These two books examine American influence on Japanese corporate culture amid a period of globalization. Yukio Yotsumoto's work focuses on competing notions of corporate social responsibility in Japanese manufacturing firms in Kentucky. Ellen Fuller's work offers insights into how gendered and cultural biases influence personnel decisions in the Japanese subsidiary of a multinational American company. Both works are welcome additions to the body of literature on their topics: corporate social responsibility among Japanese firms and discrimination faced by Japanese—primarily women—workers.
While corporate social responsibility is not necessarily a new concept, the academic literature on this topic, particularly as it pertains to Japan, has increased noticeably in recent years. Much of this appears to relate to the globalization of Japanese firms since the 1980s. The phenomenal changes in information technology and mass communications since the 1990s have also made corporations much more sensitive to their public reputation.
In Americanizing Japanese Firms...