Читать книгу Business Guide to Japan - Boye Lafayette De Mente - Страница 10

THE RESENTMENT FACTOR

JAPAN’S ASTOUNDING economic success between the early 1950s and 1970s was viewed by many Japanese as sweet revenge against foreigners who had derided their traditional culture and regarded them as inherently inferior. However, the sudden wealth of Japanese companies and individuals was to add a new twist to the resentment they felt toward the West.

By 1980 there were strong signs that the Japanese business community was feeling beleaguered by the mass of foreigners trying to sell them something or obtain financing for one kind of project or another. What had begun as a trickle in the 1960s had developed into a torrent by the late 1970s. Everybody from presidents, prime ministers, and state governors down to shady hucksters was trying to sell something to the suddenly rich Japanese.

Some of these visitors to Japan came in with a lot of political clout, resulting in promises by the government that did not sit well with the private business sector, exacerbating the feeling that the world was trying to take unfair advantage of Japan.

This phenomenon continued until the early 1990s when Japan’s financial house of cards collapsed, its seemingly unstoppable growth rate slowed to a crawl, and the supreme confidence of the Japanese in the superiority of their corporate structure and management practices took a stunning blow. The emotional high they had been reveling in suddenly deflated like a pricked balloon.

However, this dash of cold water on the global aspirations and confidence of the Japanese— combined with the economic revival of the U.S. and the emergence of Hong Kong, Taiwan, and South Korea as major competitors—was to have a significantly beneficial effect on their overall mind-set and in their business relations with the rest of the world.

Businessmen, economists, scholars, and a broad range of people across the entire social spectrum began to question the traditional beliefs and practices that had contributed to the economic miracle that had remade Japan and to urge fundamental reforms that would bring Japan closer to the rest of the world in its social and economic systems.

This urging, combined with the continuously evolving world situation, had a major impact on the public as well as the business mind-set of the Japanese, making it a lot easier to do business in Japan. But this does not mean that their attitudes and behavior have changed to the point that they are no longer Japanese in the traditional sense.

The traditional values and traits that have controlled and defined the Japanese for well over a thousand years remain the foundation of the attitudes and behavior of most adult Japanese in their public lives. Understanding and dealing effectively with Japanese businessmen and government officials continue to require in-depth knowledge of a wide range of these enduring cultural factors.