Hedonic Alternatives in a Simple Choice Context. Hitotsubashi Journal of Commerce and Management Vol.54, No. 1 January 2021 pp.1-14

Brand Management Forum Lecture

Redistributing Happiness: How Social Policies Shape Life Satisfaction (Part 2). Japan SPOTLIGHT September/October 2020 pp.20-23

Coronavirus turns Japanese commuters onto teleworking. The Telegraph　7/19/2020

Redistributing Happiness: How Social Policies Shape Life Satisfaction (Part 1). Japan SPOTLIGHT July/August 2020: pp.60-63

Not just another day at the office: Rethinking Japan's business culture amid the COVID-19 pandemic. Japan Times 5/31/2020

Japan's traditional work culture takes precedence over physical distancing in Tokyo. Canadian Broadcasting Corporation 5/3/2020

Coronavirus prompts Japan to reconsider long-hours office culture. Japan Times 3/4/2020

How the stay-at-home order affects women in Japan. Bloomberg Newsroom 3/2/2020

To Stop Virus's Spread, Japan Must End Its Fixation With Being at the Office. Bloomberg.com 2/29/2020

Firms keep up with changing attitudes to paternity leave in Asia. Ignites Asia 2/5/2020

Low levels of paid holiday leave. BBC 12/10/2019

Japan's work-style reform. Sueddentsche Zeitung 11/28/2019

Interview about marriage in Japan and konkatsu. VEJA Magazine (Brazil) 10/17/2019

7 Fresh and JD's Digital Strategy. Financial Times (Chinese online version) September 18, 2018

How to find next exponential growth opportunities for large corporation? Financial Times (Chinese online version) August 22, 2018

Making economic growth and well-being compatible: Evidence from Japan　Munich Personal RePEc Archive (MPRA) Paper No. 93010, posted April 1, 2019

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Whether economic growth improves the human lot is a matter of conditions. We focus on Japan, a country where reforms in themid-1990s shifted the country from a pattern of rampant economic growth and stagnant well-being, to one of modest growth and increasing well-being. We discuss the policy reforms and analyze the changes that explain the increase in well-being. In particular, we assess whether the factors that explain the increase are consistent with those expected from the reforms. We apply Blinder-Oaxaca decomposition to World Values Survey data. Results show that well-being increased due to improved conditions for elderly people, people with children, and women, in other words, the primary groups targeted by the reforms. We conclude that adopting a system of social safety nets contributes to make economic growth compatible with increasing well-being over time.

Social justice and well-being: Lessons for Asia. The Newsletter of the International Institute for Asian Studies. Leiden, The Netherlands. No. 81, Autumn 2018.

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Countries strive for economic growth because they believe that it will elevate the well-being of their people. Higher income entails a higher standard of living and enhanced life satisfaction. Economic growth will lift all boats, and assures the greatest happiness for the greatest number of people, so it has long been believed. Underlying the growth objective was the unquestioned assumption that income and happiness are closely related.

Social Justice, Well-Being, and Economic Organization*. Rethinking Society for the 21st Century: Report of the International Panel on Social Progress July 2018 pp.313-356.

Cross-stock market spillovers through variance risk premiums and equity flows. CIS Discussion paper series 2018 No. 667

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We estimate variance risk premiums (VRPs) in the stock markets of major advanced economies (AEs) and emerging market economies (EMEs) over 2007-15 and decompose the VRP into variance-diffusive risk premium (DRP) and variance-jump risk premium (JRP). Daily VAR analysis reveals significant spillovers from the VRPs of the United States and eurozone's AEs to the VRPs of other economic areas, especially during the post-Global Financial Crisis (GFC) period. We also find that during the post-GFC period, shocks to the DRPs of the United States and the eurozone's AEs have relatively strong and long-lived positive effects on the VRPs of other economic areas whereas shocks to their JRPs have relatively weak and short-lived positive effects. In addition, we show that increases in the size of US VRP, DRP and JRP tend to significantly reduce weekly equity fund flows to all other AEs and some EMEs during the post-GFC period. Finally, US DRP plays a more important role than US JRP in the determination of equity fund flows to all other AEs and some EMEs after the GFC, while the opposite holds true for equity fund flows to all other AEs during the GFC. Such results indicate the possibility of equity fund flows working as a channel of cross-market VRP spillovers.

The Impact of Collaboration Structure and Artist Attributes on Performance : A Comparison of Artistic and Commercial Performance in the Korean Music Industry. Korean Management Review 2017 Vol.46 No.6 pp.1713-1740.

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Focusing on the specificities of the Korean music industry, this study investigates the effects of lyric-composer-artist (singer) collaboration structure and artist attributes on the artistic and commercial performance, respectively. Our empirical results from 342 music albums suggest that factors affecting artistic performance and commercial performance are different. Collaboration structure with higher percentage of foreign collaborators and low degree of specialization have a positive effect on the album's artistic performance, whereas an artist's OST/featuring participation and award-winning experiences have a negative effect on the album's artistic performance. We also found that composer-artist repeat collaboration experience, an artist's exposure to media, and award-winning experiences have a positive effect on the album's commercial performance. By combining the analysis of two performance dimensions, our study offers a more accurate understanding of the success factors in cultural industries.

