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Introduction *
The Historical Origins of Companyism: From Westernization to Indigenization
BANNO JUNJI

During the 1980s bubble economy, social scientists in Japan and elsewhere showed great interest in Japanese-style management' and 'Japanese-style administration'. Although the bubble has burst, this interest persists. Now, however, instead of praise, the formerly admired patterns are subject to criticism.

An important theme in investigations into Japanese-style management has been the effort to uncover the historical origins of the system. Given the severe economic problems of the first postwar decade, it is not surprising that scholars initially tended to look back to the prewar Showa period. The following statement made in 1952 by the well-known economist Takahashi Kamekichi explains this tendency:

Japan's capital accumulation decreased greatly as a result of wartime waste. At present it has sunk to levels as low as the Meiji period. . . . Unfortunately, many of the ...