Digitalizing Gratitude and Building Trust through Technology in a Post-COVID-19 World—Report of a Case from Japan

Employee engagement has become a critical issue in Japanese companies. One way to develop it is to improve the relationship among employees through gratitude expressions. In the post-COVID-19 remote work environment, digital devices are essential. This paper confirms that expressions of gratitude delivered via digital devices enhance the relationship between employees. We experimented in a small-town government office where participants (n = 88) were asked to (1) use the Thanks App, an app we developed to express gratitude, for two months and (2) respond to an engagement survey we developed before and after the experimental period. Through cross-analysis of the data from the app and questionnaire, we found that the “trust in colleagues” factor had a strong correlation (r = 0.80, p < 0.001) with our new index computed by the app’s data. The results suggest that the use of the Thanks App may help visualize the trust relationship among teams. This study has a practical value in providing a new team management tool for visualizing team trust. In addition, it provides a new research method for emotional and social psychology using digital devices.

Business Education in Japan

In Japan, the most prominent players in business education are corporations because they provide on-the-job training to their employees, particularly new graduates. However, with the low growth of the Japanese economy after the collapse of the bubble economy around 1990 and the recent drastic changes in the international environment, it is necessary to reexamine business education. To cope with the drastically changing environment, many Japanese companies are evolving their education model to emphasize off-the-job training in addition to on-the-job training. The main target of such training now includes senior executives, in addition to junior- to mid-level executives. Business schools play a role in educating senior executives. Although major Japanese companies utilize top business schools overseas, Japanese business schools are still the major education providers. This chapter discusses the recent changes, prospects, and issues concerning Japanese business schools.

EXPRESS: Conflict or Alignment? The Role of Return-oriented Foreign Shareholders and Domestic Relational Shareholders in Mitigating Earnings Management

This study investigates the effects of foreign return-oriented shareholders and domestic relational shareholders of Japanese companies on the earnings management behavior of their invested firms when stock option pay is adopted. We theorize that foreign shareholders seek short-term returns and do not engage in close monitoring due to an information disadvantage while domestic shareholders prevent managerial behavior that distorts information disclosure. Our findings show that managers of firms that use stock option pay engage in earnings management to increase their private financial benefits and meet capital markets’ expectations, which allows them to enhance their own reputation. However, this managerial behavior is contingent on the firm’s ownership structure. Our results show that while foreign shareholders enhance the positive impact of stock options on earning management, domestic shareholders and affiliated directors mitigate this positive effect. Our empirical analyses support the argument that ownership heterogeneity is a key determinant of managerial propensity to engage in earnings management when Japanese firms adopt stock option pay.

Prospects and Challenges In Developing 'Japanese Studies' Program in Bangladesh: Lessons From the University of Dhaka

Japanese Studies has entered a booming period in Bangladesh where the growing demand for knowledge on Japan, particularly Japanese development experience, society, and culture, has intensified. Besides, the increasing number of Japanese companies and opportunities to work in Japan so far is conducive to the increasing number of students in the Japanese language. Considering the given facts, academic institutions of Bangladesh need to initiate 'Japanese Studies' programs to produce 'Japanologists’-contextual and transitional expertise. The larger goal of this study is to identify the major prospects and challenges and consider the future directions for the Japanese Studies program. The paper intends to think alternatively beyond the 'ivory tower' mindset of a large number of Bangladeshi students as well as academicians and show the prospects of Japanese Studies with sustainable employment opportunities through industry-academia collaboration. The methods and equipping tools employed in this paper include lexical scrutiny and contextual analysis under the qualitative research method to analyse the current state of knowledge and pedagogical development. Presenting the number of stumbling blocks of the Japanese Studies program in Bangladesh, the paper finally demonstrates the program's future as an academic discipline. It ends with possible suggestions towards success in producing Japanologists to strengthen Bangladesh-Japan bilateral relations.

Automation and ‘Thailand +1” Strategy of Japanese Companies in Thailand by Thai Engineers

<p><strong>Abstract</strong></p><p>Japanese companies have the second largest number of overseas manufacturing sites in Thailand after in China. To cope with labor cost increase, on one hand, they automate their production processes using robots. On the other hand, they establish satellite manufacturing sites in neighboring lower labor cost countries. This movement is called “Thailand+1” Strategy. The paper discusses these two movements comparing with the experiences of Japanese companies in Japan in the late 1980s coping with rapid Japanese Yen appreciation. The paper discusses that the automation in Thailand now is more systematic and needs system integrators and that local engineers need to be trained as system integrators since the technological operation in Thailand is already heavily localized. In the case of Japan in the late 1980s, shop-floor workers were needed to be mechatronics operators since individual machines became IT (Information Technology) -based. For the “Thailand +1” Strategy, only a part of production process, which is heavily labor-intensive, is moved out as a satellite factory, while in the case of Japan in the 1980s a whole assembling process was moved out and many parts suppliers followed. Another difference is that local engineers (Thai engineers) play an important role in technology transfer in the case of the “Thailand +1” Strategy, while Japanese engineers transferred technology to overseas factories in the case of Japanese companies in the late 1980s. Japanese companies have become globally operated from Japan-centered.</p><p> </p>Keywords: Automation, Thailand+1 Strategy, Japanese Companies, Thai Engineers

Japan’s Rare Earth Strategy and Price Volatility on Tobacco Cultivation: How Demand Management Worked?

The two major light rare earth elements (REES) involved in Japan’s rare earth strategy: Cerium Oxide and Praseodymium Oxide, whether the price is affected by the demand management capability of the Japanese tobacco cultivation industry is the problems to be solved in this paper. For this aim, the monthly data from April 2008 to June 2017 was used to construct a model which takes into account the financial factors and demand factors for the two product by nonlinear methods, and use MSVAR model with regime-switching characteristic. The results are as follows. In general, different products have different price volatility characteristics. Even if the number of the regime is the same, the volatility connotation is different. Firstly, Cerium Oxide in the violent fluctuation regime has financial properties, and the financial properties of Praseodymium Oxide are reflected in three regime stages. Secondly, Japan’s industry factors have a significant change in the relationship between Cerium Oxide and Praseodymium Oxide to a certain extent. Among them, Information technology and tobacco cultivation Industrials as direct influencing factors have a counter-regulatory effect on the two product at certain price fluctuations, which reflects the direct demand management capabilities of Japanese companies, and Utilities and Telecommunication have a counter-regulation effect on Cerium Oxide and Praseodymium Oxide at certain price fluctuations, which reflects the indirect demand management ability of Japanese companies.

PRACTICES OF ORGANIZATIONAL CULTURE IN THE WORKPLACE: EXAMPLES OF THE USA AND JAPAN

This article examines organizational culture and its importance on the example of Japan and the United States. The experience of Japanese companies is based on the formation of an organizational culture in a multi-generational workforce and its transmission from generation to generation without change. As a result of the research, the main recommendation was to train the younger generation in the workplace as the main means of creating and maintaining the organizational culture in a team of different generations.Keywords: enterprise management, organizational culture, Japan, USA, value, corporate culture, employee, representatives of different generations