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Japan has recently opened its cultural borders to the world. This developed country has been since the 1980s a great business partner for the US and Europe, as well as for Asias developing countries. But, it has always been enclosed to any cultural contact. The contact with the Western world led to a radical change in the social field when the Japanese started to know about other social and economical patterns. Japanese workers turned to be less loyal to their companies and less dedicated to their work. Their apparent close bonds with their employers were due to personal interests. They are following a Western model of economy, a western ideal of self achievement and their economy can suffer from the growing interest for personal fulfillment. Japanese are more and more aware of the existence of an alternative to their actual social and economical system. The aforementioned alternative, promoting self achievement, focuses on the quality of life of citizens. This emerging awareness of the western concept of society and work organization resulted in a wind of change in education, work code and social organization. These transformations are deeply modifying the Japanese economic system. How will these evolutions affect the performance of Japanese economy? Japanese are getting aware of the group-oriented character of their society and so do Japanese pupils. Meanwhile, workers are yearning for more equality in promotion and this can affect the performance of Nippon companies. However, the social and economical evolution can be seen as advantageous.
The cultural contact with the western world made Japanese aware of their very strict and group-oriented society. In the late 1990s, Japanese started traveling individually instead of traveling by group. This was, and still is for a consequent part of the society, a tradition based on an old social theory (Confucianism) that has been lately developed and called “Theory of Welfare State” from John Meynard Keynes. This theory presupposes, among other ideas, that the interest of an individual is in the interest of the group he belongs to. It also argues that the State has the ability to be an active part in economy and not just a regulator. Lately, Japanese tourists overcame this hypothesis and started to go towards other cultures by traveling by their own and thus having a closer contact with local populations. As a result, they discovered that there were other alternatives to social and economical organization. The western societies are mainly oriented towards the individual whose interest comes prior to the groups interest. However this vision of society is directly inspired from the theory of Classic Economist Adam Smith who states that a person working for its individual interest participates actively in general interest. In the 1950s, Japan closed its “doors” to speed up its reconstruction after a materially and socially devastating WWII. Regarding the actual conjunctures of the global market, which moves to a service economy in all developed countries, Japan is obliged to open its cultural borders to cultural influences coming from Europe and The United States in order to remain competitive.
The first social aspect affected by the opening of cultural borders is education. Japanese pupils have, until recently, been brought up in a very competitive educational system. One outstanding consequence of the aiming to bring up “school champions” is the fact that most parents prefer to have one single child so that they are able to provide him with the best support. From age three and until graduation, Japanese pupils face a huge pressure as argued by Kenneth B. Pyle in The Making of Modern Japan p.258, from their direct academic and family environment which tries to get the best out of each one with the risk of pushing them too hard. This reality results in whole generations living constantly under stress and whose personal development can be highly hindered. However, this release of pressure can cause a decrease of pupils performance.
Meanwhile Japanese youth are yearning for freedom, workers stand up change in their working conditions. In fact, there are too many working hours in Japan and official holidays represent a little more than a week per year. Furthermore, promotions are given according to whether an employee is old or not which is directly drawn from the “Oyabun-Kobun” (father-son) social organization. This social scheme makes respect for the eldest one of the major values of society and, as matter of fact promotes a very strong hierarchy as argued in Japan: Country Study p.96 “hierarchy is natural. Age or seniority…are common distinctions that guide [social and economical] interaction.” This system is transposed in companies organization, which means workers are seen as the sons of their boss and since then owe him obedience, and has as effect a growing social claim concerning this unjust rule. Workers promote a merit based society which goes totally against the actual system that has led Japan to its economical prosperity. This system was based on a very rigid hierarchy. This whole concern was directly inspired by the very strong awareness of social rights and the presence of a “Welfare State” in the majority of western countries.