The Success of Competitive-Communism in Japan

208 Pages·1988·18.939 MB·English

by  Douglas Moore Kenrick (auth.)

THE SUCCESS OF COMPETITIVE-COMMUNISM
IN JAPAN
Also by Douglas Moore Kenrick
BANKING PRACTICE IN NEW ZEALAND
THE THEORY AND PRACTICE OF PRICE CONTROL IN HONG KONG,
1946--47
THE BOOK OF SUMO
A CENTURY OF WESTERN STUDIES OF JAPAN
DEATH IN A TOKYO FAMILY
The Success of
Competitive
Communism in Japan
Douglas Moore Kenrick
President, Douglas Kenrick (Far East) Ltd
Senior Vice-President, Asiatic Society of Japan
M
MACMILLAN
PRESS
© Douglas Moore Kenrick 1988
All rights reserved. No reproduction, copy or transmission
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or transmitted save with written permission or in accordance
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Any person who does any unauthorised act in relation to
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civil claims for damages.
First published 1988
Published by
THE MACMILLAN PRESS LTD
Houndmills, Basingstoke, Hampshire RG21 2XS
and London
Companies and representatives
throughout the world
British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data
Kenrick, Douglas Moore
The success of competitive-communism in
Japan.
1. Japan-Social conditions-1945-
I. Title
952.04'8 DD HN723.5
ISBN 978-0-333-45726-9 ISBN 978-1-349-19367-7 (eBook)
DOI 10.1007/978-1-349-19367-7
Contents
Preface viii
Acknowledgements Xl
PART I INTRODUCTION
1 Competitive-Communism 3
Japanese practice, Communist theory 3
Public ownership of property 4
Classless society 7
Dictatorship by the workers 10
Japan's competitive-communism 12
2 Beneath the Western Veneer 14
Similarities 14
Mystery? 17
Uniqueness 19
PART II COMMUNISTIC BEHAVIOUR AND SOCIAL
STRUCTURE
3 Cliques 27
'Cliques' not 'groups' 27
'Cells' 29
'Fraternities' 31
'The clan' 32
4 Outsiders 35
Japanese outsiders 35
Alien outsiders 38
Public spirit 43
5 Dependence 45
Dependence 45
Gregariousness 49
Emotions and self-control 51
Egoism 53
6 Rationality 55
Japanese rationality 55
v
VI Contents
PART III CONTINUITY AND TRANSMISSION
OF AN ANCIENT SOCIAL STRUCTURE
7 Tradition 65
Cultural origins 65
The retention of the old 67
The Japanese house 71
Assimilation 73
8 Hierarchy 75
Hierarchy 75
Rank versus role 77
Decision-making 78
9 Obligations and the Law 82
Obligations, politeness, apology 82
Laws 84
Regulations 87
Contracts 88
10 Religions, Mythology and Morality 92
Religions 92
Mythology and superstition 97
Morality 100
11 Communication 104
Language 104
Non-verbal communication 105
Speaking and writing 106
12 Women 112
Matriarchy? 112
Childhood training 116
13 Labour 121
'Lifetime' emp,loyment 121
Indoctrination and incentives 125
Security 128
'Workaholics' and 'economic animals' 129
Total quality control 131
Trade unions 134
Contents Vll
PART IV JAPAN IN RECENT YEARS
14 Japan's 'Economic Miracle' 141
Pre-Pacific War growth 141
The post-war 'miracle' 143
15 Stone, Paper and Scissors 149
'Japan incorporated' 149
Bureaucrats 150
Politicians 152
Businessmen 157
Stone, paper and scissors 158
16 Is Japan a Closed Market? 162
The Japanese market 162
Government controls 166
17 Are the Japanese Efficient? 175
Efficiency 175
18 The Economic Scene 182
Today 182
Tomorrow 186
19 Japan's Competitive-Communism 193
Bibliography 199
Index 200
Preface
Catchwords like 'Japan As Number One', 'workaholics', 'economic
animals', 'rabbit hutches', 'Japan Incorporated' and 'groupism' have
been coined to emphasise outstanding features of Japan. They give
partial and sometimes misleading impressions. For example, 'vertical
structure' and 'lifetime employment' accentuate aspects of Japan's
economic system which are not unique to Japan. To understand
Japanese behaviour we must delve behind the catchwords, but single
phrase descriptions, including the title of this book, usually contain
grains of truth and some terms fit better than others as equipment
with which to scale the high communication barriers between Japan
and the outside world. 'Competitive-communism' is one.
We all harbour some impressions of Japan. Many Westerners link
her with prisoner-of-war camps during the Second World War or,
in recent decades, with industrial efficiency. To visualise a culture
