Japanese Culture and Business: East Asian Perspectives
Fall Term, 2007
Prof. Seung-Mi Han
smhan99@hotmail.com
Office hours) Thursday 18:00-21:00
017-269-4418
This course surveys the major characteristics of Japanese business practices and
the business environments of Japan and East Asia. Although the course puts particular
emphasis on local contexts, culture, and institutional arrangements, throughout the
readings and discussions, we would try to go beyond the reification of culture or an
easy stereotyping of differences. Evaluations are based upon class participation
(presentations, discussions, attendance, homework/possible short quiz) 50% and final
paper 50%.
Week 1 Introduction—the Contexts
Movie clips: Swallow Tail & Beijing de Xigua
Iwabuchi, Koichi
“Time and the Neighbor: Japanese Media Consumption of Asia
in the 1990s” in Rogue Flows: Trans-Asian Cultural Traffic
Discussion Topic: Channel J in Korea
Optional) John Nguyet Erni & Siew Keng Chua
“Introduction: Our Asian Media
Studies?” in Asian Media Studies
Lee, Keeheung “Beyond the Fragments: Reflections on
“Communicational” Cultural Studies in South Korea
Week 2 Disputes and Conflict Resolutions
Kaku, Ryuzaburo “The Path of Kyosei” HBR July-August 1997
Michihiro Matsumoto “How does haragei works in Japan?” in The Unspoken Way:
Silence in Japanese Business and Society, Kodansha
Robert March “The Roots of Conflict” (licensing agreement dispute & three billion
dollar sugar dispute) in the Japanese Negotiator, Kodansha
Movie Clips: Gungho
Optional) Trading Places (the semi-conductor industry disputes)
Kalman Applbaum “Rationality, Morality and Free Trade: U.S.-Japan
Trade Relations in Anthropological Perspective”
Dialectical Anthropology 23:1-30, 1998
Week 3 Japanese Business Environment: a short economic history
Movie Clips: 企業家たちの 根底に
流れるもの
１９９０
Mark Fruin, The Japanese Enterprise System, chapters 1& 3
Ishinomori Shotaro Japan Inc. (Comic book on Japanese Economics)
Week 4 The Rise of the “Japanese Enterprise System”: Big Picture
Mark Fruin chapters 4 & 6
Robert J. Crawford “Reinterpreting the Japanese Economic Miracle” HBR
Jan.-Feb. 1998
Movie Clips: Makiko’s World (optional for classes in other weeks)
Week 5 Networks at Work
Mark Fruin, chapter 7 Inter-firm Networks
Toshihiro Nishiguchi & Jonathan Brookfield “The Evolution of Japanese
Subcontracting” Sloan Management Review Fall 1997
Befu & Cernosia “Demise of ‘Permanent Employment’ in Japan” Human
Resource Management, Fall 1990 Vol. 29, No. 3 pp.231-250
Optional) J. McGuire & S. Dow “The persistence and implications of Japanese
keiretsu organization” Journal of International Business Studies 2003 v.34
pp.374 –388
Week 6 Case Study: Toyota
“The Second Toyota Paradox: How Delaying Decisions Can Make Better Cars
Faster” Sloan Management Review, Spring 1995
“Learning to Lead at Toyota” HBR March 2006
“Case Study: The Toyota Group and the Aisin Fire” Sloan Management
Review, Fall 1998
“Collaboration Rules” HBR July, 2005
Michael Cusmano “Manufacturing Innovation: Lessons from the Japanese Auto
Industry” in Japanese Business, Cultural Perspectives
Week 7 Market Research and Consumer Culture
Naumann, Earl, Jackson Jr., Donald, & William Wolfe “Examining the Practices of
the United States and Japanese Market Research Firms”
California Management Review, Summer 1994
Johansson, Johny & Ikujiro Nonaka “Market Research the Japanese Way” in
Japanese Business, Cultural perspectives
