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Headlines on Japan that Make you Laugh: Japanese companies embrace diversity

June 3, 2007
By Ken Worsley


“Japanese companies embrace diversity” from the International Herald Tribune is either a bunch of lies written for foreign consumption, or else the most ignorant piece of garbage I’ve seen written on Japan in a long time this week.

We have to wonder if this piece was handed out pre-written by Keidanren or some kisha club. Gullible reporters and editors do fall for this sort of stuff all the time, and especially on the weekends, when it’s easier to get through and helps them get out of the office sooner. PR firms and those who feed kisha clubs know this well.

The article points out that many Japanese firms are struggling to sell their products domestically, and that they are facing a shortage of workers. Then it says:

Nissan is not alone in making a visible commitment to diversity. Big employers from manufacturers like Matsushita Electric and Toshiba to large lenders like Mizuho Corporate Bank are setting up departments, holding seminars for management-track women, and soliciting foreigners as regular, full-time employees to work at headquarters in Japan.

“To meet the diverse needs in the global market, you need to have diversity in the composition of your employees,” [Nissan’s Yukiko] Yoshimaru said. “A homogeneous group can only come up with something homogeneous.”

…This is radical talk in corporate Japan, which previously took pride in its homogeneity, especially during the go-go years of the 1970s and 1980s, saying it make them efficient. Today the new buzzword is “daiba-shitii,” or diversity.

We know the efficiency argument is bogus. But what really got me was the flat-out dishonesty of Yoshimaru’s statement. What she’s saying is not only not backed up by any evidence, but it flies in the face of everything accomplished by Japanese firms in the global market.

Japan’s firms are not ‘embracing’ diversity, and it’s not something they need in order to keep their core operations running. Social conditions are forcing companies to bring more women and (possibly a few) foreigners into the mix, but both groups have a low glass ceiling and they are only being tolerated for now. Without these people, a lot of firms would not survive. That does not equate an ‘embrace.’

If you hold a gun to my head and tell me to eat uni, that doesn’t mean I like it.

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Comments

4 Responses to “Headlines on Japan that Make you Laugh: Japanese companies embrace diversity”

  1. Gen Kanai on June 4th, 2007 2:23 am

    Thank you for calling a spade, a spade. This reporter should have her ‘kisha-kurabu’ card pulled for such poor reporting.

    If we examined the actual “diversity” in Japanese business, especially at the executive level, we’d see that there is close to none, and certainly much less “diversity” than in the US or EU. In fact the same criticism has been leveled at Japanese politics, that the percentage of women in Japanese politics is woefully low in comparison to other G-8 or first-world nations.

    And that portion of uni? I’ll gladly enjoy it :)

  2. Durf on June 4th, 2007 12:02 pm

    I love uni.

    In Nissan’s case it’s possible to argue that diversity is a real force within the company, but the gun isn’t being held to its head now, it was there in 1999 when Renault stepped in and they launched the Alliance. Seems odd to talk about a glass ceiling for foreigners at a company with a CEO and so many vice presidents from barbarian lands.

    The glass ceiling is certainly still there for women, though, and I agree that the article wasn’t much more than a puff piece. There wasn’t much to fill up the pages of the weekend issue this time around, I suppose.

  3. Ken Worsley on June 4th, 2007 8:46 pm

    Seems like everyone loves uni. I’ll trade you mine for your ikura. Now that’s good stuff.

    Durf, I think you make some good points, but this is about more than Nissan. As far as I know, Renault owns about 44% of Nissan. Nissan, in turn, owns about 15% of Renault but has no voting rights. I would expect to see some foreigners placed (or headhunted) into high positions at such a firm. Same would go for firms such as Shinsei. I doubt these are people getting hired and working their way up from the bottom, who have been afforded the same opportunities as native-born workers.

    7.5% of foreign workers at Japanese companies are from Europe and North America. About 60% are from East and Southeast Asia. My question for you: Are 60% of Nissan’s foreign CEOs and VPs matching that profile? As I said, it’s not about Nissan - I’d like to see these figures across the board.

    I’m aware of the extenuating circumstances and the fact that European/North American workers in Japan are more likely to be “management material,” but I don’t think that’s relevant. Bringing in a bunch of Europeans and North Americans to management level is not diversity. It’s cute, but not diverse.

    In the end, the article is misleading and dishonest. This is not going on across the corporate world, and small and medium enterprises employ far more people than large ones (My own estimation is about 40-45% at firms with fewer than 30 employees and about 20-25% are self-employed - though I will track down more exact numbers).

    I suppose what I mean is that using Nissan as a primary example of what’s going on in the economy as a whole is pretty much bunk. The real issue with this article is that there are no numbers, no stats, no evidence, no metrics. It’s just an anecdote. It’s an easy, feel-good piece for the weekend.

  4. John S on June 7th, 2007 3:52 am

    It’s hard to take this kind of crap seriously. Durf, do you seriously not think there is a glass ceiling at Japanese firms for foreigners and women? Even if you’re working in Japan legally, you’re most likely on a visa that does not allow you to legally do a job that takes a job away from a Japanese citizen. That’s an iron ceiling. The number of female managers and executives in Japan is embarassingly low.

    I’ll eat uni. Would rather eat other stuff, but I’ll take it here and there.

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