Pragmatic Religion

Religion is a part of every society.  It is a cultural product of mankind, a tool for survival.
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What is Japanese religion, then?  In a word, ancestor worship.
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In this patriarchical value system, there could be no room for the concept of an “Almighty God,” as in the traditions of Judaism, Christianity, and Islam.  On the contrary, Japanese kami (gods) are not considered separate personalities from men.  In need of salvation and help, people turn to the superiors of ie (that is, their ancestors), who are believed to be gods.  Another traditional belief in Japan is that the dead go to the place of their ancestors and become kami. …
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Maintaining its hereditary good name and continuing its ancestors’ glorious work was the most important responsibility of a family.  The religion also set up certain ethical standards for family members.  However, no provision was made for the salvation of the individual, instead, the ultimate destiny of an individual was to lose his identity and merge with his ancestral spirits after death.
—    Mitsuyuki Masatsugu
From his book:  “The Modern Samurai Society“
[I believe this is the first time I have ever heard of religion as being a “cultural product” or as a “tool for survival“.   This is an interesting way of viewing “religion”.   —   kmab]
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Consensus Is Only One Side

The Japanese are among the most competitive people in the world;  otherwise they could not have achieved their recent economic successes.  Consensus was established to keep the society cohesive and to control excessive competition, which would cause friction and make tireless rivals of the people in the isolated areas.  So the comment that Japan is a society of consensus is only one side of the story.
—    Mitsuyuki Masatsugu
From his book:  “The Modern Samurai Society“
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The Not-So-Modern Samurai

Today I am home ill with what seems to be an ear infection.  Every few years, I get this swollen sensation on the right side of my head.  It feels like my head has a weighted balloon attached to the right side.  When I turn my head, stand or look quickly in any direction, I get a light-headedness and it feels like my vision / brain is continuing to move after my head (or eyeballs) have stopped.  Several years ago I had to go to the ER to get seen by a doctor about this condition.  Then, I also had an associated fever, which I fortunately don’t have this time.  In any case, I take some decongestants and my vertigo pill and I kind of spend the day in a half-stupor of fatigue and dizziness.
This morning I completed a book I’ve been reading off and on for several years now.  Our local library system has an annual shelf clearing book give-away each August and they have about 800 to 1,000 boxes of books which are set out for anyone to take what they want – as much as you can carry, and come back tomorrow.  Today’s book was one of these and I picked it up about three years ago.  It has mostly sat in my car waiting to be read.  I would grab it whenever I had a doctor / dentist visit to have something to read in the waiting room.  Unfortunately, if you don’t wait much, you don’t read much, so this has taken quite a while to get through.
The book is titled:  “The Modern Samurai Society: Duty and Dependence in Contemporary Japan“, (1982©) and was written by Mitsuyuki Masatsugu.  The book attempts to explain contemporary (circa 1982) corporate Japan in terms of the historical legacy of the Samurai (“samurai” means “one who serves”) society which held sway in Japan for several centuries.  The samurai tradition fell out of favor with the coming of the industrial revolution in the last half of the 19th century.  (As an aside, part of this transition was portrayed in the Tom Cruise movie:  “The Last Samurai“.)  In essence, it attempts to explain Japanese business management techniques to non-Japanese.
To Masatsugu, successful Japanese management stems from eight factors which incorporate two features from Japanese culture.  The eight factors (guiding principles) to success are:
1)  Paternalism;
2)  Guaranteed lifetime employment;
3)  Seniority-based promotion;
4)  In-company unions;
5)  Periodic transfers;
6)  Overtime work as a safety valve;
7)  Enriched welfare program;  and,
8)  A selective retirement system.
The two features which Masatsugu believes to be uniquely emphasized in Japanese society are:
1)  Diligence – the duty each individual has towards their country in general and towards their company in particular.  And,
2)  Dependence – a recognition that even though the employees are individuals, they must work together to surpass non-Japanese companies.
Like any “valid” theoretical explanation, management theories must meet a minimum of two criteria:  does it accurately describe what is currently happening, and two, does it have predictive value either for when external conditions change or when internal structures are abandoned (or both).  In this book’s case, we now have the benefit of thirty-two years history to see that Masatsugu’s proposal was pretty spot on.
Since the book’s release Japan has suffered both a housing boom collapse and an economic drought now approaching the middle of its third decade.  The housing collapse happened in the 1980’s and the start of Japan’s economic drought (I hesitate to call it a collapse as Japan has only recently been surpassed by China as THE economic power in Asia) occurred in the 1990’s.  In fact, the 1990’s is sometimes referred to in Japan as “the lost decade” because there was so little economic growth.
Specifically, Masatsugu suggests the structure of Japan’s economic strength is based on these principles and if any one (or combination) fails, the entire structure will waver and ultimately collapse.  Masatsugu predicts the gradual incorporation of western management will bring about an economic failure.  He leans towards the abandonment of guaranteed lifetime employment and seniority-based promotion when “times get hard”.  Masatsugu says that in past times, management held to principle and the economy eventually turned around.  He cautions that future management might not have the fortitude to withstand to pressure to abandon principle in an effort to meet “western style” quarterly objectives.  We now know Japanese management has moved away from guaranteed lifetime employment, seniority-based promotion and selective retirement.  All of these actions have had a detrimental effect on business (and societal) productivity in the U.S. over the last 40 years.  It will be interesting to see if the same happens in Japan and how long it will take to happen (if it does).
I doubt very much that this book could be written in today’s “politically correct” world as it has several racist and sexist comments which, in context, seem common sense, but are actually inculcated cultural biases.  For example, women are generally considered unequal to men in the business world, because…  Wait for it…  Because they are!  (Well, except when they aren’t.)  In the author’s view, a woman can be one of the main reasons a man succeeds in business.  But, a female can never succeed in Japanese business on her own.  In all, though, these are trivial reasons to be critical of a book which I believe is overwhelmingly a valuable (if dated) insight into Japanese business culture.  Highly recommended!
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