The Entrepreneur who Built Modern Japan

The Entrepreneur who Built Modern Japan
Author: Masakazu Shimada
Publisher:
Total Pages: 186
Release: 2017-03-27
Genre: Capitalists and financiers
ISBN: 9784916055798

"In this penetrating biography of Shibusawa Eiichi (1840-1931), one of Japan's foremost entrepreneurs, Shimada Masakazu traces Shibusawa's youth, when he witnessed the decay of Japan's feudal society and experienced the benefits of modernization at first hand in Europe; his service in the Ministry of Finance of the new Meiji government in its early years; and his venture into business and involvement in literally hundreds of companies as he set about building the roots of modern corporate Japan. Shimada also looks closely at Shibusawa's social activities and his insistence that economics and morals are inseparable. In troubled times like the present, when the limits of capitalism are being seen around the world, Shibusawa's vision is as relevant as ever"--Back cover.

The Entrepreneur who Built Modern Japan

The Entrepreneur who Built Modern Japan
Author: 昌和·島田
Publisher:
Total Pages: 186
Release: 2017
Genre: BIOGRAPHY & AUTOBIOGRAPHY
ISBN: 9784916055910

"In this penetrating biography of Shibusawa Eiichi (1840-1931), one of Japan's foremost entrepreneurs, Shimada Masakazu traces Shibusawa's youth, when he witnessed the decay of Japan's feudal society and experienced the benefits of modernization at first hand in Europe; his service in the Ministry of Finance of the new Meiji government in its early years; and his venture into business and involvement in literally hundreds of companies as he set about building the roots of modern corporate Japan. Shimada also looks closely at Shibusawa's social activities and his insistence that economics and morals are inseparable. In troubled times like the present, when the limits of capitalism are being seen around the world, Shibusawa's vision is as relevant as ever"--

Sustainable Management of Japanese Entrepreneurs in Pre-War Period from the Perspective of SDGs and ESG

Sustainable Management of Japanese Entrepreneurs in Pre-War Period from the Perspective of SDGs and ESG
Author: Masaatsu Takehara
Publisher: Springer Nature
Total Pages: 262
Release: 2020-12-29
Genre: Business & Economics
ISBN: 9811565074

This book features 13 Japanese entrepreneurs who made a significant contribution to the development of society from 1868, when modernization in Japan began, to the 1950s, after World War II. They worked on solving social issues at the time through their businesses and succeeded in creating social value by solving social issues and economic value through the development of their businesses. The business philosophies they practiced have been passed on to their successors, and the companies they founded are now providing value to consumers around the world. Those 13 entrepreneurs anticipated the integration of solving social issues into corporate management, which modern companies are expected to realize under the umbrella of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) adopted by United Nations in 2015. Their trajectories provide a wealth of practical knowledge necessary to survive in a changing society and provide many valuable lessons for modern companies and their managers.

Confucian Capitalism

Confucian Capitalism
Author: John H. Sagers
Publisher: Springer
Total Pages: 256
Release: 2018-07-20
Genre: Business & Economics
ISBN: 3319763725

With the life story of Shibusawa Eiichi (1840–1931), one of the most important financiers and industrialists in modern Japanese history, as its narrative focal point, this book explores the challenges of importing modern business enterprises to Japan, where the pursuit of profit was considered beneath the dignity of the samurai elite. Seeking to overturn the Tokugawa samurai-dominated political economy after the Meiji Restoration, Shibusawa was a pioneer in introducing joint-stock corporations to Japan as institutions of economic development. As the entrepreneurial head of Tokyo’s Dai-Ichi Bank, he helped launch modern enterprises in such diverse industries as banking, shipping, textiles, paper, beer, and railroads. Believing businesses should be both successful and serve the national interest, Shibusawa regularly cautioned against the pursuit of profit alone. He insisted instead on the ‘unity of morality and economy’ following business ethics derived from the Confucian Analects. A top leader in Japan’s business community for decades, Shibusawa contributed to founding the Tokyo Stock Exchange, the Tokyo Chamber of Commerce, and numerous educational and philanthropic organizations to promote his vision of Confucian capitalism. This volume marks an important contribution to the international debate on the extent to which capitalist enterprises have a responsibility to serve and benefit the societies in which they do business. Shibusawa's story demonstrates that business, government, trade associations, and educational institutions all have valuable roles to play in establishing a political economy that is both productive and humane.