Ajinomoto: Process of Corporate Entrepreneurship Hitotsubashi Business Review 2017 Winter Vol.65 No. 3 pp.154-164

The evolution of inflation expectations in Japan 2017 BIS working paper No. 647

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We model inflation forecasts as monotonically diverging from an estimated long-run anchor point towards actual inflation as the forecast horizon shortens. Fitting the model with forecaster-level data for Japan, we find that the estimated anchors across forecasters have tended to rise in recent years, along with the dispersion in estimates across forecasters. Further, the degree to which these anchors pin down inflation expectations at longer horizons has increased, but remains considerably lower than found in a similar study of Canadian and US forecasters. Finally, the wide dispersion in estimated decay paths across forecasters points to a diverse set of views across forecasters about the inflation process in Japan.

A Study on the Impact of Branding, CEO, and Global Learning Capabilities on Export Sales Performance of Korean Fashion Firms. International Business Journal 2016 Vol.27 No.4 pp.41-68.

'Meso'-Foundations of Dynamic Capabilities: Team‐Level Synthesis and Distributed Leadership as the Source of Dynamic Creativity. Global Strategy Journal 2016 Vol.6 No.3 pp.168-182

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Plain language summary

Globalization has transformed the international business environment into an increasingly more complex, uncertain, and diverse entity. Multinational enterprises are under greater pressure to develop their dynamic capabilities to not only adapt to, but also proactively cope with, the speed and complexities of the fast‐changing environment. Some research suggests that dynamic capabilities are closely correlated with top management functions, while counterarguments stress that dynamic capabilities are embedded in organizational activities. From the perspective of organizational knowledge creation, making a distinction between the creative and adaptive aspects of dynamic capabilities, this article argues that 'creative' dynamic capabilities are rooted in the activities of teams in middle levels of the organization. The article also presents leadership practices that are favorable to fostering dynamic capabilities.

Technical summary

This article examines the theoretical foundations of an organization's dynamic capabilities--sensing, seizing, and transforming--from the perspective of organizational knowledge creation. Making a distinction between the creative and adaptive aspects of dynamic capabilities, this article argues that the foundation of creative aspect is 'meso:' it stems from team‐level interactions of frontline workers' capabilities facilitated by middle managers, rather than from individual‐level (or micro‐level) capabilities. In this middle‐up‐down management model, top management sets the vision of the organization, but middle managers grasp and solve the gap between the top and the frontline by facilitating team‐level dialectic interactions of employees. The leadership practices of both top and middle management that facilitate this process are illustrated with four Japanese multinational companies--Fujifilm, Eisai, Mayekawa Manufacturing, and Toyota. Copyright © 2016 Strategic Management Society.

The effects of a central bank's inflation forecasts on private sector forecasts: Recent evidence from Japan. Bank of Japan Working Paper, No.16-E-11, 2016

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How central banks can best communicate to the market is an increasingly important topic in the central banking literature. With ever greater frequency, central banks communicate to the market through the forecasts of prices and output with the purposes of reducing uncertainty; at the same time, central banks generally rely on a publicly stated medium‐ term inflation target to help anchor expectations. This paper aims to document how much the release of the forecasts of one major central bank, the Bank of Japan (BOJ), has influenced private sector expectations of inflation, and whether the degree of influence depends to any degree on the adoption of an inflation target (IT). Consistent with earlier studies, we find the central bank's forecasts to be quite influential on private sector forecasts. In the case of next year forecasts, their impact continues into the IT regime. Thus, the difficulties of aiming at an inflation target from below do not necessarily diminish the influence of the central bank's inflation forecasts.

Volatility Contagion across the Equity Markets of Developed and Emerging Market Economies. ADBI Working Paper Series 2016 No. 590

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Using variance risk premiums (VRPs) nonparametrically calculated from equity markets in selected major developed economies and emerging market economies (EMEs) over 2007‒2015, we document the correlation of VRPs across the markets and examine whether equity fund flows work as a path through which VRPs spill over globally. First, we find that VRPs tend to spike up during market turmoil such as the peak of the global financial crisis and the European debt crisis. Second, we find that all cross-equity market correlations of VRPs are positive, and that some economy pairs exhibit high levels of the correlation. In terms of volatility contagion, we find that an increase in VRPs in the United States significantly reduces equity fund flows to other developed economies, but not those to EMEs, in the period after the global financial crisis. Two-stage least squares estimation results show that equity fund flows are a channel for spillover of VRPs in the United States to VRPs in other developed economies.

Internet and Gender. The Wiley-Blackwell Encyclopedia of Gender and Sexuality Studies. Edited by Nancy Naples. New York: John-Wiley and Sons pp.1-4

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This entry provides a brief review of the literature on gender and the Internet. Earlier studies on the subject were rather descriptive because the overarching purpose was to identify and to monitor the gaps. The emerging trend in the literature is more reflective and nuanced. The topic has become more interdisciplinary, moving beyond communications and social sciences, and reaching into medicine and health sciences, among others. Owing to more extensive data collection and more precise survey instruments, researchers are applying advanced research methods with convincing results. The empirical evidence is more international, encompassing developing countries in addition to industrialized economies. These advances have cleared a wider field. Gender and the Internet is engaging a broader audience and becoming a more mature area of research, both richer in context and more firmly rooted in theory.

