Faculty
Toyoko Sato, Brian Moeran, Charles T. Tackney and guest speakers from Japanese organisations

Course Coordinator
Toyoko Sato, tsa.ikl@cbs.dk

Students must have Japanese language competence and knowledge of Japanese society and business equivalent to the BSc. degree in the Asian Studies Programme of Copenhagen Business School.

Two key, interconnected course concepts are corporate culture and corporate governance. For corporate culture, we address the following questions and try to discern essential notions: what is culture, what is corporate culture? Why does corporate culture matter? For corporate governance, we will consider: how have corporations been governed in Japan? What brought about the Japanese banking system, long thought to be the major power for Japan’s economy, and what led to its collapse? What kinds of stakeholders initially, and subsequently, exist in the Japanese organisation and economy? And, finally, who owns the Japanese corporation, and on whose behalf does it function? Central to these concepts is the process of negotiation in the Japanese context. As the course proceeds, we will examine how corporate culture and corporate governance are negotiated in Japan. Key Japanese terms for this examination include “ J-pop” (Japanese pop) and “ J-cult” (Japanese cult).

The course runs three hours per week for eight weeks. Our weekly schedule will be divided into two parts: the first two hours (with Toyoko Sato) will be devoted to language analysis and discussion of texts. The third hour will be a lecture in Japanese and relevant discussions/debates with designated lecturers. Weekly discussion topics will be posted in advance on SiteScape. External speakers may appear when appropriate and available to extend the class network and aid in understanding. Students will also be expected to make brief presentations based on course readings and discussion.

There are two aims for this course. First, the course will extend and improve Japanese language competence in listening and speaking. Second, students will acquire a deeper understanding of Japanese corporate practices in a global economy. The course material and lectures will provide an analytical framework for Japanese corporate culture and corporate governance that will provide students, who successfully complete the course with an advanced understanding, useful in research and careers in our internationalised, global economy.

Students will be evaluated on knowledge of the course through a synopsis-based oral examination. The synopsis must be written in appropriate Japanese and should be between 800 – 1000 characters. This synopsis must be submitted two weeks before the examination. As stated, the examination is oral and takes its point of departure in the synopsis, beginning with a presentation by the student (five-ten minutes), followed by a discussion. The examination will take 30 minutes (including five minutes evaluation). Students receive two grades: one grade is based on course material; the other is an assessment of communicative skills in Japanese.

The course runs three hours per week for eight weeks. Our weekly schedule will be divided into two parts: the first two hours (with Toyoko Sato) will be devoted to language analysis and discussion of texts. The third hour will be a lecture in Japanese and relevant discussions/debates with designated lecturers. Weekly discussion topics will be posted in advance on SiteScape. External speakers may appear when appropriate and available to extend the class network and aid in understanding. Students will also be expected to make brief presentations based on course readings and discussion.

A required compendium will be made available before the course begins. The compendium will tentatively include readings from the following articles and texts: Tadashi Umezawa (1990/2004) Kigyo bunka no kakushin to souzou? Innovation and Creativity of Corporate Culture? Katsuhito Iwai (2005) Kaisha wa dare no mono ka?To whom does the corporation belong? Brian Moeran (2005), “Sofuto ni uri, haado ni kasegu? Selling soft and earning hard: on marketing in Asian J-cult? in Ekkyou suru popyuraa bunka to souzou no Ajia Charles T. Tackney ”Nihon roushi kankei to ikeru kisoku? Japanese Industrial Relations and ‘Working Rules’?” in Join April –May 1997 Toyoko Sato (1999), “Karugaru to Kokkyou wo koeru Miyazawa Kenji (On Kenji Miyazawa) in Miyazawa Kenji no ikikata ni manabu (Learning from the Life of Kenji Miyazawa)