The purpose of this paper is to clarify on roles played by the wife of the proprietor of a small business. The author focuses on the changes in the wife's roles by the participation process and her age. A movement analysis is conducted on relationships between the wife and the small business. A survey was conducted with proprietors and their wives and family members of small manufacturing firms in the Ota Ward in Tokyo from January 17, 2008 through April 21, 2010. The analysis is conducted on the data of 16 people from 15 company, which yielded the following four points: 1) “making a living” and “business management” are mediated through wife' s financial management effort; 2) as wife's commitment to the business management increases a shift is seen from just securing the funds needed for business and providing supports for employees; 3) changes in the wife's role from that of “support-provider” to “co-worker,” and to “independent person,” are seen with the backdrop of the changes during the high-growth period, and 4) the fact remains that the wife continues to play her role in the business management, complementing the proprietor's work. The qualitative aspect of this research is in the view on the pivotal role of the proprietor's wife in the marginal area of life-and-work in the family business. What evolves out of this marginal area is securing the cash flow in the business and providing support for employees. In other words, the wife plays the mediator role between the “business management” and “life” of the people in a small business. The wife's role in the management of a small business is crucial in that it supports the business in “co-operation through the division of labor”.

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This paper aims to examine the process by which barbers' techniques and labour became institutionalised in the formative years of the barber industry in Japan.) Drawing on secondary sources and interviews with the staff of a vocational school, the paper focuses on the role of a textbook on haircutting theory, which was widely consumed among barbers and students at barber schools and that was responsible for the consolidation of what was then considered to be standard techniques. The training of barbers, which had hitherto been based on the apprentice system, was unified into school education system during the 1950s that called for a partial amendment of the Barber Law. Meanwhile, with a view to ensuring barbers' effciency in work and management, the Barbers Union brought the theory and techniqucs of haircutting into modules at barber schools. The findings demonstrate that, although the standardised techniques of haircutting promised barbers rational labour, their uniformity turned so obsolete in the wake of Japan's consumer society in the 1970s onwards that they have held little appeal to students in hairdressing. As a result, the standardisation of barbers' techniques and labour has given rise to conflict, which has eventually led to the decline in the number of barbers in favour of beauticians.

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This paper is based on fieldwork and interviews with 29 Taiwanese long-tenured managers and six Japanese expatriates working at large Japanese manufacturing companies in Taiwan. Findings from the fieldwork indicate that there is a crucial element to understand how those Taiwanese managers acquired their present managerial positions. The reason for their success is that those managers actively participated in creating a “field” with Japanese expatriates. In other words, through a process of working for many years and sharing experiences with Japanese expatriates, Taiwanese managers who participated in creating a “field” within Japanese companies consciously or unconsciously assumed a core role within the organization.

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