Ian Condry “B-Boys and B-Girls: Rap Fandom and Consumer Culture in Japan”
Miyata, Boase, Wellman & Ikeda “The Mobile-izing Japanese: Connecting to the
Internet by PC and Webphone in Yamanashi” and
Hidenori Tomita “Keitai and the Intimate Stranger” in Personal, Portable,
Pedestrian: Mobile Phones in Japanese Life
Optional) “Inside the Mind of the Chinese Consumer” HBR March 2006
Week 8 Cross Shareholdings and Corporate Governance in Japan
Mitsuaki Okabe
“Cross Shareholdings in Japan” chapters 1-7
John T Landry “The Embedded Corporation: Corporate Governance and
Employment Relations in Japan and the United States”
Optional) Dore Stock Market Capitalism: Welfare Capitalism, chapter 4 on
Corporate Governance
Week 9 Market Structures in Japan
John Fahy & Fuyuki Taguchi “Reassessing the Japanese Distribution System”
Sloan Management Review winter 1995
Robert Weigand
“The Gray Market Comes to Japan” Columbia Journal of World
Business Fall 1989
“Asia’s New Competitive Game” HBR Sept-Oct 1997
Ryoji Itoh & Till Vestring
“Buying into Japan, Inc.” HBR Nov. 2001
Optional) Hiroshi Okumura “Mergers and Corporate Buy-Outs in Japan”
Week 10 Markets in Japan: Case Studies
“P&G Japan: The SK-II Globalization Project” and
“Mary Kay Cosmetics: Asian Market Entry” in Global Marketing Management:
A Casebook. John Quelch & Christopher Bartlett 2006
“See’s Candies: Japanese Market Entry”, 1993 Stanford Graduate School of
Business
“Levi Strauss Japan K.K” 1994 SGSB
John Sherry Jr. & Eduardo G. Camargo “ ‘May Your Life Be Marvelous:’ English
Language labeling and the Semiotics of Japanese Promotion” Journal of
Consumer Research vol. 14, Sept. 1987
Week 11 Lives inside the Organization: Towards Re-vitalization and Knowledge
Creation
“Fixing Japan’s White-Collar Economy: a Personal View” HBR 1993
Ikujiro Nonaka & Noboru Konno “The Concept of ‘Ba’: Building a Foundation for
Knowledge Creation” California Management Review 1998
“The Knowledge-Creating Company” HBR Nov.-Dec. 1991
Ikujiro Nonaka “Redundant, Overlapping Organization: A Japanese Approach to
Managing the Innovation Process” California Management Review, Spring 1990
Min Basadur “Managing Creativity: A Japanese Model” Academy of Managerial
Executive, vol. 6, 1992
Movie Clips: IKIRU
Week 12 IT, Entrepreneurship, and Japanese Business
“The Right Mind-set for Managing Information Technology”, Sept. 1998
“Patent Protection or Piracy – A CEO views Japan”
Henry Chesbrough “The Logic of Open Innovation: Managing Intellectual
Property” California Management Review vo. 45, no.3, Spring 2003
“Japanese-Style Entrepreneurship: An Interview with SOFTBANK’s CEO” HBR
Jan.-Feb. 1992
“The Taiyo Group: The Bunsha Philosophy” 1994 HBS
Pier A. Abetti “The Birth and Growth of Toshiba’s Laptop and Notebook
Computers: A Case Study in Japanese Corporate Venturing”
Week 13 SONY Story: the Business of the Fun
Asakura Reiji, Revolutionaries at SONY: The Making of the Sony Playstation
“SONY Corporation Enters the Entertainment Business” 1993 SGSB
Week 14 Asian Firms go Global
Matsuura, Nanshi F. “Management Conflict and Foreign Direct Investment: The
Case of Japanese Investment in South Korea” Columbia Journal of World
Business Vol.24, no.3, 1989
Noble, Gregory
“Takeover or Makeover? Japanese Investment in America”
Taylor, Robert, Cho Yong-Doo and Hyun Jae Hoon “Korean Companies in China:
Strategies in the Localization of Management” Asia Pacific Business Review
vol.7, Summer 2001, Nov.
Week 15 Wrapping Up
Presentations