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The Japanese Spirit of Enterprise, 1867–1970

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  11 June 2012

Johannes Hirschmeier
Johannes Hirschmeier
Affiliation:
Professor of Economics, Nanzan University
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Abstract

Tradtional Japanese disdain for business was overcome by making industrialization synonymous with the esteemed value of public service in the face of foreign economic competition. The alien corporate form of organization was made palatable by characterizing it as a family group which attracted traditional loyalties. Professor Hirschmeier attributes Japan's rapid industrialization at the turn of the century and her remarkable recovery after World War II to such pragmatic social compromises and uses them to identify and explain a uniquely Japanese “spirit of enterprise.”

Type
Research Article
Information
Business History Review , Volume 44 , Issue 1: Japanese Entrepreneurship , Spring 1970 , pp. 13 - 38
Copyright
Copyright © The President and Fellows of Harvard College 1970

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References

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15 Detailed accounts on the problem of introducing the joint stock enterprise system are furnished in the large volume by Watarō, Kanno, Nihon kaisha kigyō hasseishi no kenkyū (Studies in the emergence of the Japanese company form of enterprise), (Tokyo, reprinted 1966).Google Scholar

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