The Humanistic Enterprise System in Japan

Abstract

collective economic energies of the nation. It is what lies behind the socalled Japanese-style management system, and the two should not be confused with one another. In my view there are two reasons for the lack of understanding about the new economic system: one is the inadequacy of the paradigm of Western economics and the other is the popularity of the cultural approach to Japan. According to the paradigm of Western economics there are only two kinds of economic systems worthy of note: capitalism and socialism. Capitalism is based on the principles of economic freedom, competition, and efficiency, whereas socialism represents collective welfare, economic planning, and equity. There may be hybrid economies mixing elements of capitalism and socialism in different manners and to different degrees, but the combination of the two systems, it is assumed, is just that and does not imply the emergence of a new, qualitatively different system. Since the modern economic history of the West-the center of industrial development-has witnessed the workings of only these two systems (and their variations), the paradigm is believed adequate and sufficiently encompass