In Asia's Flying Geese, Walter F. Hatch tackles the puzzle of Japan's paradoxically slow change during the economic crisis it faced in the 1990s. Why didn't the purportedly unstoppable pressures of globalization force a rapid and radical shift in Japan's business model? In a book with lessons for the larger debate about globalization and its impact on national economies, Hatch shows how Japanese political and economic elites delayed—but could not in the end forestall—the transformation of their distinctive brand of capitalism by trying to extend it to the rest of Asia.For most of the 1990s, the region grew rapidly as an increasingly integrated but hierarchical group of economies. Japanese diplomats and economists came to call them "flying geese." The "lead goose" or most developed economy, Japan, supplied the capital, technology, and even developmental norms to second-tier "geese" such as Singapore and South Korea, which themselves traded with Thailand, Malaysia, and the Philippines, and so on down the V-shaped line to Indonesia and coastal China. Japan's model of capitalism, which Hatch calls "relationalism," was thus fortified, even as it became increasingly outdated. Japanese elites enjoyed enormous benefits from their leadership in the region as long as the flock found ready markets for their products in the West.The decade following the collapse of Japan's real estate and stock markets would, however, see two developments that ultimately eroded the country's economic dominance. The Asian economic crisis in the late 1990s destabilized many of the surrounding economies upon which Japan had in some measure depended, and the People's Republic of China gained new prominence on the global scene as an economic dynamo. These changes, Hatch concludes, have forced real transformation in Japan's corporate governance, its domestic politics, and in its ongoing relations with its neighbors.

Japanese Business Culture and Practices presents detailed insights and descriptions on the proper ways to conduct business with contemporary Japanese. It focuses on the traditional and nontraditional business-related practices, including the internal mechanisms of promotion and decision-making in Japanese corporations. From advice on how to avoid cultural misunderstandings and how to develop trust with Japanese colleagues, readers will gain insights on how to communicate, negotiate, entertain, and socialize with Japanese as well as the minutiae of correct behavior. Using linguistic examples to facilitate how Japanese themselves view their work environment, authors Isao Takei and Jon P. Alston describe the social etiquette and protocols Japanese expect all foreigners to adopt in order to successfully conduct business. With a glossary of terms and practical real-life experiences, this is an essential guide for anyone who wants to forge deeper business relationships with Japanese.

A complete reference guide to modern Japanese grammar, it fills many gaps left by previous textbooks. Grammar points are put in context by examples from a range of Japanese media. Arranged alphabetically, it includes a detailed index of terms.

From New York Times bestselling author Eric Lustbader, the suspense mastermind behind the smash bestsellers featuring Robert Ludlum’s™ Jason Bourne, comes a blockbuster thriller of one man’s debt of honor—and his ultimate destiny. Years ago, Nicholas Linnear, a.k.a. “the Ninja,” made a promise to his father: If a man named Mikio Okami ever sought his help, he would respond without question, no matter the cost. Now the time has come to fulfill his pledge. Okami is the Kaisho—the boss of bosses of the Yakuza, the Japanese underworld—and in his Venice headquarters, he realizes that he has been marked for death. But the identity of the assassin and the inexorable compulsion that drives him are shrouded in mysticism and madness. Honor bound to protect Okami, Linnear is prepared to make the ultimate sacrifice: a descent into a chasm of knowledge so potent, of dangers so unfathomable, that even if he survives, he will emerge changed forever.

There have been fundamental changes in renumeration practices in the UK over the last quarter century, with a substantial decline in collective bargaining as the major method of pay determination and the growth of more individualistic systems based on employee performance, skills or competency. This new text, which includes chapters by major UK academics and consultants who are specialists in the reward management field, is the first to adopt a critical and theoretical approach to these changes in reward systems. It covers the Institute of Personnel and Development's reward syllabus but, unlike other reward books, takes a thematic and theoretical approach to the material.

Restructuring Japanese Business for Growth consists of eighteen previously unpublished invited chapters by experts on Japanese business. It will attract both commercial and academic interest. Japanese business can be expected to continue to be of great importance in global and Asian economics, especially as the Japanese economy is the dominant economy in Asia, being larger than all other Asian economies combined. Policymakers and business people interested in understanding Japanese financial markets will find this book useful. In addition, this book should be a valuable resource for undergraduate, graduate, and executive development courses in international business, global finance, and Japanese business.

This study involves a fourteen-hundred-kilometer-long pilgrimage around Japan's fourth largest island, Shikoku. In traveling the circuit of the eighty-eight Buddhist temples that make up the route, pilgrims make their journey together with Kobo Daishi (774-835), the holy miracle-working figure who is at the heart of the pilgrimage. Once seen as a marginal practice, recent media portrayal of the pilgrimage as a symbol of Japanese cultural heritage has greatly increased the number of participants, both Japanese and foreign. In this absorbing look at the nature of the pilgrimage, Ian Reader examines contemporary practices and beliefs in the context of historical development, taking into account theoretical considerations of pilgrimage as a mode of activity and revealing how pilgrimages such as Shikoku may change in nature over the centuries. This rich ethnographic work covers a wide range of pilgrimage activity and behavior, drawing on accounts of pilgrims traveling by traditional means on foot as well as those taking advantage of the new package bus tours, and exploring the pilgrimage's role in the everyday lives of participants and the people of Shikoku alike. that have shaped it in the past and in the present, including history and legend; the island's landscape and residents; the narratives and actions of the pilgrims and the priests who run the temples; regional authorities; and commercial tour operators and bus companies.