Entering a minefield

In writing about companies-as-communities, or ‘community firms’ in Japan, we are entering a minefield. The term eludes neat definition, and easy quantification. And for some people, it evokes negative reactions. The Japanese equivalent – kigyo kyodotai – can conjure up images of oppressive wartime control and ‘feudal’ communitarian institutions. For some, it epitomizes Japan's ‘corporate-centred society’ and its associated patriarchal order. Community companies are male-dominated, discriminate against women, encroach on and distort family life (Osawa, 1993; Kumazawa, 2000). Collectively, they have created Japan's ‘corporate capitalism’, which perverts fundamental capitalist and market principles, breeds corruption and impedes healthy social development (Okumura, 1975, 1984, 1992). For others, they served a purpose during Japan's catch-up phase of development, but those days are over. Without a process of creative destruction, which includes ‘Japanese-style management’ and community firms, Japan will flounder in the twenty-first century (Tsujimura, 1998). Some of these criticisms, in fact, now find expression in official government publications, and the Japanese government itself has become one of the biggest critics.

On the other hand, community companies have their defenders, including the heads of some of Japan's most successful corporations, although they may not use the expression directly. Canon's president, for instance, declared: