Japanese Business Ethics

8/11/2019 Japanese Business Ethics

1/11

ETHICAL CHALLENGES FACINGJAPANESE BUSINESSES:

HISTORICAL AND CONTEMPORARYOBSERVATIONS

Masato Kimura

Since the end of the cold war, globalization based on theIT revolution and the increasing amount of cross-border tradehas fundamentally changed the operating conditions forworld businesses. In Japan, such change has promoted inno-vation, but it has also stretched to the limit questions of prop-er ethical conduct in the pursuit of profit. This article willoffer several examples of the ethical challenges facing Japan-ese business, and recommend a new ethical framework inlight of the reforms proposed by and ethical values of Shibu-sawa Eiichi in establishing modern Japanese capitalism in thelate nineteenth and early twentieth centuries.

Key words:business ethics, social responsibility, profit, global-ization, corporate governance reform

Introduction

The purpose of this article is to clarify and implement a new

ethic for Japanese business in accordance with the KeidanrenCharter for Good Corporate Behavior.1 The analysis offered willconsider, from a contemporary viewpoint, the vision and activi-

ASIAN PERSPECTIVE, Vol. 29, No. 1, 2005, pp. 135-155.


2/11


3/11


4/11


5/11


6/11


7/11


8/11


9/11


10/11


11/11

Japanese Business Ethics

Documents

Transcript of Japanese Business Ethics