From: blamb@hri.com (Bill Lambert)
Newsgroups: soc.culture.japan
Subject: Re: Try it again - RE: Please give me your opinions...
Date: 12 Nov 92 22:38:16 GMT
Organization: Horizon Research, Inc.


=> In article <7438@bigbird.hri.com.hri.com> blamb@hri.com
=> (Bill Lambert) writes:
=> > ............................... A very large ommision,
=> >from my point of view, is failure to mention two areas
=> >of business where their ethics seem to have an edge over
=> >their US counterparts. Those are company/employee relations
=> >and company/customer relations. In regards to those two
=> >areas, the typical Japanese business concern excells. In
=> >my view, these are the two most important areas of business
=> >ethics, not the aspects of head-to-head economic competition.
=> >In a dog-eat-dog world, they are wise enough not to bite
=> >the hand that feeds them.

In article <1992Nov11.204756.5534@island.COM>, fester@island.COM
(Mike Fester) writes:
=> These are not quite so cut-and-dry as you indicate. 
=> First, with regard to company/employee relations:
=> 
=> While it is true that large Japanese companies are FAR less likely than their
=> US counterparts to lay off their permanent labor force, their permanent 
=> labor force is far more limited than in the US...

=> <Mike's examples omitted>

I'm familiar with those things, Mike, but I'm glad that you pointed
them out, as some things are the exceptions that prove the rule.

Let's say that if there is a scale of regard for the employee
relationship, and at one end is the view whereby employees are
considered as assets to the company, and at the other end of 
the scale, employees are considered as expendable tools by the
company, then the typical Japanese company will be higher on
the "asset" side than the typical American Company. There are
notable exceptions of course, but this is the trend.

=> With regard to company/customer relations:
=> 
=> While department stores especially are famous for exquisite service, and 
=> service industries as well (restaurants, etc), in other areas things are not
=> necessarily so rosey. First of all, manufacturers may (and in many cases do)
=> place conditions of sale on their goods (such as price at which they must
=> be sold, to whom they may be sold, what other companies' products may be
=> handled, etc) that under similar circumstances would be considered illegal
=> here in the US. The distributor, in turn, may and in fact often does, make
=> similar demands on the retailor. So far as the end consumer is concerned, there
=> is no real mechanism for dealing with a defective product; in my case, I was
=> able to get defective products replaced immediately, though I was originally
=> told that it would take up to *2 months* to send the defective item to the 
=> shop for repair (in one case, it was an item I had purchased that same say!).
=> After adamantly demanding either my money back or an immediate replacement, the
=> managers at each store finally relented (especially after one woman changed her
=> mind about a purchase because she no longer trusted that the store could 
=> give her good service if it was needed). Also, there is no consumer protection
=> law (yet) in Japan: if you purchase the equivalent of an exploding Ford Pinto,
=> and it "does its thing", there is no legal recourse. Though the item does not
=> perform in a fashion consistent with the claims for it, there is nothing an
=> individual consumer can do. Note: the proposed consumer protection bill seems
=> close to passing. And of course, I have not yet mentioned the price level
=> of goods in Japan, especially as compared to comparable or identical items 
=> in the US.

I suppose your experiences are different than mine. On two occasions, I
bought something that was tested by the shop and found to be defective
*before* I left the premises, and immediately replaced. I've also had
home appliances installed when *I* wanted (which was off 9-5 hours).
And in spite of lack of a consumer protection mechanism, isn't it
amazing to have that level of quality. In Japan, if a company's
product is not up to snuff, word gets out pretty quickly, and
nobody will buy it, hence you rarely will find the equivalent of
an exploding Ford Pinto.

- Bill
Newsgroups: soc.culture.japan