To promote gender equality, the Japanese government has several policies which include "work-life balance for men and women", "expansion of women's participation in decision making in all fields of society" and so on. Under Prime Minister Abe's administration, the active participation of women in the economy is emphasized. However, the actual fulfilment depends on companies themselves. In 2010, WEPs (Women's Empowerment Principles) was created by the UN. WEPs stands by the slogan "Equality means business". They established a set of principles for business offering guidance on how to empower women in the workplace, marketplace and community. In this paper, we analysed Japanese companies which signed the WEPs. The method used was content analysis of their CSR reports. We examined their gender equality conditions and discussed the meaning of gendering of business ethics and the feminist approach.

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The purpose of this study is to clarify what is diversity management from a stakeholder approach. In this approach, the objective of firm is creating value for stakeholders. Stakeholders are real people with names and faces and children. They are complex. Freeman advocates stakeholder theory to avoid the separation fallacy. Stakeholder theory suggests that embracing diversity is a complex and ever-changing challenge. We review some empirical studies on diversity management. Some studies focus on boardroom diversity, and another studies focus on diversity of workplace. Diversity management focuses on both boardroom and workplace. According to stakeholder theory, diverse constituencies of firm share the objective which is creating value for stakeholders.

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This study proves that the present theory on diversity must include the viewpoint of business ethics with the principles of humanity and social justice, which are present in "the four principles system of business values." Moreover, though there is hardly any study that regards disability as a positive object of diversity and diversity management, investigations on Japanese corporations have proved that reasonable accommodation by corporations makes the characteristics of disabilities advantageous for the companies themselves. Therefore, considering disabilities as one type of diversity, diversity refers to having the positive viewpoint that corporations can make the accommodation of people with disabilities advantageous, and that diversity management can include the viewpoint of people with disabilities. I suggest that diversity and diversity management can be truly meaningful concepts if they include the perspective of business ethics and regard people with disabilities as one valued source of diversity.

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Who was responsible for the financial crisis called 'Lehman Shock'? The purpose of this study is to clarify the ethical responsibility to which financial engineers and managers of investment banks should owe. This paper surveys the history of development of securitization and financial engineering in the second section. The third section examines whether financial engineering could prevent Lehman Shock. The fourth section considers ethical problems financial engineers had. Based on the arguments in previous sections, the fifth section concludes that financial engineers have two ethical responsibilities. First, financial engineers have a responsibility to respect ethical values of investors directly. Second, they also have accountability to investors and public about their complicated finical products and its risk. Finally, the managers of investment banks have a responsibility not to force financial engineers to develop problematic financial products. These three responsibilities are important to prevent future financial crisis.

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Although there are many surveys which investigate nuclear disaster at Fukushima 1st, the evaluation of TEPCO's risk management against tsunamis is still confused. In this research, I attempt a re-evaluation of TEPCO's risk management by using a new framework which complements several points which are overlooked by existing researches. As the result of this re-evaluation, I show following three points. (1) Awareness of the dangers of tsunamis against nuclear power plant was low among common people. (2) However TEPCO had a lot of knowledge about it, by provision of information from experts of tsunami. (3) Although TEPCO had enough risk information, they did not take sufficient measures against tsunamis. Since tidal wave prediction methods include the uncertainty of their results, this company fell into dilemma between cost and safety. Finally, I suggest that lack of discussions about corporate responsibility for risks which have insufficient scientific basis tangles risk management evaluation.

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This study aims to examine whether the crisis management systems and business continuity plans (BCP) of Japanese industries functioned sufficiently during the Great East Japan Earthquake, by conducting interview surveys. The study also aims to make proposals on the ideal state of new crisis management system and business leadership. Based on interview surveys for 10 companies that had workable BCP, we found out that there are five key elements of BCP; a) coordination among group companies, b) coordination with various outside stakeholders, c) organization and structure of BCP, d) leadership of the top management, and e) social systems for BCP settlement.

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There is much research about corporate social responsibility (CSR) in the past decade. But its research didn't show the changes of CSR from a perspective of CSR reports. In this article, I examined how the concept of CSR has changed in a time span of a decade. This survey is done using text analysis of CEO letters appearing in the CSR reports of 15 major corporations in Japan during a period of transformational change. The results show that the discourse about CSR in the CSR reports has changed from an abstract definition of CSR toward a concrete definition of CSR. This article contributes theoretically to show that conceptual changes of Japanese corporations social responsibility in CEO letters appearing in the CSR reports in the investigation period.

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Part-time lecturers represent 57.6% of all the lecturers in Japanese private universities, and a wide gap in working conditions between full-time and part-time lecturers exists. Part-time lecturers, in many cases, are used as cheap labour regardless of their contribution. This paper examines which type of universities depends on part-time lecturers by multi-regression analysis. The results show that the employment of part-time lecturers is not necessarily inevitable by financial reason and there is room to improve the working conditions of such lecturers from the viewpoint of USR (University Social Responsibility).

