Japan, Leadership, Reciprocal Authority

All the Responsibility

In 1962, Tanaka Kakuei became minister of finance. On his first day at the ministry, he spoke to its officials. According to President Online, which draws on the memoir of Hayasaka Shigezō, he began: “I am Tanaka Kakuei. I finished higher elementary school. You are the best talents in all of Japan, all experts in finance.”

An account of the speech in Bunshun gives this line: Dekiru koto wa yaru. Dekinai koto wa yaranai. Shikashi, subete no sekinin wa kono Tanaka Kakuei ga seou. “I will do what can be done, and not what cannot. But all the responsibility will be carried by me, Tanaka Kakuei.”

Cutting Off the Lizard’s Tail

Tokage no shippo kiri (トカゲの尻尾切り): cutting off the lizard’s tail. The Japanese dictionary site DiQt defines it as sacrificing a person in a weaker position to escape a crisis or a demand for accountability. In an organization, it means pushing the responsibility for a problem onto a person at the bottom or onto a lower department.

Favor and Service

Two words describe the bond between the Kamakura shogun and his vassals. Go’on, favor, is what the shogun gave his vassals, the gokenin: appointment to posts, new land, and confirmation of the land they already held. Hōkō, service, is what the vassals gave back: fighting in war, guard duty in peace, and payments.

A vassal who neglected his service could lose the land he had received.

Not One Dismissal

In 1929, during the depression, Matsushita Kōnosuke refused to cut the workforce of Matsushita Electric. Dakara, hitori mo kaiko shitara akan. So not a single person is to be dismissed.

Production was cut in half, and the factories worked half days. Shikashi jūgyōin no kyūryō wa zengaku o shikyū. But the employees were paid their full wages. In return, the employees were asked to put all their effort into selling the stock.

Parent Role and Child Role

Oyabun kobun (親分子分): parent role and child role. The encyclopedia Mypedia defines it as a relationship of domination and subordination that a protector forms with a dependent within a social group, especially one that involves the whole person and resembles that of parent and child.

Another encyclopedia notes that the phrase now calls to mind the yakuza or political factions. In sociology and folklore studies, however, it is a key term for understanding the structure of Japanese society.

The Great Family

The oil company Idemitsu Kōsan was built on the principles of its founder, Idemitsu Sazō. A Japanese encyclopedia names among them daikazoku shugi, the principle of the great family, based on respect for people.

The business press summarizes it in three absences: shukkinbo nashi, teinen nashi, rōdō kumiai nashi. No attendance records, no retirement age, no labor union. The magazine President titled an article on the company: Idemitsu does not dismiss a single employee.

Yamaichi’s Last Press Conference

On November 24, 1997, the president of Yamaichi Securities, Nozawa Shōhei, faced reporters at the Tokyo Stock Exchange as the firm announced it would close. In tears, he apologized and said: Shain wa waruku arimasen kara! The employees are not to blame!

Accounts of his exact words differ. Another version has him say: “We are the ones at fault, so the employees are not to blame.”

Shimizu Muneharu

In 1582, Hideyoshi’s army besieged Takamatsu Castle, held by Shimizu Muneharu for the Mōri clan. Hideyoshi offered peace on terms that included Muneharu’s death. Muneharu offered his own life in exchange for the lives of the castle’s soldiers.

On the fourth day of the sixth month, he cut himself open on a boat before the castle. His farewell poem reads: Ukiyo o ba ima koso watare mononofu no na o Takamatsu no koke ni nokoshite. Now I cross this fleeting world, leaving a warrior’s name in the moss of Takamatsu.

JAL President Resigns

On August 14, 1985, two days after the crash of Japan Airlines Flight 123, JAL president Takagi Yasumoto announced that he would resign.

In October 1985, a secretary to Prime Minister Nakasone Yasuhiro wrote in a memo that it was not acceptable for Takagi alone to take responsibility for the accident and leave it at that.

The Forty-Seven Rōnin

In 1701, Asano Naganori, lord of Akō, drew his sword on the court official Kira Yoshinaka inside Edo Castle. Asano was made to commit seppuku the same day.

Early on December 15, 1702, forty-seven of his former retainers attacked Kira’s mansion in Edo. They then went to report to their lord’s grave at Sengakuji. On February 4, 1703, they committed seppuku on the shogunate’s orders. The story lives on as Chūshingura, which differs in many ways from the historical events.