Japanese Nationalism Today – Risk Resurgence, Necessary Evil or New Normal? Mejiro University Humanities Journal, 2016 Vol.12 pp.63-77

Practical Strategy as Co-Creating Collective Narrative: A Perspective of Organizational Knowledge Creating Theory. Kindai Management Review 2015 Vol. 3

Salary. The SAGE Encyclopedia of Economics and Society. Edited by Frederick F. Wherry and Juliet B. Schor. December 2015 Thousand Oaks: SAGE Publications pp.1437-1438

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Salary is payment that is determined by workers' input. In contrast to performance pay (or piece rates), in which compensation is determined by output, salary is usually independent of output. Hence, the commonly used expression "fixed salary" suggests a form of base pay in which workers are guaranteed a fixed payment for a particular period regardless of their performance. Input is some measure of effort, and is generally time-based, as in hours or days worked. Becoming salaried requires a minimum level of effort that is stipulated in advance--for example, 8 hours a day or 20 days per month.

The Hierarchy Myopia of Organizational Learning. Seoul Journal of Business 2015 Vol.21 No.2 pp.71-104

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Previous studies have been interested in how to maximize both the efficiency and the effectiveness of organizational learning. On the flipside, some studies have investigated the critical barriers to learning. We suggest organizational hierarchy as another cause and theoretically explore how it can deter learning performance. Specifically, we argue that the configuration of structure determines a prevalent form of learning method in an organization to consequently affect its learning performance. Using simulation modeling, we show that non-hierarchical organizations may be a better learning environment than hierarchical organizations. We also show that the contextual factors, such as problem complexity and member regrouping, may affect the base-line result. This study subsequently calls for further attention be paid to the key issues concerning the hierarchy and organization learning performance.

The Role of Debt Securities Markets. Bank for International Settlements Papers 2015 Vol.83 pp.41-64

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Debt securities markets in emerging market economies (EMEs) have grown over the past decade. The growth was particularly strong for domestic debt securities, which have increased from around one third of EME GDP to around one half. Although international debt securities have demonstrated slower growth, bonds still overtook bank loans in international financing flows. This growth was, however, heterogeneous, reflecting economy-specific factors. While bonds bring economic benefits, especially in funding diversification, the rapid growth in debt securities markets also raises financial stability risks.

Polymorphism of the oxytocin receptor gene modulates behavioral and attitudinal trust among men but not women. Public Library of Science

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A relationship between the oxytocin receptor gene (OXTR) and behavioral and attitudinal trust has been suggested, but the nature of this relationship has not yet been established. We obtained behavioral trust data from 470 Japanese participants (242 women) aged 20- 59 years, together with their levels of general trust and personality traits (NEO-FFI). Saliva buccal swabs were collected from 411 of these 470 participants and used for genotyping of OXTR rs53576. Our participants were found to have more AA alleles (40%) than GG alleles (12%). The GG men were more trusting and also rated higher on attitudinal trust than AA men, and this difference did not diminish when personality traits were controlled for. However, this pattern was not observed among women. In addition, controlling for attitudinal trust reduced the difference in behavioral trust among men to a non-significant level, but the difference in attitudinal trust remained significant when behavioral trust was controlled. These results indicate that the OXTR genotype affects attitudinal trust as part of an individual's relatively stable disposition, and further affects behavioral trust through changes in attitudinal trust.

The Repository of Soft Information within Bank Organizations. Journal of Money, Credit and Banking 2015 Vol.47 No.4 pp.737-770

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We examine who is the repository of soft information within bank organizations. Inconsistent with the conventional view of loan officers as the sole repository, we find that branch managers have the most soft information. We also find the repository at a higher hierarchical level at smaller banks. Furthermore, our evidence suggests that branch managers themselves actively collect soft information, especially at smaller banks. These findings suggest the need for a more nuanced view beyond the conventional emphasis on loan officers, and call for studies on the equilibrium design of the collection, processing, and use of soft information within bank organizations.

Australia's relationship with Japan: changes, drivers and future directions. Mejiro university Journal of General Studies, 2015 Vol.11 pp.41-52

Race and Ethnic Relations in Contemporary Japan. International Handbooks of Population Volume 4 pp.219-237

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Throughout history, Japanese society has placed a high value on the idea of its monoethnicity. The concept of one-nation -one-race had particularly strong weight during the years of heightened nationalistic sentiment prior to the Second World War, and was an effective tool for uniting the nation against wartime enemies. In contrast to the perceived virtues of monoethnicity, racial or ethnic heterogeneity was seen as a cause of social ills. The U.S., for example, was seen as a country that lacked harmony and societal strength. Today, the idea of monoethnicity is largely viewed as a "myth", and no longer has serious political or social meaning. In fact, after a long history of downplaying (if not denying) the existence of ethnic minorities, there is now renewed interest in examining race and ethnic relations in Japan. This chapter is devoted to the description of these ethnic groups and their role in Japanese society. Although a number of ethnic groups coexist in Japan, their numbers constitute only a tiny fraction of the Japanese population - at most 2.8 %. Yet while Japan may not be a monoethnic society, it is still relatively monoethnic, and remains ethnically homogeneous, at least in comparison to the industrialized nations of Europe and the U.S.

Recent changes in global credit intermediation and potential risks. BIS Quarterly Review September 2014 pp.17-18

“Anti-Immigrant Sentiments and Immigrant Concentration at Work in Contemporary Japan.” In Routledge International Handbook of Race, Class, and Gender. Edited by Shirley Jackson. (2014) Milton Park: Routledge. pp.61-72.

