INTERNATIONAL SYMPOSIUM

pioneering ethical capitalism
MONDAY, NOVEMBER 25TH, 2013
There is more than one way to do capitalism. In Japan, in the second half of the 19th century, amajor business leader, Shibusawa Eiichi, expressed the view that business enterprise could andshould simultaneously accomplish profits and enhance public welfare. The solutions he suggested
are still relevant today. This symposium aims at understanding the Asian and Western origins ofethical capitalism, mapping the evolving arguments about the responsibilities of business and thechanging practices of firms, debating the relations between morality and economy for globalised
economies and societies in a perspective of sustainable growth.

PROGRAM
10:00 - MORNING SESSION > What does an approach of this major issue by history
bring to us?
Simultaneous translation English-Japanese provided.
Moderator: Patrick Fridenson (École des hautes études en sciences sociales)
Keynote speech : Takeo Kikkawa (Hitotsubashi University), Why ethical capitalism? Origins
and development
Geoffrey Jones (Harvard Business School), The responsibility of capitalism: past, present, future
Coffee break
Janet Hunter (London School of Economics), Business and morality: can we still learn fromJapan?
Discussion

12:30 Lunch
14:30 - AFTERNOON SESSION > Today’s initiatives and problems
Session in English. Moderator: TBA
Keynote speeches
Ken Shibusawa (Founder and Chairman, Commons Asset Management), Rongo (ethics) andSoroban (business): Sustainable Capitalism
Lionel Zinsou (Chairman and CEO, PAI partners): What does Finance mean by corporate social
responsibility?
Coffee break

16:00 Round table: Can you be ethical in global business today?

Participants: Philippe Lagayette, president of the Fondation de France ; Hartmut Berghoff,
director of the German Historical Institute in Washington ; business leaders ; officials and scholars.
General discussion

17:30 End of symposium
18:00 Reception

INTRODUCING THE MORNING SESSION
Why ethical capitalism? Origins and development
Takeo Kikkawa (Hitotsubashi University)
Shibusawa Eiichi (1840–1931) played a significant role as one of the most historically well-known
Japanese managers. He introduced the concept of gappon-shugi to describe a specific type ofcorporation based on manpower, capital, technology, information and intellectual networks, allvaluable elements to help Japan to modernize and bridge the gap between the local and global.
This concept guided him to pursue social entrepreneurship and conduct business activities.
Shibusawa’s concept of gappon-shugi is a unique feature of thoughts based on a particular
philosophy of capitalism, which contributed in a positive manner to the modernization of Japanese
economy and society. During his travels to Europe from the mid to late nineteenth century, he wasimpressed by the economic model found there that sought to garner both large and small
investments to pursue entrepreneurial activities. When he came back to Japan, he devised a moresophisticated definition of business development and entrepreneurial activity reflected in an effort
to assemble competent people and raise funds from a wide variety of sources in order toaccomplish simultaneously business profits and enhance public welfare.
If these characteristics that are “distinct from the normal outlook of capitalism” can be systematized,
it might be possible to create a new view of capitalism that takes the place of the capitalist outlook
prevalent today. This will become one challenge in response to the pessimistic outlook that thewave of financialization can no longer be stopped. Those of us investigating Shibusawa Eiichi’scontribution to human resource development based upon gappon-shugi are resolved to play a rolein this challenge.

The Responsibility of Capitalism: Past, Present, Future
Geoffrey Jones (Harvard Business School)
From the nineteenth century until the present day, European, American, Asian and other businessleaders and management thinkers have talked of the responsibilities of business beyond making
profits. Shibusawa Eiichi's insistence that morality and economy were consistent with one another,and that capitalism could be ethical and had a responsibility to be ethical, was echoed in quite
different societies than Meiji Japan. Indeed, there are parallels between some of Shibusawa Eiichi's
insights and the arguments of prominent management scholars today, including Harvard Business
School's Michael Porter. This lecture discusses the evolving discourses and debates on theresponsibilities of capitalism over time and globally. It suggests that four factors drove arguments
concerning such responsibilities: spirituality; self-interest; fears of government intervention; andthe belief that governments were incapable of addressing major social issues. The lecture
concludes with a consideration what can be learned from the past as debates about theresponsibilities of capitalism intensify in an increasingly uncertain and globalized world.

Business and Morality: Can We Still Learn from Japan?
Janet Hunter (London School of Economics and Political Science)
During the 1970s and 1980s, when faced with the Japanese economic “miracle”, the concept that
Western nations could learn from the way the Japanese economy was organized was widespread,but the idea that 'Japan matters' has since declined. This lecture focusses on the global debates on'commercial morality', that is, the ethical conduct of business, that arose in the late 19th - early 20th

centuries, debates that often accused the Japanese of inappropriate business conduct. Increasingly
exposed to the global economy and the transnational spread of ideas, Japanese business andpolitical leaders such as Shibusawa responded to these debates, contributing to a shared discourseon business morality and 'appropriate' ways of doing business. The emphasis in this discourse on
the importance of achieving profit by fair means, and of honesty in business as the key to long term
profit, resonates with more recent debates on ethical business behaviour generated by problems in
the global economy and global finance over the last two decades.

CONFERENCE SPONSORSThe Shibusawa Eiichi Memorial Foundation is a private foundation devoted to raising the ethicalstandards of business management based on the ideal of "harmony of morality and the economy,"which Shibusawa Eiichi advocated and practiced throughout his life.
Website : http://www.shibusawa.or.jp/english/
The École des hautes études en sciences sociales is a public academic institution which trains
students in most disciplines of the social sciences and whose scholars do research in aninternational and interdisciplinary spirit.
Website : http://www.ehess.fr
The Centre de recherches historiques (CRH) is a major center in France for historical studies. It is a
joint research unit between the EHESS and the French National Center for Scientific Research(CNRS). http://crh.ehess.fr/

REGISTRATION

Registration is necessary. Please register by e-mail to: pec-symposium@ehess.fr

VENUEOECD – 2, rue André Pascal, 75775 Paris Cedex 16

PUBLIC TRANSPORTATION

RER: Line C - station Henri Martin Subway: Line 9 - station La Muette
Bus: Line 63 - stop Octave Feuillet ; Line 52 - stop La Muette Boulainvilliers ;Line PC1 - stop Porte de la Muette

CONTACT

Arnaud Dattola (École des hautes études en sciences sociales):
pec-symposium@ehess.fr