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This paper focuses on the following. (1) We overview the development process of Korean Business Administration (KBA) from 1910 to 1970 reviewing the previous researches. (2) We reveal the time when the technical terms of business ethics and corporate social responsibility appeared in KBA. Moreover, focusing on the change in the descriptive contents related to the above terms, we refer to their implications for the Korean business ethics model. The following results were obtained. (1) American business administration had a large effect on KBA's introduction of the ICA project in 1957, after which, KBA made progress in devoting itself to American business administration. (2) Some terms related to business ethics had already been introduced in the textbooks of KBA in the 1960's and 1970's. (3) We discovered a part of the merchant spirit (Oh kum Sam kwon) of Korean Dynasties in the textbooks of KBA.

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Currently, consumer issues have been solved through company's customer satisfaction (CS) and consumer rights by consumer advocate groups. However consumer issues have not been solved reasonably by these approaches. Because they both don't reflect that consumer issues have been caused it hurts consumer rights, does not satisfactorily recover actual damages to consumers, and does not contribute to sustainable development. So, I should consider solving consumer issues in three areas mentioned, but keep a flexible relationship. Based on the above, I should reexamine the relationship between consumer advocate groups and companies.

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The purpose of this study was to clarify the causes of the decline of the consumer credit industry through an analysis from the viewpoint of ISO 26000. The study results revealed that a lack of companies in the consumer credit industry in their capacity for organizational governance as well as in their communications with each stakeholder had led them to insufficient mutual understanding and a failure in taking appropriate actions, thus causing the decline of the industry.

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Currently business entities are attracted to utilizing personal data through their big data business but customers are worried over privacy issues. There are two key points for business entities to avoid concern over privacy invasion. The first is that in case of transforming personal data into anonymous ones, business entities should treat the data with care and keep them away from being re-identified. The second point is when business entities obtain customer permission to handle personal data, they should receive explicit permission, not implicit one. To promote big data services, business entities should explain clearly and minutely to customers what kind of information is being collected, analyzed and used through their business. Transparent information handling would remove anxiety from customers and reduce the possibility of being accused of privacy invasion. Striking a proper balance between utilization of personal data and protection of privacy would lead big data business to prosperity.

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This study explores processes used to inculcate corporate ethics into organizations in a specific manner. These processes differ from vertical directives that are dictated by an organization's internal control system in that they involve techniques that promote active communication horizontally within the organizational structure. In particular, this study employs attributes and perspectives from four management study frameworks: management leadership, functional organizational structure, SECI model, and case method. This study suggests that, using these horizontal processes, the value sharing concept can facilitate the inculcation of ethics into corporations. Furthermore, this method may enhance the ethical judgment capability within corporations as a preventative measure against fraud.

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The objective of this paper is to provide a theoretical examination of Workplace Environment Driven (WED) and Self-Obligation Driven (SOD) business ethics practices that have been presented in our previous research. This study utilizes control theory in order to clarify characteristics of WED and SOD. Detailed comparative analysis reveals a fundamental difference in the models wherein WED drives organizational process controls while SOD supports output controls. Building on these analyses, our results suggest that the WED business ethics practices are stable in practice, yet outcomes may yield high implementation costs and be vulnerable to environmental change. Furthermore, WED resolutely touts corporate scandal prevention as a positive reason for adoption. Adversely, the difficulties concerned with measuring the performance of business ethics activities are understood and must be considered when adopting the WED model.

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This research captures the essence of the moral management ideals of Toichiro Nakajima, the founder of Kewpie Mayonnaise, Mr. Nakajima established a canning business, Nakajima Enterprises, in 1916 and gained trust primarily by expanding the domestic distribution channel for selling canned Northern Pacific salmon. Seven years later, he embarked on the production and sales of mayonnaise, thus creating a framework for his future core business. The entrepreneurial activities of Nakajima were based on moral principles and pursuit of high-quality low-cost products through innovation, consistent improvement, and building cooperative frameworks, while fulfilling social responsibilities that ring true even in today's society. Nakajima's entrepreneurial activities clearly indicate devotion to self-control, consideration to others, and determination to never make even the slightest compromise in one's ideals and actions. His spirit of self-sufficiency and altruism is the essence of his moral management ideals, which enabled the creation of his core business framework.

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The study found five latent causes of the case of the Accident in the Maihime Attraction at Tokyo Dome; absence of the legitimate driver, failures in checking the safety bar, ambiguous provisions of limited availability, no interlock introduced, and lack of systematic education for part-time workers. Additionally it showed the loss of the sense of responsibility and excessive reliance on OJT (on-the-job training) as typical mechanism to induce organizational misconducts.

