The Development of Corporate Culture Studies in Japan: What Did the Corporate Culture Boom of the 1980s Bring About?

Abstract

AbstractThis chapter aims to clarify how the concept of corporate culture introduced from the United States has been accepted and developed in Japan. First, I use a systematic review to quantitatively identify trends in academic writing on corporate culture in Japan. Next, based on this review, I examine the transition from Japanese management theory to corporate culture studies in the Japanese academic community, which was a popular topic in the 1970s. Regarding the business community, I focus on the concept of shafū, which is unique to Japanese society, and discuss its connection with the concept of corporate culture. I also refer to case studies of Japanese companies’ overseas expansion in the 1970s to examine the cultural challenges faced by Japanese companies at that time. As a result, the chapter concludes that both the academic and business communities in Japan developed the idea of managing corporate culture strategically after accepting the concept of corporate culture. Therefore, the corporate culture boom provided an opportunity for Japanese and American companies to learn from each other’s management styles.KeywordsCorporate cultureOrganizational cultureJapanese style of management Shafū