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Japan recently joined a group of nations hosting a substantial number of international migrants. A United Nations (2005) report shows that Japan was one of twenty countries with the largest cumulative number of international migrants between 1990 and 2005. Japan did not belong to this group in 1990. The number of immigrants accepted into Japan in 2005 was larger than those in some European countries such as Switzerland and the Netherlands (United Nations 2006). Immigrants to Japan are expected to increase over the next four decades (Ono and Ono, forthcoming). In order to sustain its economy while overcoming the challenges posed by the rapidly aging society and low fertility, Japan may have little choice but to accept more immigrants (United Nations 2005). The most recent estimates from the United Nations (2005) demonstrate that, in order to sustain its population, Japan would need 381,000 immigrants per year between 2005 and 2050. When immigrant incorporation is accomplished at this rate, foreign born persons are estimated to compose 17.7 percent of the population in Japan in 2050, a level more than 10 times higher than the current level of 1.2 percent (Ministry of Health, Labor and Welfare 2005).

Wisdom, management and organization. Management Learning Vol.45 No.4 pp.365-376

Scenario planning: The basics. World Futures, 2014 Vol.70 No.1 pp. 28-43

Factors influencing a More Active Security Role for Japan in Asia. Mejiro University Humanities Journal, 2014 Vol.10 pp.111-120

Marketing in the Post-Mass-Advertising, Nikkei Business Online, December 12, 2013

“Service Management for Goods-Service Convergence,” Nikkei Business Online, July 17, 2013

Markets under the spell of monetary easing. BIS Quarterly Review, June 2013 pp.1-11

From Information to Knowledge to Wisdom: My Journey. Kindai Management Review 2013 Vol. 1

Educational Credentialism and Elite Formation in Japan: A Long-term Perspective Global COE Hi-Stat Discussion Paper Series ; No. 297

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In spite of the significant restructuring of the university system in the postwar period, national universities continue to occupy the top end of the prestige hierarchy of universities in Japan. In this paper, we examine long-term trends in the educational credentials of Japanese corporate executives. We use high-quality data from the directory of corporate executives to assess whether the mechanisms of elite production has changed over time.

We find that the fraction of corporate executives graduating from private universities increased significantly, in accordance with the massive expansion of private universities in the postwar period. At the same time, our cohort-based analysis finds that private university graduates are being recruited into executive positions at a pace that exceeds its natural growth rate. Our findings weaken the view that certain prestigious universities are stable institutions to reproduce the nation's elites. The improved access to university education results in greater educational diversity and heterogeneity among the nation's elites.

Tail-risk perceptions around unconventional monetary policy announcements. BIS Quarterly Review March 2013 pp.4-5

Markets grow confident on continued support. BIS Quarterly Review March 2013 pp.1-13

Who will be the Winner in the Contents Industry?: Focusing on the Case of Time Warner. Business Case Series, 2013 Volume 34, Seoul National University Press, Seoul Korea.

Policy measures and reduced short-term risks buoyed markets. BIS Quarterly Review, December 2012 pp.1-10

Bank-Firm Relationships and Security Analyst Activities: Evidence from Japan. The Japanese Accounting Review 2012 Volume 2 Issue 2012 pp. 49-73

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Banks play a critical role in corporate governance in many economies around the world. This paper empirically compares the activities of security analysts (i.e., analyst coverage, forecast accuracy and forecast agreement) between firms with and without close working relationships with their banks in order to gain insights into how bank-firm relationships affect the information environments for capital market investors. Close bank-firm relationships signal the banks' positive evaluation of the firms because the banks screen the firms before entering or extending the relationships. Further, during the relationships, the banks monitor these firms. Thus, capital market investors are less motivated to scrutinize the firms, thereby demand less information. Investigating Japanese firms, we document that security analysts' forecasts are less accurate and less agreed (i.e., more dispersed) for the firms with long-established relationships with banks. Likewise, analyst coverage, forecast accuracy and forecast agreement are all lower for the firms with a larger amount of loans (i.e., private debt). The associations between bank-firm relationships and security analyst activities hold after controlling for the potential correlated variables (i.e., capital market financing, performance volatility, financial distress, cross-holding).

International debt securities issuance in the second quarter of 2012. BIS Quarterly Review, September 2012 p.18

Book review for Japan’s New Inequality: Intersection of Employment Reforms and Welfare Arrangements. Edited by Yoshimichi Sato and Jun Imai Social Science Japan Journal 2012 Vol.15 No. 2 pp.261-264

Authority and Soft Information Production within a Bank Organization. IMES Discussion Paper Series No. 2012 -E-7

Doing Business in Asia. RIETI Discussion Paper Series 12-E-074 November 2012

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Rapid economic growth and globalization in Asia are driving new investment opportunities and intensifying competition. To sustain competitive advantage in this new business environment, which is marked by both fierce competition and unprecedented opportunities for collaboration, business leaders must expand their vision beyond their local markets and industries to the rest of Asia and the world. As Japan's population declines and ages and the yen continues to appreciate rapidly, attention is being drawn to the rapid growth of emerging markets, especially in Asia. Confronted with these new circumstances, many Japanese companies have adopted the "expansion of business overseas" as their growth strategy, but this is a very steep path to climb. However, successful cases of growing business in Asian countries are emerging. In this RIETI discussion paper, we will introduce successful cases of business growth by Japanese companies in Asia, especially in China and India. Key lessons from these cases are as follows: allowing globalization to drive a new business model; hybridization of the new business model and the existing business model, and effective human resource management.

