Blogs and Articles from Third Way Forum Membrs

・Top management people of Japanese companies have to change but most of them seem to have no motivation to change.

・Some strong incentives and penalty should be arranged. Incentives can be a higher % of variable bonus based on their contribution.

・As for penalties. Japanese executives seem to have no penalty and they can stay on power until their retirement even they don’t drive necessary changes for the future. To fix this problem, the Board should function more critically toward the top management team. If many board members are former executives of the same company, they would rather act as Sempai supporters rather than critical board of directors. More external/non-Japanese board members should be also recruited and provide proper pressure/penalty/governance to top executives.

・Clear targets should be set for cultural transformation, innovation, diversity and new ways of working etc and clearly embedded in executives’ objectives and linked with their bonus..

・Japanese business people tend to be largely influenced by the American business models and practices. America’s economy was built by inviting a lot of immigrants and letting them swim or sink. In America people are to be very rich or very poor without so much support from the government. If Japan is an extreme model of collectivism, America is an extreme model of individualism. Japanese should pay more attention to other countries such as EU countries, Canada etc. in search for The Third Way.

・It takes government initiatives to drive change. For instance, Germany accepted Italian immigrants and Turkish immigrants in 19070’s and they could not integrate for a while. Assimilation of foreigners takes time. Japan has just started.

・Government can accelerate necessary social change by giving tax incentives. In Germany, houses with solar panels get special tax cut.

・Third Way should be something that can enrich the Japanese society, not replace it. With more global workforce and a new corporate culture, Japanese companies should find a third way to enrich what’s good about their company and Japan while addressing their issues.


Next time, we will discuss “What can I do to change a Japanese company if I was working inside the company?”