biggest reason by far given by Japanese companies for hiring non-Japanese workers is that they were not able to hire Japanese (50%)  with other reasons being “to liven up the organisation” (15.8%) and “because foreigners work hard” (13.1%).

Japanese companies say the main issues they have with hiring foreign employees are communication difficulties, that employees who they train are only allowed to stay for  a fixed period and that there is a large variety in the quality of foreign employees.

But as the Nikkei Business special feature points out, many foreign workers are not happy either. Japan only ranks number 32 of 33 (Brazil is bottom) in terms of countries where people would like to work, according to a survey by HSBC. The main reasons for the low ranking are that Japan is seen as a closed society, that it is difficult to settle permanently there, that pay is low, worklife balance is bad and the educational environment for children is not good.

The Nikkei Business feature tries to end on a positive note, pointing out that this influx of foreign workers is a $27bn business opportunity for Japan – helping the new immigrants with accommodation, banking, living essentials and education.

 

 

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No Matsushita in Panasonic

Panasonic is now in the 8th year of Kazuhiro Tsuga’s Presidency but none of the seeds he has sown seem to have blossomed.  The most recent quarterly results, unveiled on July 31st 2019 showed that despite Tsuga’s focus on profit over turnover, operating profit fell by 44% on the previous year, with tunover down 6%.

Of the 5 internal companies, only the Life Solutions business showed a profit. The slowing down of the Chinese economy had an impact but profitability in China was worse than forecast even taking that into account.  It had been designated a growth area and a special company set up to focus on it. The US China trade conflict and decrease in infrastructure investment seem to be at the root of the problem.

The automotive business is also challenging. The joint venture with Tesla for battery supply is still loss making. Another joint venture with Toyota has been set up, but this might be outside the consolidated Panasonic earnings.

A third area of concern is the home appliance business. Although airconditioning and washing machines are selling well in Japan, profits were thin overseas. Panasonic executive Hirokazu Umeda says the price of EL panels fell far more sharply than expected in Europe and Panasonic could not compete on pricing even in Asia. Panasonic is going to shut its TV factory in Mexico and look at OEM and ODM (original display manufacturing) options and withdrawing from the USA and China markets.

As of June 2019, there is no representative of Panasonic’s original founding family on the board, with the retirement of Matsuyuki Matsushita, a grandson of the founder Konosuke Matsushita. Matsuyuki Matsushita’s eldest son is still working at Panasonic however. As to whether he wants him to become a board director “that is up to his effort and ability” says Matsuyuki Matsushita. “Sometimes founding families are involved in management, sometimes they are not involved at all. Which is better is up to the management academics to debate.”

Matsuyuki Matsushita says his father set up to the internal company system so that each division could focus and compete with specialist manufacturers. “The current problems are probably showing the limits of monozukuri (manufacturing or craftsmanship) and the shift from analogue to digital, to services. Panasonic has not shown the answer to this yet.”

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No sacred cows for NEC’s President Niino

I was reminiscing a couple of days’ ago with a Japanese business person about how in the 1990s there was a Silicon Glen in Scotland hosting many Japanese electronics and semiconductor factories, including NEC’s semiconductor plant in Livingston. After the IT bubble burst in 2000, most of these plants disappeared, including NEC’s. Silicon Glen has remade itself, focusing more on software and semiconductor design and development.  NEC has also reinvigorated its presence in the UK with the acquisition of Northgate Public Services in 2018.

NEC is not out of the woods yet, however. In a tough interview in the Nikkei Business, President Niino seems willing to slaughter several sacred cows and even commits to taking responsibility (presumably by resigning) if his revival plan to FY 2020 does not succeed.

He said he was open to merging with rival Fujitsu, even if it meant the NEC name disappeared. I certainly recognised from his descriptions some similar characteristics in the way they operate.

NEC, like Fujitsu, was part of the so-called Den Den Family, where stable, dependable business came from government contracts from what is now NTT. “Customers would make very stringent requests of us and we would always try to respond with the best possible technical solutions, and deliver 100%. This is an important quality, but you cannot survive globally just on this”.

Niino thinks there were many reasons for the halving of NEC’s turnover since 2000.  They had relied on introducing new technology in areas such as semiconductors, PCs and mobile phones, but once these became volume businesses with many newcomers, spending far more on R&D, NEC was no longer able to compete.

