In the context of the widening trade gap between Japan and the U.S.A. and the increasing numbers of missions visiting Japan aimed at a better understanding of the Japanese market and Japanese business, topics such as Just in Time and TQC have received the most prominence, along with discussions of Japanese-style management and labor relations. The weakness of most discussions has been their inability to set these into the context of the highly complex Japanese value-system that runs through both business (...) and society. Once understood, it becomes apparent that there is a system of values and value-related strategies at work that have a re-inforcing effect in the directions of cooperation and efficiency. The paper will identify a number of these and indicate their areas of influence. Four are discussed: (1) the formation of corporate philosophy (2) management philosophy (3) corporate work ethic (4) supplier/customer relations. (shrink)

The paper argues from the premise that myth is diverse in purpose, intent, form and content to the conclusion that myth may not be irrelevant in a culture in which the paradigm of knowledge is the scientific hypothesis. By contrasting structural similarities and common features, it is claimed that the relationship between myth and scientific hypothesis should be conceived logically rather than chronologically. It is further suggested that far from being challenged, philosophy has an important and continuing role to fulfil (...) since it stands logically midway between myth and science. (shrink)

The paper discusses the historical roots of the political cultures of Japan and China by examining the principal characteristics of their traditional Imperial systems. Comparison of the logic of legitimacy in each case, namely divine lineage in Japan in contrast to the awesome but demanding Mandate of Heaven in China, highlights the philosophical difference between reigning and ruling, and the consequences of this for modem politics in each country. A sacral aura still surrounds the Japanese system tending to insulate authority (...) from the kind of pressures that could lead, in China, to the loss of the Mandate, most recently based on socialist ideals. The power of continuity in both systems, surviving into the present in different forms, remains a serious possible impediment to the further political development of modem Asia. (shrink)