1. Uniqueness of interdependency in Kyoto
One of the standing points of Kyoto business style is the uniqueness in relations
among government, industries and educational institutions. This kind of partnership is
well-used in Japan and it is called San-gaku-kan ( 産 産 産 ). San-gaku-kan defines a
partnership among those three above-mentioned sectors. In each section of partnership,
Kyoto’s San-gaku-kan is different from that of other cities in Japan. For example,
academia part of San-gaku-kan is so strong, because there are good opportunities to study
and execute a research in Kyoto. If you compare the number of colleges and universities
in Kyoto as a percentage of population to the number of those in other parts of Japan,
Kyoto will be at the top of the list. It boasts the largest concentration of higher education
institutions in Japan. That shows how big Kyoto’s academia part of San-gaku-kan in
terms of quantity. Moreover, in terms of quality, six of 12 Japan’s Nobel Prize laureates
were from Kyoto University and this fact proves the originality of Kyoto.
Another example for the uniqueness of Kyoto business practices in San-gaku-kan is
the industry part of the partnership. An employee from Shimadzu Corporation, Koichi
Takeda, won Nobel Prize in 2002, without being affiliated to any higher education or
research center. This also shows the Kyoto business style is full of passionate people who
pursuits whatever they do.
One of the reasons for why San-gaku-kan relationship in Kyoto is developed so well
is the motivators, particularly Masao Horiba, the founder of Horiba Corp. According to
him, the trust between the university and industry should be strong, and he believes that
universities should produce a type of graduate who is ready to tap into “the Kyoto spirit”.
The Kyoto spirit is common sense for Kyoto style of business. All internationally well-
known Kyoto companies has the Kyoto spirit. For all of them, making profit is not the
ultimate goal. Meanwhile predominant existence for them is to serve the society, fulfill
the needs of the society. That’s why every employee in those companies finds themselves
as a happy person, because they are serving people, societies. Related to this, one of the
peculiarities of Kyoto companies is that companies try to provide to its all employees the
best as much as they can for making them happy. They treat every employee as a family
member. We can state that Kyoto companies might be compared to families, you can feel
it observing how employees treat one another within the company as well as outside it.
Probably it might be related to the fact that most of Kyoto companies originated from
family style of business. And even now, Ishida Co.Ltd is a family owned business.
Kyoto companies have long history, and most of them operates more than a century.
The most interesting part lies down what during their existence, they run the business
with the profit annually, they have barely had annual loss. That is probably related to not
running after profits as western world companies emphasizes it at the top whatever they
do. That is because every employee has passion to work for the growths of its company.
By working its company they will be engaged in for the benefits of societies.
The Kyoto companies strengthen spirits of its employees through their corporate
philosophy and values that have been kept being formulated since its foundation. For
example, Kyocera`s corporate motto – Respect the Divine and Love People (Kei-ten-ai-
jin) – is admired by any person that works for it. Meanwhile, philosophical basis of the
corporation is devoted to make its employees understand that commercial success and the