Pure Invention

Pure Invention
Author: Matt Alt
Publisher: Crown
Total Pages: 369
Release: 2021-06-22
Genre: Social Science
ISBN: 1984826719

The untold story of how Japan became a cultural superpower through the fantastic inventions that captured—and transformed—the world’s imagination. “A masterful book driven by deep research, new insights, and powerful storytelling.”—W. David Marx, author of Ametora: How Japan Saved American Style Japan is the forge of the world’s fantasies: karaoke and the Walkman, manga and anime, Pac-Man and Pokémon, online imageboards and emojis. But as Japan media veteran Matt Alt proves in this brilliant investigation, these novelties did more than entertain. They paved the way for our perplexing modern lives. In the 1970s and ’80s, Japan seemed to exist in some near future, gliding on the superior technology of Sony and Toyota. Then a catastrophic 1990 stock-market crash ushered in the “lost decades” of deep recession and social dysfunction. The end of the boom should have plunged Japan into irrelevance, but that’s precisely when its cultural clout soared—when, once again, Japan got to the future a little ahead of the rest of us. Hello Kitty, the Nintendo Entertainment System, and multimedia empires like Dragon Ball Z were more than marketing hits. Artfully packaged, dangerously cute, and dizzyingly fun, these products gave us new tools for coping with trying times. They also transformed us as we consumed them—connecting as well as isolating us in new ways, opening vistas of imagination and pathways to revolution. Through the stories of an indelible group of artists, geniuses, and oddballs, Pure Invention reveals how Japan’s pop-media complex remade global culture.

The Invention of Enterprise

The Invention of Enterprise
Author: David S. Landes
Publisher: Princeton University Press
Total Pages: 585
Release: 2012-02-26
Genre: Business & Economics
ISBN: 1400833582

A sweeping global history of entrepreneurial innovation Whether hailed as heroes or cast as threats to social order, entrepreneurs—and their innovations—have had an enormous influence on the growth and prosperity of nations. The Invention of Enterprise gathers together, for the first time, leading economic historians to explore the entrepreneur's role in society from antiquity to the present. Addressing social and institutional influences from a historical context, each chapter examines entrepreneurship during a particular period and in an important geographic location. The book chronicles the sweeping history of enterprise in Mesopotamia and Neo-Babylon; carries the reader through the Islamic Middle East; offers insights into the entrepreneurial history of China, Japan, and Colonial India; and describes the crucial role of the entrepreneur in innovative activity in Europe and the United States, from the medieval period to today. In considering the critical contributions of entrepreneurship, the authors discuss why entrepreneurial activities are not always productive and may even sabotage prosperity. They examine the institutions and restrictions that have enabled or impeded innovation, and the incentives for the adoption and dissemination of inventions. They also describe the wide variations in global entrepreneurial activity during different historical periods and the similarities in development, as well as entrepreneurship's role in economic growth. The book is filled with past examples and events that provide lessons for promoting and successfully pursuing contemporary entrepreneurship as a means of contributing to the welfare of society. The Invention of Enterprise lays out a definitive picture for all who seek an understanding of innovation's central place in our world.

We Were Burning

We Were Burning
Author: Bob Johnstone
Publisher:
Total Pages: 456
Release: 1999
Genre: Business & Economics
ISBN:

Are the Japanese faceless clones who march to the drums of big business and MITI, Japan's ministry of international trade and industry? Bob Johnstone demolishes this misleading stereotype by introducing us to a new kind of Japanese worker - a dynamic, iconoclastic, risk-taking entrepreneur.

Moral Nation

Moral Nation
Author: Miriam Kingsberg
Publisher: Univ of California Press
Total Pages: 324
Release: 2013-12-07
Genre: History
ISBN: 0520276736

This trailblazing study examines the history of narcotics in Japan to explain the development of global criteria for political legitimacy in nations and empires in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. Japan underwent three distinct crises of sovereignty in its modern history: in the 1890s, during the interwar period, and in the 1950s. Each crisis provoked successively escalating crusades against opium and other drugs, in which moral entrepreneurs--bureaucrats, cultural producers, merchants, law enforcement, scientists, and doctors, among others--focused on drug use as a means of distinguishing between populations fit and unfit for self-rule. Moral Nation traces the instrumental role of ideologies about narcotics in the country's efforts to reestablish its legitimacy as a nation and empire. As Kingsberg demonstrates, Japan's growing status as an Asian power and a "moral nation" expanded the notion of "civilization" from an exclusively Western value to a universal one. Scholars and students of Japanese history, Asian studies, world history, and global studies will gain an in-depth understanding of how Japan's experience with narcotics influenced global standards for sovereignty and shifted the aim of nation building, making it no longer a strictly political activity but also a moral obligation to society.

Ethical Capitalism

Ethical Capitalism
Author: Patrick Fridenson
Publisher: University of Toronto Press
Total Pages: 233
Release: 2017-01-01
Genre: Business & Economics
ISBN: 1487501064

Ethical Capitalism is a volume of essays that tackles the thought, work, and legacy of Shibusawa Eiichi.