Cycle de conférences du groupe Travail/ “Submissive or vocal? Reexamining organizational and social subordinate voices in Japan” (9 février 2024, 10h-12h)

La prochaine manifestation du cycle de conférences 2023-2024 organisé par le groupe Travail de l’équipe de recherche Populations Japonaises (CRCAO-IFRAE) aura lieu en ligne le vendredi 9 février 2024, de 10h à 12h (heure de Paris).

Submissive or vocal? Reexamining organizational and social subordinate voices in Japan

une conférence donnée par

NAKAGAWA Ryōhei

Université de Nagano
(9 février 2024, 10h-12h)

Résumé :

Feudalistic and top-down features have been considered as prevailing belief of conventional “Japaneseness” in organizations and society, where subordinates were regarded as not having chances or freedom to voice (to either express their constructive opinions or to ask for better treatments to the superiors). Yet if we look into the ancient time, the medieval period, and to the present, the strict top-down superior-subordinate relations cannot be considered as a typical structural “Japaneseness,” as we can find various cases of utilizing subordinate voices to organizations and societies. Rather, this article demonstrates that one of the organizational and social “Japanesenesses” can be found in incorporating subordinate voices. Cases include kanehitsu-no-sei (鐘櫃の制; complaint box) in the ancient time (around the Taika Reform circa 650 A.D.)(Kokushi-Daijiten-Henshu-Iinkai, 1979), shukun-oshikomi (主君押込; confinement of superiors by subordinates) in medieval and early-modern periods (Kasaya, 1988; Yamamoto, 2006; Yoshimura, 2012), and formulation of the post-World War II employment “Japanesess” (Aoki, 2001; Gordon, 2001; Hisamoto, 2015), as well as very recent transition of employment relations in the chemical and chemical-fiber manufacturers in Japan (Nakagawa, 2024). A common feature in these cases can be found in the fact that subordinates have been able to voice to their superiors, which stands against the commonly conceived images that organizational and social characteristics in Japan are in implicit and top-down structure.

Biographie :

Ryohei NAKAGAWA is Associate Professor at the University of Nagano, Japan. Ryoheiʼs research interests include Japanese economy, corporate governance and employment relations. He has professional experiences in corporate finance, economic and industry research, and international conference management in Japan, U.S., and Switzerland. Ryohei has co-authored “Japanese Political Economy Revisited ‒ Abenomics and Institutional Change” in 2017 (Routledge) and his single authored book titled “Organizational Behaviour of Employment Relations ‒ Employee Voices Heard and Unheard” (『労使関係の組織行動論―従業員の伝わる声・伝わらない声』) will be released in March 2024.

Contacts : 

César Castellvi : cesar.castellvi[at]u-paris.fr 
Julien Martine : julien.martine[at]u-paris.fr

Poster de l’événement

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