decision. Everyonesopinions, from the assembly line new hires to the supervisors working all theway upward must be heard and considered, with the final decision being aconsensus one, often a compromise, that everyone can accept. Meetings arefundamentally different than the ones in America, with not only a lot ofritualism, flattery and formality, but also an eagerness to compromise and tofind factors of agreement instead of differences. Even when someone disagrees,they start by pointing out the parts of the other ones idea that they agreewith. Often the boss does in fact end up getting most of his main ideas anddesires to be put forward due to his influence and presumable knowledge,however, with many small changes and additions that came in the middle of thelengthy decision process with near endless back and forth and amendments fromother managers, supervisors and even entry-level position workers. Japan does not have tradeunions. Instead, Japan has enterprise unions. That means that workers are not unitedby trades across companies borders, instead all employees of the same firm areunder one union, that looks after the welfare of all workers. This tends tocreate a lot of cooperation between the enterprises leadership and the unions,both of which understand that the fate of the company and of the workers areessentially one. That results in the very unique Japanese phenomenon where themajority of CEOs were themselves the leaders of trade unions and where strikesare minimal and usually very civil. This might resemble a lot actualcorporatism instead of the caricatured version that is often used as a mean ofinsult interchangeably with crony capitalism. This sense of shared intereststhat see society as an organic body is even more reinforced by the profoundrelationship that business have with the government, that coordinates, createsconditions, regulations, directories and leads the economy without actuallyplanning it with the Ministry of Internal Trade and Industry. All of these creates anatmosphere of long term planning and less focused on profits and more in placeholding or market share. Supervisors and managers are not rushed to showresults soon or encouraged to take decisions that may earn them a big bonus nowthat will knowingly hurt the company in the long run because of the seniorityand life-long employment system. The management then has time to make long terminvestments without fearing for their jobs and an incompetent or unimaginativesupervisor can make a more competent subordinate the de facto supervisor while keeping his position, which happensshamelessly and near eliminates the effect of bad management. In the West a badsupervisor, in fear for his job might screw over the more competent workersbecause they are a threat of competition as they can easily be fired orreplaced. The previously mentioned familylike environment of the Japanese firm and the Japanese desire for tenderness inhuman relations and activities is really remarkable. Workers and theirsupervisors often go to drink together after work and forge truly meaningfulrelationships. The company becomes the center of the universe of the employees,that start the day by literally singing the companys anthem, the same one whichhelps them with housing, transportation and even marriage. The big companiesalso have beach resorts and many other places where