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1. Cultural change in japan during the 1990s has a few factors. One of them was the richer society.
The society being richer than the previous times made the new generation feels that they had
greater opportunities rather than being tied to a company for a little being a salary man. The
western culture was also a big influence in this respect.
The lying off older worker also made them believe that loyalty to a company might not be
reciprocated. Cultural change is starting to affect the traditional values in japan. Values like
strong group identification, reciprocal obligations and loyalty to their company are being taken
over by individualism and lack of loyalty. People do not want to be tied to a company for life
anymore.
2. Japan’s changing culture will influence the way Japanese businesses operate in the future.
Companies might change their benefits and play structure from traditional retirement plan
structure. They might allow employees to choose from different type of employment contrast
where they can choose greater salary to forego company housing, lifetime employment
guarantee, seniority benefits and retirement bonuses. The potential implication of such changes
in the Japanese economy might be the rise of a dynamic workforce with ambitious individuals
who would be rational and logical in their thinking.
3. The traditional Japanese culture helped Matsushita achieve its goal during 1950s-1980s because
in response to all the benefits Matsushita gave to its employees, the employees worked hard for
the greater good of the company. The employees were given guaranteed lifetime employment
and so the employees never left the company. Matsushita took care of them from “cradle to
grave” by bestowing blessings on employees. The traditional values did become liability during
the 1990s and early 200s because the company face financial crisis and its growth slowed down,
but it could not lay its employees off because of the lifetime employment guarantee.
4. With the human resources changes it has announced, Matsushita is trying to achieve a younger
