The purpose of this paper is to analyze the contemporary roles of modern executives. In particular, we take the focus on diverse stakeholders in business. Our approach in this paper is as follow. In 2, we try to indicate the concept of "corporate partnersip" and point out two humanistic and socialcultural value axea. In 3, we discuss the contemporary meanings and development on business philosophy-driven strategy. Finally, in 4 we show two contemporary roles - the creation of business philosophy and practice of business ethics - of modern executives in the future.

View full abstract

In this paper, I would like to clarify the framework of institutional relationships between business and corporate governance from the view of monitoring the top management. I will also clarify some methods to develop and promote ethical business practices. First, I will review the check and balance system of top management and then show how corporate governance differs from Japanese business law. In this paper , I will use comparative analysis studies to demonstrate diffrences between Japanese and American top management systems. Finally, concerning the development and promotion of ethical business practice, I will discuss the formulation of business ethics codes, the development of ethics education programs, and the establishment of ethics committees or the position of an ethics director in companies.

View full abstract

In recent years, in accordance with the development of a global economy and multinational corporations, the need for business ethics in an international, pluralistic context has emerged. Among several recent attempts to develop a general theory for international business ethics, Thomas Donaldson and Thomas Dunfee's "Integrative Social Contracts Theory" (a.k.a. "International Communitarianism") seems to provide the most comprehensive framework to accommodate many dichotomies, such as an empirical and normative methodological gap, cultural relativism and ethical absolutism, and actual disputes between communities which embody different values. While I have highly evaluated this theory, I have also argued that it needs to be supplemented by the vision of institutionalized moral concensus building procedures, in order to respond to the real needs of international dispute resolution. A number of suggestions have been made to design this institution. Among them are 1) this institution should be an assembly of communities which will pursue discussion to build a moral concensus, 2) this discussion forum should provide a "level field of discussion" where each participating community is guaranteed the "ideal communicative situation" (Habermas), and 3) in order to establish this discourse situation,"anonymity of utterance" has to be guaranteed for the "context-free space" of discourse.

View full abstract

In his famous book,The Protestant Ethic and the Spirit of Capitalism, Max Weber considers what kinds of ethics and morals have paved the way to modern capitalism, and how they have worked to establish the capitalist economy. In this paper, on the basis of Weber, I consider what kinds of business ethics and morals are needed under the present circumstances, and how they would work to realize the free market economy. We have just seen the end of the Cold War, and are seeing the transformation of the socialist economy towards a free market economy. Under these on-going circumstances, it is expected that the system of the free market economy will work more soundly than before, and also this expectation naturally leads us to study business ethics and morals of free enterprise. They can be built in the free market economic system and regulate it from within. In studying business ethics, we must focus on moral principles such as humanity and social accountability. Because of the above-mentioned circumstances, these two moral principles are gaining more respect and are crucial for every enterprise. In other words, the end of the Cold War and the forthcoming age of symbiosis direct our attention to those two principles.

View full abstract

For a long time in Japan women have been forced to work as assistants to men by most of Japanese companies, which have had stubborn prejudice: (1)Women can not work for long period in her life like men do. (2)For women , companies don't need to consider equal salary increase and working terms and conditions with men. (3)Among women, there is no serious competition for higher position. These unfair prejudices have caused various sexual discriminations in companies and have discouraged working morale of women , and moreover, have reduced employment opprtunities of women in Japan. Even now one of the feudal concepts that women have to support men's society still remains in the society. However on the other hand, a few companies have begun to be aware of women's abilities and possibilities. Improvement of women's working environment will definitely lead to prosperity in industries and progress in quality of life. In this article, I mainly focus on the current employment situation of women in Japan from the view point of sexual discriminations.

View full abstract

In this essay, I explained my idea, action plan, auditing tools / methodoiogies, and daily activities through my auditing jobs.Firstly, I explained what happened in Japanese business in the past, early '90s when "Bubble"economy was crashed.lt is very surprising that, at least 25-30% of companies listed in Tokyo #1 stock exchange market, were fallen into scandals in the past 4〜5years, and the tendency is still continuing even "Bubble"was disappeared.Due to the rush of business scandals, Japanese stockholders' market is facing a crisis in some means, and it is proved by inactive stock prices and daily transaction volumes.I also explained what I did in the past, and wish to do in the next decade to prevent stockholders' loss or to increase benefit through auditing activity.In the last section, I presented some issues and those solutions to improve current imperfect auditing functions.

View full abstract

As the Japanese corporations grow in size and influence, Japanese people as well as the world increasingly demand that they conduct their business in a legal and ethical way. Responding to such demands, and beginning early 1990, most of larger Japanese corporations have implemented Antimonopoly Law compliance programs. Eventually, such programs would evolve into broader compliance programs requiring employees to comply not only with the anti-monopoly guidelines but also with other codes of conduct, such as the avoidance of conflict of interest and the prohibition of bribery, illegal political contributions and insider tradings. How effective will the Japanese compliance programs be? That depends on the degree of a particular company's dilligence in enforcing the program within that organization. Keidanren, the Japan Federation of Economic Organizations, shows the right direction when it urges each of its member corporations to make disciplinary action an element of a compliance program.

View full abstract