Taking Japan as a Mirror (Original Title: 400 Years of Japanese Business)

By surveying and summarizing 400 years of Japanese business history, this book reveals the keys to success and the core values behind overcoming crises and building businesses that endure. It offers valuable insights for the management of Chinese companies. Following the development of Japanese business and the growth of its most famous companies, it begins with the rise of the Sumitomo, Mitsui, Konoike, and Tanaka families during the Tokugawa shogunate, then spans four centuries to tell the stories of Toyota, Mitsubishi, Panasonic, Sony, Kyocera, Yaohan, Yoshinoya, SoftBank, Uniqlo, 7-Eleven, and other companies: their development, rise, reinvention, and rebirth. The result is a “business symphony” performed by companies from different eras, with different models and approaches. The book explores questions such as: Why does Japan have so many companies that have lasted for generations? How did lean management reshape Japanese manufacturing? What lessons can be learned from Japanese companies’ international expansion? How has Japanese retail achieved outstanding quality and exceptional service? How can businesses transform and revive themselves in the age of intelligence? And what exactly are the business spirit and cultural DNA captured by the metaphor of “the Analects and the abacus”?