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The purpose of this paper is to examine the relationship between the adoption of GRI Guidelines and the strength of the connection with foreign stakeholders, which is measured by the percentage of international sales and the percentage of foreign ownership. The sample is based on 201 Japanese large corporations (Nikkei 225 companies excluding financial sector) in FY 2012. I employ logit analysis. The results show that there is a significant and positive association between the adoption of GRI Guidelines and the percentage of international sales. As for the relationship between the adoption of GRI Guidelines and the percentage of foreign ownership, there is a positive association but not significant. In addition, the results show that firm size, profitability and growth prospect affect the adoption of GRI Guidelines.

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Bribery in international business has become a priority issue on Corporate Social Responsibility. This means that companies must adopt effective ethics and compliance programs to prevent the payment of bribes. Additionally, corporations are currently required the disclosure on anti-bribery efforts to meet the needs of their stakeholders. However few companies are providing disclosure on this issue although stakeholders press for companies to disclose information about corporate anti-bribery efforts. The purpose of this article is to examine the subject of corporate disclosure on anti-bribery issue after exploring roots cause of the company's negative attitude toward disclosure.

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This paper aims to examine the nature and structure of Principles for Responsible Management Education (PRME) from the theoretical perspective of the institutionalization of business ethics. PRME is an educational initiative for faculties, business schools and research institutions and facilitates the movement of the curriculum change based on six principles. The paper systematically analyzes the coherent policies and practical approaches in order to organize PRME signatories for sustainable development all over the world. First, it briefly described the historical background of launching the principles-based initiative and outlines both strategic visions and facing challenges. Secondly, it shows rules and procedures focusing on the function of secretariat. Thirdly, it interprets the role of the educational initiative under globalization. Finally the paper concludes PRME is designed to encourage signatories to popularize the ethical thought of business as a global concept based on universal values developing innovative and facilitative approaches to corporate responsible practices.

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This report first looks at current conditions and problems facing women in the Japanese workplace from the perspective of corporate social responsibility (CSR) and then makes recommendations with regard to steps to be taken toward the creation of a more diverse work environment. The number of woman in leadership positions within Japanese corporations is extremely low by international standards. This is due, in particular, to entrenched, stereotypical gender divisions with regard to job descriptions and work responsibilities, as well as to Japan's male-oriented corporate culture that favors long working hours. Japanese corporations operating internationally must, as both a growth strategy and a CSR strategy, value the contributions of women in the workforce, and it is incumbent upon Japanese corporations to lead the way in redefining the role of the working woman in society. This will promote better balance between work and life while also increasing the number of women leaders.

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Despite severe amendments in SEC regulations such as Sarbanes Oxley Act etc. whenever a big company like Enron went into bankruptcy and gave big influence over US economy, big companies' bankruptcies like Lehman Brothers are happening continuously in USA. Then I hypothesized that there were some reasons arising from the failure of institutionalization in corporate core value, business ethics, and corporate governance in such bankruptcies. Therefore I would like to test this hypothesis by using three cases of failure such as Enron, Lehman Brothers, and Eastman Kodak and two cases of success such as Fujifilm and Xerox Corp. because Jim Collins (2010) said that the success stories in same business model companies as failure ones would show clearly the correlative relationship (not causal relationship) between success companies and failure ones. I propose five items in order to prevent big companies from bankruptcy through these tests as interim report. I will continue these tests in other cases as next step.

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This study aimed to examine the phenomenon of corruption observed throughout South Korean society by focusing on businesses and then elucidate the factors that affect and induce such a trend. First, South Korea's unique mechanism that breeds corruption in South Korean society was theoretically examined. The results indicated that nepotism causes corruption through the effects of four factors: 1) personal, 2) organizational, 3) social structural, and 4) cultural. Second, by focusing on businesses, a further analysis was conducted on the reality of nepotism among South Korean companies. It revealed that nepotism negatively influenced businesses by 1) increasing corruption caused by inappropriate means for taking over management, 2) weakening the independence of board of directors through the appointment of outside directors based on alumni relationships, and 3) disabling the function of the board of directors and increasing the inequality within the company through the appointment of professional managers based on regional bonds. Therefore, to understand the current forms of nepotism in South Korean society, such as mutual aid provided through the reciprocal action of blood, alumni, and regional relationships encouraged in the traditional Confucian society, it is inappropriate under the current situation to focus only on businesses. In fact, the application of nepotism for the self-interests of a company head's clan is aggravating corporate corruption and increasing the occurrence of scandals.

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Together with the collapse of the "Bubble" economy, the 1990s saw the occurrence of numerous scandals related to business ethics that shook Japanese society. This period has been called the "lost two decades". The concept of business ethics has fulfilled an important responsibility from a management strategy perspective as it has grown to encompass the perspectives of compliance, corporate governance, and CSR. In addition, the environments in which corporations operate have undergone striking changes, and these issues have been addressed through legal amendments and improvements to systems in order to enable safe and secure economic activities in Japanese society. In this paper, I will attempt to review the progress of business ethics in Japan over 20 years together with offering opinions on the ideal form for business ethics in the future in order to develop an ethical economic society through the demonstration of self-governance functions by corporations.

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