Japanese Work Culture

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Japan has a very strict corporate culture which has been in place since World War II. In the 1970s and 1980s, Japanese companies were world-beaters, manufacturing processes like 'just in time' were revered everywhere and Sony and Nissan became household names. The world has moved on but Japanese corporate culture has not. Deference to your boss and no promotion until you are in your 40s is still the way business operates in government and big corporations. Risk is tantamount to failure and so entrepreneurship is virtually non-existent. Peter Day looks at how some people are trying to encourage change in corporate and working life. (Image: A crowd of Japanese businessmen. Credit: AFP Photo / Yoshikazu Tsuno)