In past decades the Japanese economy had expanded rapidly and the country annual gross
national product became one of the largest in the world. A contribution to this growth is
said to have been the cold war threat, during which the former leading countries mostly the
United States and the Soviet Union were putting a tremendous amount of money to their
armament, while Japan under peace Constitution was able to concentrate its efforts on the
economy. During this period managers and renowned university professors were trying to
find the key to the Japanese success and the Japanese challenge became a buzzword for
nearly thirty years. Many comparisons between Japanese and American management
practices were made, many books related to this topic were written, much research took
place and the Japanese management theory soon became an object of wide admiration.
This period is already gone. The Japanese economy showed steady growth till the late 80,
when Japan entered a prolonged period of relative stagnation so-called bubble economy,
and started experiencing a serious recession. By the beginning of the millennium, the
Japanese model once held up as an example to the world is clearly running its course and
now is badly in need of complete restructuring. Despite this fact, the Japanese management
has become an essential part of the integrated management theory and is still considered to