Fostering Innovation through Value Co-Creation　Highlighting Japan, February 2012, pp.18-19, Public Relations Office, Government of Japan

Promoting Globalization Will Open The Way to the Future for the Japanese Economy, Issues Facing Japanese Economy in 2011, RIETI Paper (http://www.rieti.go.jp/en/columns/s12_0010.html)

Detrimental Effects of Retention Regulation: Incentives for Loan Screening in Securitization under Asymmetric Information. IMES Discussion Paper Series Discussion Paper No. 2011-E-17

The Wise Leader. Harvard Business Review May 2011 Vol.89 No.5 pp.58-67

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In an era of increasing discontinuity, wise leadership has nearly vanished. Many leaders find it difficult to reinvent their corporations rapidly enough to cope with new technologies, demographic shifts, and consumption trends. They can't develop truly global organizations that operate effortlessly across borders. And they find it tough to ensure that their people adhere to values and ethics.<br>

The authors assert that leaders must acquire practical wisdom, or what Aristotle called phronesis: experiential knowledge that enables people to make ethically sound judgments. Wise leaders demonstrate six abilities: (i) They make decisions on the basis of what is good for the organization and for society. (2) They quickly grasp the essence of a situation and fathom the nature and meaning of people, things, and events. (3) They provide contexts in which executives and employees can interact to create new meaning. (4) They employ metaphors and stories to convert their experience into tacit knowledge that others can use. (5) They exert political power to bring people together and spur them to act. (6) They use apprenticeship and mentoring to cultivate practical wisdom in orders.

The Challenges Confronting the Banking System Reform in China: An Analysis in Light of Japan’s Experience of Financial Liberalization. IMES Discussion Paper Series Discussion Paper No. 2011-E-6

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"China's banking system reform has made notable progress since 2002. After restoring their balance sheets, Chinese banks have aggressively increased lending and contributed to supporting the country's economy given the global financial crisis. Thus far, the regulated deposit and lending interest rates, undeveloped capital markets, and restrictions in cross-border capital transactions have given banks an advantage in gaining profits. However, along with the full-blown reform of the economic system toward a market-oriented economy, the conditions protecting banks' profits will change in the future. The experiences of Japanese banks under the financial liberalization that occurred during the 1970s and 1980s indicate how important it is for commercial banks to change their business models in accordance with the fundamental changes in the economy. These experiences may be useful for considering the subsequent reform process of the financial system in China."

Management accounting and competitiveness in the Japanese financial sector. Hitotsubashi Business Review (2010) Vol. 58 No. 2 pp.90-105

Ba: Introducing Processual Spatial Thinking into the Theory of the Firm and Management. Philosophy of Management, Vol.9 No.2 pp.7-30

Incentives to Issue Low-Quality Securitized Products in the OTD Business Model. IMES Discussion Paper Series Discussion Paper No. 2009-E-26

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We consider an economy in which a lender finances loans to borrowers by issuing a securitized product to investors and in which the credit quality of the product can depend on whether the lender screens borrowers. In the presence of asymmetric information between the lender and investors regarding the credit quality of potential borrowers, overvaluation from the lender's perspective can occur for low-quality

A Financial System Perspective on Japan’s Experience in the Late 1980s. IMES Discussion paper Series Discussion Paper No. 2009-E-19

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This paper revisits the events of the 1980s bubble in Japan in light of the lessons learned from the subprime crisis in the United States. Our focus is on the role played by sectoral developments in the financial system in Japan. We highlight the transformation of a subset of non-financial firms (the large manufacturing firms) from being net debtors to the banks to becoming net creditors to the banks, thereby becoming part of the financial intermediary sector. In this way, large manufacturing firms in Japan played the role of surrogate wholesale banks that increased the overall supply of credit to the economy. When good borrowers already had credit and yet loose monetary conditions encouraged greater credit supply, credit availability to marginal borrowers and to real estate-related sectors increased. We discuss the role of market conditions and monetary policy in this development. Keywords: Balance sheet; Commitment; Credit supply; Financial liberalization;

Restructuring in a Recession. ACCJ Journal June 2009

Tacit Knowledge and Knowledge Conversion: Controversy and Advancement in Organizational Knowledge Creation Theory. Organization Science May-June 2009 Vol. 20, No. 3

Yen Carry Trade and the Subprime Crisis. IMF staff papers 2009 Vol56 No.2 pp.384-409

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Yen carry trades have traditionally been viewed in narrow terms purely as a foreign exchange transaction. This paper argues that the carry trade should instead be viewed in the broader context of global credit conditions. We show that the volume of yen funding that is channeled for use outside Japan is mirrored by fluctuations in the size of U.S. broker-dealer balance sheets. Differences in short-term interest rates across currencies help to explain the incidence of the carry trade, as does the measure of implied equity risk given by the VIX index. The conjunction of deteriorating credit conditions in the United States and the weakness of the dollar against the yen in the early stages of the credit crisis of 2007-08 can thus be seen as two sides of the same coin. Both can be seen as consequences of financial sector deleveraging in the United States.