Niino is focusing on profit targets rather than turnover and sees NEC’s future strength as being in “safer cities” – using AI and software development rather than hardware. Clearly China will be a major competitor in this, but I guess NEC and other Japanese suppliers will be preferred by many who might view China as a threat.

Niino has brought in an HR director from Microsoft Japan to shake up the HR system.  He has appointed 31 “change agents” and made evaluations more visible, and the distinction between specialists and managers more clear.  Corporate officers on the board have all been asked to step down temporarily and then are being rehired on 1 year contracts. “I won’t be firing them if they don’t meet targets within one year, but if they miss two years’ running, it might be that they are better off working outside NEC”.  As Niino is himself a Corporate Officer, no wonder he has to commit to taking personal responsibility for any failure too.

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Mitsui tells employees – come and go as you please

I remember when I left Mitsubishi Corporation 2o (!) years’ ago, I was surprised how friendly some of my most senior Japanese sponsors continued to be towards me.  One of them explained to me that he thought Mitsubishi Corporation should think like McKinsey and view employees who leave as “alumni” who might one day come back and work there again, or end up as business partners or customers.

It was very far sighted, and I often joke that he was right in that Mitsubishi Corporation does seem to have become a McKinsey with a venture capital/investment arm attached. Mitsubishi’s arch rival Mitsui Bussan also seems to have gone down this path, according to an article in the Nikkei Business magazine recently.

They have set up a separate office called Moon Creative Lab in Tokyo and Palo Alto to look for new business opportunities in the IoT and AI sectors, inviting ideas from their 44,000 employees around the world. Mitsui also hosts networking events, inviting alumni who head up start ups in Japan such as atama plus, Shippio, Nature, Sansan and B Platz.

Mitsui continues to be popular with top Japanese graduates but they only hire around 130 a year, compared to over 200 at the end of the Bubble Era. They have also found that their retention rate has worsened in recent years.  Luring alumni back in to create businesses that are not in its traditional sectors is seen as one way to move away from its dependency on resource and commodities businesses. For example, Yusuke Tamura, who was a graduate hire in the metals division in 2004 but left in 2014.  He  started up a fashion brand as CEO but parted ways with the founding partner.  He returned to Mitsui in 2016 and is now working on the restructuring of Mitsui’s catering business.

Mitsui was always characterised as being more about “people” than Mitsubishi, who was more about “organisation”. The idea was that to get things done at Mitsui, it was about who you knew, whereas Mitsubishi worked in a more organisation driven way.  So Mitsui is making use of who they know outside the company as much as inside – and maybe even outside Japan?

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If the nail sticks out too much, you can’t hammer it down

One of my least favourite and most used expressions about Japan is “the nail which sticks out gets hammered down”.  It does however have its use in explaining Japanese risk aversion when it comes to individuals going against the group. Of course many successful business people did well precisely because they were not conformists – and Japan is no exception to this.  Tadashi Saegusa, now senior chairman of Misumi and Yoshimitsu Kobayashi, chairman of Mitsubishi Chemicals are both nails which stuck out, despite their senior status in the Japanese business world.

In a conversation moderated by Nikkei Business magazine, Kobayashi talks about how he did not join Mitsubishi Chemical until the age of 28, having spent some time in post graduate study, including in Israel.  He therefore missed the usual graduate entry scheme. “I was an outsider from the start” he says. Saegusa initially joined a predecessor company of what is now Mitsui Chemical but then left to join the Boston Consulting Group – the first person to be recruited by them in Japan.

Japan has become complacent

Both worry that Japan has become complacent during the 30 years of the Heisei era.  Japan’s GDP has stayed flat, whereas the USA’s GDP has doubled during that time, says Kobayashi. 7 of the world’s top 10 companies were Japanese in 1989 (mostly Japanese banks) whereas not one of them is in the top 10 now. Kobayashi worries that Japanese people are not aware of how this seems from the outside – citing a survey that shows that 83% of young Japanese people are satisfied with the current situation.

