Paternalistic industrialists in Japan and Sweden

Professor Christer Ericsson, professor Björn Horgby and associate professor Shunji Ishihara, Tokyo University, compare changing paternalistic strategies in Japan and Sweden. There is a change from authoritarian paternalism to didactical paternalism in the early twentieth century, when the companies tried to create a strong entrepreneurial spirit as a way to enforce rationalizations. The Japanese familism before World War II excluded trade unions and subordinated them after the war. In the popular movement oriented Sweden the trade unions became stronger and negotiation partners as the welfare state was built. As industrial rationalizations changes from tayloristic to lean concepts in the 1970th and 1980th the didactical paternalism also changes. There is also a close connection between the choices of paternalistic strategies and the welfare policies of the state.