When in Japan, Do as the Japanese Do; When in Rome, Do as the Japanese Do:

The Achilles’ Heel of Japanese Business Philosophy

Japan, using the wakon yosai, Japanese spirit and Western knowledge philosophy, rapidly and painfully industrialized and caught up with the West by the time of the First World War. Feeling superior to the rest of Asia, they believed they had a manifest destiny to control and direct Asia. This attitude was a primary cause of the Second World War and the attack on Pearl Harbor. Only a vain people would have challenged an economy ten times richer than their own to battle and still believe their destiny was ultimate victory. This arrogance proved to be their undoing and the miscalculation ended with the neartotal destruction of Japan. Now, 50 years after Pearl Harbor, Japan’s arrogance is again raising its ugly head. Its economic dynamo, second only to the USA, has indeed taken that nation from the depths of despair just after the Second World War to the ranks of a true economic world power. Surging Japanese nationalism and a rising tide of arrogance and condescension towards the rest of the world is merely the groundswell of worse storms to come. This economic prosperity resulted from not only the hard work and sacrifice but also US open markets and military protection. The Japanese trade barriers permitted export while virtually prohibiting imports. The unilateral taking without any giving in turn led to the successes of the last 40 years. Not understanding the real reasons for their success but rationalizing it to their uniqueness and superiority has instilled in the Japanese an arrogance about their way as the only way and superior to the rest of the world. Once again, in the years to come this arrogance will come back to haunt them, as they will take on a revitalized North America and Europe who will insist on an equal playing-field on all locales.


By Paul A. Herbig and Robert Milam