Saegusa agrees that there is no sense of crisis in Japanese companies and of understanding what is lacking. For 27 years people have been told not to spend money or invest, which is the same as saying “don’t challenge the status quo”.  “Everyone is in the same situation in Japan, so we’re rotting from the inside, if we don’t challenge ourselves.”

It can’t just be about the art of manufacturing, it’s how you design the business too

Even in basic research, China is top, and Japan is somewhere between 4th or 10th depending on the survey, says Kobayashi. “Yes Japan still leads in some sectors globally, but starting with semi conductors, there are many areas where it has lost share. How long can Japan keep its share of the carbon fibre business when Taiwan and South Korea are chasing it? It’s just a question of time.  It can’t just be about monozukuri (craftsmanship, manufacturing ability). It’s how you design the business itself.”

Saegusa believes that such a large gap has opened up with the US in some sectors that it’s too late to catch up. “But Japan has just let this situation drag on. You can do something when a company still has life left in it, but when there is no money or resources left, then it’s too late. You have to look at the worst case scenario and focus the business, showing a path to survival, before it happens.  That is what a leader needs to do.”

Only 10-20% of people in a group will take action

“Only 10-20% of people will actually take action in any large group of people” says Kobayashi. So many Japanese companies are still sitting on their cash, despite Abenomics. “Companies and their managers have lost the will to fight and just want to avoid doing anything extreme. They’ve lost speed and dynamism.”

“If you look at the US in the 1990s, it was revived by venture capitalists, university researchers and professional managers who would trigger changes. If you took a risk as an individual and succeeded, you would earn big money.  But Japanese companies put priority on balance and are group oriented – it’s difficult to develop professionals. If you try to become a professional, you get slapped down. Everyone turned into salarymen, who would not take risks. That’s why we we’ve ended up not being able to develop managers.”

The age of the individual and platformers

Kobayashi believes this model worked in times of high growth and mass production. But now in the age of the individual, it is the platformers like Google, Amazon, Facebook and Apple who are using new cultures and innovations as triggers. “Japanese businesses do not realise what a handicap their culture is.”

Japanese companies have become too big, says Saegusa. “There is not that ‘create, build and sell’ mentality you get in the US. Bloated companies don’t give rise to leaders, rather to people who are good at pulling everything together.”

See your predecessors as war criminals

When he was working at Mitsubishi Chemicals, Kobayashi would say “see your predecessors as war criminals” (senpai wa senpan 先輩は戦犯). “If your predecessor did something wrong, you have to say so and do something about it, otherwise it won’t change. And when you become a senior manager, you have to be prepared to be treated like a war criminal.”

“A nail which sticks out too much cannot be hammered down” says Saegusa, noting that Kobayashi is rooted in a strong sense of values. “But such people are rare, even though they are needed right now.”  When Saegusa left his Mitsui group company, he was seen as an outsider but now more and more people say that his life choices were the right ones. “If organisations treasure outsiders, they will find the old order breaks apart – but they may fear this kind of revolution.”

When Kobayashi was running Mitsubishi Chemical, he appointed a CTO, CIO and CMO from outside the organisation. “I felt that we could not develop such people inside the company. Now I am an external director of Toshiba, and we appointed a CEO from outside the organisation. Japan will have to change its corporate governance radically in the next five years to deal with the fast pace of change globally.  If you make use of an external perspective early on, then you can deal more effectively with changes such as more vocal shareholders.”

Mitsui and Mitsubishi must lead the change away from big company disease

Saegusa worries that it might take 20 or 30 years more, to reach an absolute bottom, before Japanese people understand what their fundamental strengths are.  Large groups like Mitsui and Mitsubishi must take responsibility for leading the change away from “big company disease”.  “We have the information resources to know that we are losing on a global level.”

“It’s not over for Japan. I also think Japanese people can be great, but we need to reflect on what has happened and realise we have become complacent. We have been totally defeated these past 30 years, but if we can work together to find out spirit to fight back, we can be a strong country once again”, says Kobayashi.

This dialogue seems in strange contrast to the kind of articles we read in the Western press in recent years saying that while Japan is not Number One any more, there are so many good things about the country in terms of civility and a general good standard of living. And this is reflected in how Japan has become such a popular tourist destination.  I suppose we recognise there are worse models than becoming a gently stagnating, ageing society where people are polite and kind to each other.

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