Tapping tacit local knowledge in emerging markets - the Toyota way. Knowledge Management Research & Practice 2008 Vol.6 No.3 pp.173-186

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This paper presents insights from two case studies of Toyota Motor Corporation and its way of global knowledge creation. In 2004, Toyota announced an initiative to increase the self-reliance of overseas manufacturing facilities, especially in emerging markets. In 2005, Toyota Peugeot Citroën Automobile, an international joint venture between Toyota and Peugeot in Kolín, Czech Republic started the production of small compact vehicles in order to react to the changing European customer market. We will show how Toyota's knowledge creation has changed from merely transferring knowledge from Japan to subsidiaries and affiliations around the globe to a focus of creating knowledge and tapping tacit local knowledge in foreign markets by local staff. In fact, Toyota's new strategy of 'learn local, act global' for international business development and its knowledge-based approach to marketing proved successful for tapping rich local knowledge bases, thus ensuring its competitive edge and global lead in the automotive industry.

The sure thing that flopped. Harvard Business Review 2008 Vol.86 No. 7-8 pp.29-32

The Contradictions That Drive Toyota's Success

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Toyota has become one of the world's greatest companies only because it developed the Toyota Production System, right? Wrong, say Takeuchi, Osono, and Shimizu of Hitotsubashi University in Tokyo. Another factor, overlooked until now, is just as important to the company's success: Toyota's culture of contradictions.

TPS is a "hard" innovation that allows the company to continuously improve the way it manufactures vehicles. Toyota has also mastered a "soft" innovation that relates to human resource practices and corporate culture. The company succeeds, say the authors, because it deliberately fosters contradictory viewpoints within the organization and challenges employees to find solutions by transcending differences rather than resorting to compromises. This culture generates innovative ideas that Toyota implements to pull ahead of competitors, both incrementally and radically.

The authors' research reveals six forces that cause contradictions inside Toyota. Three forces of expansion lead the company to change and improve: impossible goals, local customization, and experimentation. Not surprisingly, these forces make the organization more diverse, complicate decision making, and threaten Toyota's control systems. To prevent the winds of change from blowing down the organization, the company also harnesses three forces of integration: the founders' values, "up-and-in" people management, and open communication. These forces stabilize the company, help employees make sense of the environment in which they operate, and perpetuate Toyota's values and culture.

Emulating Toyota isn't about copying any one practice; it's about creating a culture. And because the company's culture of contradictions is centered on humans, who are imperfect, there will always be room for improvement.

Knowledge-Creating Company. Harvard Business Review Classics 2008

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In a world where the only certainty is uncertainty, the one sure source of lasting competitive advantage is knowledge. The best companies survive by consistently creating new knowledge, disseminating it widely throughout the organization, and quickly leveraging it in their business processes and their products. In The Knowledge-Creating Company, Ikujiro Nonaka shows how your company can exploit its knowledge to continually innovate and reinvent itself in the face of relentless change.

A Contemporary Aspect of Japanese Commercial Banking: Expansion of Fee-Based Business and Its Impact on Management Stability. Bank of Japan Working Paper Series No.07-E-9 2007

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Recently, Japanese commercial banks have been expanding their fee-based business. The present study conducts a panel-data analysis to investigate the impact of such a diversification of commercial banking on the variability of banks' profitability and the stability of their management. Our findings include the following. As in the literature regarding US commercial banks, a positive correlation was seen between Japanese commercial banks' fee business income and net interest income in the second half of the 1990s. Such a relationship led to an increase in the variability of their ROA but did not affect their management stability over that period. During the period from FY2001 to FY2005, by contrast, such a positive correlation was not clearly observed. Reflecting this change, the fee business expansion did not increase the variability of their ROA in recent years. Moreover, it contributed to an enhancement in their management stability through increasing net profits. These findings suggest that if changes in the Japanese financial environment or other factors restore the positive correlation between the two types of incomes, the variability of Japanese commercial banks' ROA will increase. Whether this will lead to decreasing their management stability depends on to what degree they can enhance ROA due to increases in fee business income, and on how they use the increased income in the context of capital adequacy management. It is of note whether Japanese commercial banks' expanding the fee business contributes to securing the stability of their management without excessively increasing the variability of their profitability.

Comparative models of corporate governance and financial reporting Corporate Governor 2006 Vol. 3 No. 4 pp.2-3

Rapid Penetration into the Emerging Markets-The Toyota Way Critical Eye, September-November 2005, pp. 62-65

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The Toyota Motor Corporation is currently one of the most successful automotive companies in the world. With the largest market capitalisation in the global automotive industry, Toyota has built a strong reputation for the high quality, durability and reliability of its cars - and, owing to this widely recognised competence, Toyota has steadily been developing its business globally.

A Theory of Sovereign Debt Roll-over Crisis. Financial markets Group Discussion Paper 2004 No. 488

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In this paper, we attempt to provide theoretical investigation to debt roll-over crisis in government bond market. By using the global game techniques, we analyse coordination problem in debt auction. The approach in this paper allows us to have insight on the relation between occurence of soverign debt roll-over crisis and the fundamentals of economy which is not clearly explained in preceding works. This paper also makes it clear how the amount of debt for refinancing affects occurrence of soverign debt roll-over crisis. Inplications to policymakers are that they should pay attention to possible serious consequence of debt-bunching which usually grows gradually over time. In public debt management, the government decisions today affect the situation facing the government in the future via change in redemption schedules. Although the cost of debt roll-over crisis is not easy to gauge beforehand, its possibility should be noted by policymakers.