very different from our own these facts of Japan's past and present
should be mixed with many others. Generalisations about nations
are dangerous. There are too many exceptions. Not all individuals
act in the same way. Most Japanese have been reared to live with
mutual dependence and most Westeners have been taught to have
faith in freedom of choice. However, I know many Japanese who
are individualistic and, on the other hand, Westerners whose
dependent behaviour resembles that of Japanese. Nevertheless, if
they help to reduce misunderstandings, generalisations are justified.
Concrete buildings and the fashionable Western clothes of those
who walk the crowded streets give an overwhelming impression that
Tokyo is very similar to London, New York, Paris or any other
modern twentieth-century city. And so it is. Western influence,
apparent on all sides, is impossible to overlook, but even the here
today-gone-tomorrow tourists may notice outcroppings they find
strange - the bowing, the shrines and temples, the festivals, the
goods in some shops, the treatment they encounter - sometimes
very satisfying, at other times very frustrating. Tokyo, with a population
of about twelve million, has barely thirty named streets.
Similarities should not blind us to imp,ortant differences. Much
that is now familiar to Westerners has been adopted in little more
than a hundred years. Japan has grafted industry and many Western
ideas and practices on to her agricultural and 'semi-feudal' social
viii
Preface ix
systems while avoiding the generations of class conflict through
which the West has struggled. She has been able to pick and choose
while retaining many of her traditional concepts and procedures just
as, after the Second World War, she selected and imported the latest
machinery and techniques to rehabilitate her destroyed factories.
The Japanese work together closely in exclusive cliques which
erect barricades between insiders and those outside. I hope that,
when the barriers are seen, it will be possible to lower or avoid
them. My Japanese friends have encouraged me not to hide the
cleavages between our cultures and to write from the Western
viewpoint so that they can see their country through Western eyes.
The pronouncements of people with long experience in any field
should be viewed with the same caution as the assertions of those
who volunteer their opinions without knowledge to back them.
However, one must seek guidance if one wants an idea of what to
expect of the citizens of another country. Over a decade ago, after
twenty-five years of living and working and being confused in Japan,
I set out to explore what lay behind Japanese behaviour that did
not match with my experiences in other countries. In this presentation
I give my personal view of the whole complicated and contradictory
picture of Japanese behaviour and Japan's economic and social
structure. I have not followed the scholarly practice of quoting a
number of authorities and summing up with a guarded conclusion
on each of the many limited subjects. To do so would make for a
very lengthy exposition. Instead, I give my condensed conclusions
interspersed with a few illustrations from relevant scholarly opinions,
news items from the daily press and personal experiences. If some
of my conclusions are controversial, they have been backed by much
study before being summarised in their present form. The theme
and title, 'Competitive-communism', has only recently emerged as
the binding thread that I think accounts for Japanese success in
international trade. Despite the contradictions a pattern can be
discerned. It allows scope for keen competition constrained by a
desire for harmony and underlying communal controls. Hyphenating
'communism' with its antithesis 'competition' highlights the contradic
tions and the misunderstandings that exist.
Competition (the profit motive) has been mixed into a cliquish
social structure by giving pride of place to communal, person-to
person, human relations that leave limited room for aggressive
individualism. The cliques raise barriers against outsiders and, to
enjoy the benefits of membership, the insiders exercise constant self-