Labor Relations: Japanese Business Novel

by Tamae K. Prindle, Kazuo Watanabe

Overview

This book gives an insider's account of Japanese labor management. Its fictional narrative opens as a quasi-mystery with a television newscast reporting on a 400 million yen embezzlement by a chief accountant. Within this framework the novel charts the relationship between the store's labor union and its top management which is in cahoots with a governmental politician. This book describes department store sales strategies, the manipulations of administrators, and their psychological impact on the sales staff. Through its unique format, Labor Relations commands a socio-economic landscape ubiquitous in, if not typical of, the Japanese business world.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780819193049
Publisher:	University Press of America
Publication date:	05/05/1994
Pages:	144
Product dimensions:	6.00(w) x 9.00(h) x 1.00(d)

About the Author

Tamae K. Prindle is Associate Professor of East Asian Studies at Colby College.

Editorial Reviews

Tamae Prindle's translation of Watanabe is sensationally good, particularly for someone like me who is working on corruption. It is crammed with arcane information on how Japanese department stores work and on the mercantilist culture of Kyoto. Business novels are a wonderful window in the quite mordant world of Japanese slarymen and their mores. There are also many little touches that most Americans have never known or have forgotten about.

Chalmers Johnson