Analysis of variation of target costing practices in the camera industry　Japanese Cost Management 2000 pp.123-160

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The following sections are included:

• Introduction

• Research Variables

• Research Method
  • Unit of analysis
  • Sample selection
  • Data collection
  • Profile of products and product development processes in the sample

• Part Price, Part Cost and Assembly Hour Tables

• Design Reviews

• Supplier Involvement

• Conclusion

• References

The `ART’ of knowledge: Systems to capitalize on market knowledge. European Management Journal 1998 Vol.16 No.6 pp.673-684

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The authors argue that current knowledge management practice, which focuses on managing explicit data and information technology, is not enough. Tacit knowledge, such as subjective insights or emotions must also be considered.

Converting between these forms of knowledge is important, and the concept of ART (action-reflex-trigger) systems is introduced to enable this to take place. ART systems enable companies to implement a multi-dynamic approach to knowledge management.

The complex concept of `ba' is introduced--a shared mental space for knowledge creation--which provides a foundation for knowledge creation. The authors explore the nature, context and enabling conditions for ART systems and show how ba can be employed in ART systems.

Interfunctional Transfers of Engineers in Japan: Empirical Findings and Implications on Cross-Functional Integration. IEEE Transactions on Engineering Management 1998 Vol.45 No.3 pp.250-262

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This paper presents empirical findings on interfunctional transfers of engineers, using quantitative data collected from a large, R&D-oriented, Japanese manufacturing firm. Through quantitative analyses on characteristics of interfunctional transfers within a Japanese firm, the empirical part of the study reveals actual frequencies, timing, and patterns of interfunctional transfer to examine the relevancy of the general image of the "job rotation" practice of Japanese firms. Based on our empirical findings, we suggest that interfunctional transfers may provide Japanese companies with critical organizational capabilities for cross-functional integration, which are embedded deeply in the social context of the engineering organization.

Develop Knowledge Activists! European Management Journal 1997 Vol.15 No. 5 pp.475-483

Incapability of Technological Capability: A Case Study on Product Innovation in the Japanese Facsimile Machine Industry. The Journal of Product Innovation Management Vol.4 No.5 pp.368-382

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Technological leadership in an industry certainly seems like a ticket to ongoing success. However, overemphasis on existing technological capabilities may produce a form of myopia in product development. In other words, by focusing primarily on developing and improving their core technologies, organizations miss opportunities to exploit new technologies and thus create breakthrough products.

Ken Kusunoki proposes that problem‐solving approaches in a technologically leading firm paradoxically may impede radical product innovation. Suggesting that such firms are inherently oriented toward incremental innovation, he presents a conceptual framework of the dynamic interaction between technological and product development problem‐solving in the context of product innovation. He then illustrates this conceptual framework by examining a case of radical innovation in the Japanese facsimile industry.

For a technological leader, product innovation typically is driven by technology development. In other words, such a firm quite reasonably relies on the technological advantage it holds over competitors as the basis for its product developments. By refining and enhancing its industry‐leading technological capabilities, the firm can successfully introduce incremental innovations in its products. Because of this strong emphasis on exploiting existing technological capabilities, however, the technological leader may fail to capitalize on new technologies that can produce radical innovations.

In the race to develop high‐speed, digital facsimile equipment during the early 1970s, for example, Matsushita held a decided technological advantage over competitors such as Ricoh. Notwithstanding Matsushita's technological edge, however, Ricoh brought this radical innovation to market two years before Matsushita introduced its first digital machine, causing a serious decline in Matsushita's market share.

Ricoh's approach to technological and product problem‐solving--an autonomous team structure, with a strong project manager and frequent transfers of engineers among interdependent units--contrasts dramatically with Matsushita's functional structure and strong emphasis on technological problem‐solving. Interestingly, Matsushita regained its technological advantage by 1976, thanks to a rapid series of incremental innovations

Incapability of Technological Capability: A Case Study on Product Innovation in the Japanese Facsimile Machine Industry. Journal of Product Innovation and Management, 1997 Vol.14 No.5 pp.368-382

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Technological leadership in an industry certainly seems like a ticket to ongoing success. However, overemphasis on existing technological capabilities may produce a form of myopia in product development. In other words, by focusing primarily on developing and improving their core technologies, organizations miss opportunities to exploit new technologies and thus create breakthrough products.

Ken Kusunoki proposes that problem‐solving approaches in a technologically leading firm paradoxically may impede radical product innovation. Suggesting that such firms are inherently oriented toward incremental innovation, he presents a conceptual framework of the dynamic interaction between technological and product development problem‐solving in the context of product innovation. He then illustrates this conceptual framework by examining a case of radical innovation in the Japanese facsimile industry.

For a technological leader, product innovation typically is driven by technology development. In other words, such a firm quite reasonably relies on the technological advantage it holds over competitors as the basis for its product developments. By refining and enhancing its industry‐leading technological capabilities, the firm can successfully introduce incremental innovations in its products. Because of this strong emphasis on exploiting existing technological capabilities, however, the technological leader may fail to capitalize on new technologies that can produce radical innovations.

In the race to develop high‐speed, digital facsimile equipment during the early 1970s, for example, Matsushita held a decided technological advantage over competitors such as Ricoh. Notwithstanding Matsushita's technological edge, however, Ricoh brought this radical innovation to market two years before Matsushita introduced its first digital machine, causing a serious decline in Matsushita's market share.

