Do not be misled by the title and opening segment of this documentary. It begins by posing rhetorically familiar and dangerously general questions about "Being Japanese." What is the "basic character of the Japanese"? "How different are they from us?" How have they been changed by the shift "from an old feudal economy to a modern industrial state." Indeed, this should remind you of some of the "seven deadly cliches" that I railed against in the first lectures of the course.
Quickly, however, the documentary shifts to the people who work for a major company, Fuji Film, at its main production and research facilities at Ashigaru. It profiles in particular the families of Norio Kusakabe and Kozo Noguchi, and it offers vivid illustrations of a number of key issues in understanding the dynamics of Japanese large organizations. Of special note are the following segments:
the opening reminiscences of Teruo Oshima, the 60-year-old [NOTE] Fuji retiree
the office layout and shop floor procedures
the 1990 new year's recruits, including the 23-year-old Hiroaki Shimosaka, fresh from Waseda University [note that the class of 1990 consisted of 300 college graduates, of whom 282 were male, while half of the high school recruits were female]
company ceremonies such as that for the new recruits, when Shimosaka is chosen to give the recruit response to the company president
women's (mis)use in the factory, as shown through training films
Mrs. Masuko Noguchi at home in the company apartment complex, describing her marriage to Kozo at age nineteen (despite his mother's efforts to promote a different candidate), their thirteen years on assignment in Germany, their return three years ago, and now her work as head of the residents' steering committee (a position she is accorded by the status of her husband's job) leisure pursuits, including Noguchi's pachinko and Kusakabe's golf (the latter being funded by selling the family car)
a rather poignant segment on pre-retirement planning organized by the company for men in their early 50's, who read aloud letters from their wives (this company’s pre-retirement programs began for employees at age 45—for a retirement at age 60)
the three-generation Kusakabe home, and Toyoko Kusakabe's discussion of getting along with her aging mother-in-law
the management-union meeting to discuss management demands for more overtime and union demands for more time-off
the central role of the personnel department and Personnel Director Kameji Nagai's account of its recruitment and career planning responsibilities
the current media attention to karôshi, "death from overworking"
the initial assignments of the entering class of company recruits determined by the head of recruiting in the Personnel Office); note Shimosaka, who wanted to go to the Export Office and then abroad, but was sent to "Number Two Sales Office." [What do you make of his comments at end, as he leave office late at night?]
As an extended case in our consideration of Japanese workplaces, it fits somewhere between Rohlen's view of Ueda Bank and Yuko Ogasawara's perspective on the women of Tôzai Bank. To what degree, do you think, does Fuji Film represent the key features of "Japan-style management"?
The three cases above--Ueda, Fuji, and Tôzai--represent corporate organization in the decades from the late 1960s through the mid-1990s. For a profile of a company deep in the throes of current economic difficulties, NHK, the public television network in Japan, produced a documentary in the summer of 2003 about the survival struggles of a regional bank in the northeast prefecture of Fukushima. A streaming version is available here for those within the Yale server network, but please note that it is in Japanese without English subtitles.