How the Management Is Done in the Land of Raising Sun

In past decades the Japanese economy had expanded rapidly and the country’s annual gross national product became one of the largest in the world. A contribution to this growth is said to have been the cold war threat, during which the former leading countries mostly the United States and the Soviet Union were putting a tremendous amount of money to their armament, while Japan under peace Constitution was able to concentrate its efforts on the economy. During this period managers and renowned university professors were trying to find the key to the Japanese success and the “Japanese challenge” became a buzzword for nearly thirty years. Many comparisons between Japanese and American management practices were made, many books related to this topic were written, much research took place and the Japanese management theory soon became an object of wide admiration. This period is already gone. The Japanese economy showed steady growth till the late 80’s, when Japan entered a prolonged period of relative stagnation so-called “bubble economy”, and started experiencing a serious recession. By the beginning of the millennium, the Japanese model once held up as an