Ricoh's approach to technological and product problem‐solving--an autonomous team structure, with a strong project manager and frequent transfers of engineers among interdependent units--contrasts dramatically with Matsushita's functional structure and strong emphasis on technological problem‐solving. Interestingly, Matsushita regained its technological advantage by 1976, thanks to a rapid series of incremental innovations in its product technologies.

A Comparative Review of The Knowledge Creating Company: How Japanese Companies Create the Dynamics of Innovation. IEEE transactions on engineering management 1997 Vol. 44 No. 1 p.98

On Asymptotics of Local Principal Component Analysis. Hitotsubashi Journal of Commerce and Management 1996 Vol.31 pp.1-11.

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Assume data are randomly distributed on or near a smooth submanifold of IRd When applied to a subset of data in a neighborhood, principal component analysis (PCA) gives an estimate of the tangent and normal spaces of the underlying manifold. Asymptotic properties of the estimate is surveyed in connection with variations of data and curvatures of the manifold. A dimension estimate based on the work of Waternaux (1975, 1976) is also considered.

Interfunctional Transfers of Engineers in a Japanese Firm: An Empirical Study on Frequency, Timing, and Pattern. Best Paper Proceedings of Eighth Annual Meeting, Association of Japanese Business Studies, Ann Arbor, Michigan

Organizational Innovation in the Japanese Basic Research: Challenges and Problems. Hitotsubashi Journal of Commerce and Management 1993 Vol. 28 No.1 pp.37-59

Dynamic Network and Bureaucracy: A Comparative Analysis of Japanese Basic Research Organizations. Proceedings of the MIT Japan Science and Technology Conference on "Science and Technology Policy into the Next Century

Effects of Diversification of Career Orientations on Management Systems in Japan. Human Resource Management Ann Arbor-, 1993 Vol.32 No.4 pp.525-544

The Dilemma of Technological Leadership: A Conceptual Framework. Hitotsubashi Journal of Commerce and Management 1992 Vol. 27 No.1 pp.63-79

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This paper demonstrates that a simple proposition that technological leadership enables a firm to initiate radical product innovation is potentially misleading, and presents a conceptual framework called "the dilemma of technological leadership." Highiighting the differences between product development and technology development, which have tended to be more or less neglected, from the perspective of problem-solving, the framework shows that mechanisms embedded in a technologically leading firm impede radical product innovation, and that pursuing or establishing technological leadership itself inevitably includes some negative effects on the magnitude of product innovation. Our framework suggests that the dilemma is not simply a matter of mentality of a technological leader, but a result of natural and subjectively rational behavior of a technologically leading firm in order to make the most of its technological advantage in approaching porduct innovation, and that there would be a pitfall for a technological leader which intends to create competitive advantage through radical innovation by resorting to its rich technological capabilities. 1

The Knowledge-Creating Company

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In an economy where the only certainty is uncertainty, the one sure source of lasting competitive advantage is knowledge. When markets shift, technologies proliferate, competitors multiply, and products become obsolete almost overnight, successful companies are those that consistently create new knowledge, disseminate it widely throughout the organization, and quickly embody it in new technologies and products. These activities define the "knowledge-creating" company, whose sole business is continuous innovation.

Redundant, overlapping organization : a Japanese approach to managing the innovation process. California Management Review 1990 Vol. 32 No. 3 pp.27-38

Toward Middle Up-down Management: Accelerating Information Creation. MIT Sloan Management Review

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THE CONCEPTS of "top-down" and "bottom-up" management pervade management research and the popular business literature. Both center on information flow and information processing. Top-down management emphasizes the process of implementing and refining decisions made by top management as they are transmitted to the lower levels of the organization. Bottom-up management emphasizes the influence of information coming up from lower levels on management decision making. The management styles of individual firms are usually seen as located somewhere on the continuum between these two types.

However, organizations must not only process information; they must also create it. If we look closely at R&D activities, we find a pattern in some firms that does not fit on the continuum between top-down and bottom-up. It is a process that resolves the contradiction between the visionary but abstract concepts of top management and the experience-grounded concepts originating on the shopfloor by assigning a more central role to middle managers. This process, which is particularly well suited to the age of fierce market competition and rapid technological change, I call middle-up-down management. The development of the Honda "City" exemplifies this management style.

Toward Middle-Up-Down Management: Accelerating Information Creation. MIT Sloan Management Review Spring 1988

Creating Organizational Order out of Chaos: Self-renewal in Japanese Firm. California Management Review 1988 Vol.30 No.3 pp.57-73

The New New Product Development Game. Harvard Business Review January 1986

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In today's fast-paced, fiercely competitive world of commercial new product development, speed and flexibility are essential. Companies are increasingly realizing that the old, sequential approach to developing new products simply won't get the job done. Instead, companies in Japan and the United States are using a holistic method--as in rugby, the ball gets passed within the team as it moves as a unit up the field.

This holistic approach has six characteristics: built-in instability, self-organizing project teams, overlapping development phases, "multilearning," subtle control, and organizational transfer of learning. The six pieces fit together like a jigsaw puzzle, forming a fast flexible process for new product development. Just as important, the new approach can act as a change agent: it is a vehicle for introducing creative, market-driven ideas and processes into an old, rigid organization.