James C. Abegglen: Profile of a Naturalized Citizen

My first real job in Japan was all Japanese. I was the first non-Japanese to have ever been hired, and they followed Japanese traditions to the T: morning speeches, exercises, wearing suits everyday (even software engineers), eveybody (including me) using last names and titles, and staying put until the the boss (in my case: my 課長 {kachō} (section chief) left. And if the 部長 {buchō} (division chief) wanted to go to a club that evening and needed an entourage to look impressive, I'd have to accompany him with two other Japanese subordinates. Having a blond haired blue eyed subordinate was extra impressive I guess.

Another thing that was tradition: I was told that the company's hiring policy was 終身雇用 {shūshin koyō} (lifetime employment), and my salary and promotions were determined by 年功序列 {nenkō joretsu} (senority wage system). The was the end of the bubble era in the mid-90s. The last days those words would have meaning. When my 社長 {shachō} announced that the company was going under and thus lifetime employment no longer applied under those circumstances, I never received (nor did I seek) a job in job that offered this traditional system again?

But where did this word, "lifetime employment" get coined and invented?

It was actually invented by an American who later naturalized to Japanese: James C. Abegglen. James Abegglen was first exposed to Japan through post-WW2 during the occupation. He came over to Hiroshima as part of the Strategic Bombing Survey (SBS, which has nothing to do with Japanese mobile phone carriers). Part of his time was spent studying how Japanese factories worked. During that time, he wrote a best seller, The Japanese Factory (『日本の経営』 {"Nippon no keiei"}), which people today continue to reference with regards to how Japanese companies work (even though most of the ideas were discarded by the Japanese by the mid nineties). His claim to fame? He coined the phrase 終身雇用 {shūshin koyō} (lifetime employment).

Actually, in the book, he used the phrase "lifetime commitment" in English. This got translated in Japanese to 終身の関係 {shūshin no kankei} ("whole life's relationship") which in further references, was shortened in Japanese to 終身雇用 {shūshin koyō} (lifetime employment).

Abegglen would continue to live in Japan, becoming a professor at Sophia University and finally dean emeritus of Globis University and wrote at least four more books:

• Big Business in America (『ワールドビジネスの経営戦略』 {"wārudo bijinesu no keieisenryaku"})
• Kaisha, the Japanese Corporation (『日本の企業社会』 {"Nippon no kigyō shakai"})
• Sea Change: Pacific Asia as the New World Industrial Center (『東アジア巨大市場――日本は「脱米入亜」に舵を取れ』 {"tō-Ajia kyōdai ichiba—Nihon wa 'datsu-Bei nyū-A' ni kaji o tore"})
• 21st Century Japanese Management: New Systems, Lasting Values (『新・日本の経営』 {"shin·nihon no keiei"})

James Abegglen married a Japanese and took permanent residency in Japan in 1982 at the age of 56, and later naturalized to Japanese in 1997, at the age of 71. He passed away from cancer, in Japan, in 2007 at the age of 81.

One of the criticisms Abegglen received for his work was that he was accused of being too biased in his assessment (and that he hid his naturalization to Japanese) and downplayed the lack of openness of the Japanese markets. The only thing I'll comment on from the perspective of this blog is that it's technically impossible to hide one's naturalization, as everybody's original name and Japanese address is published — albeit in Japanese — in the Diet parliament's official publication, The Official Gazette (官報 {kampō}).