Business in Japan 日本商界(双语对照).doc

Business in Japan 日本商界Take a leaf out of his book 漫画偶像，商界楷模Aug 7th 2008From The Economist print editionJapanese bosses can learn from the country’s favourite businessman—even if he does not exist从这位最受欢迎的商人身上，日本的老板们大有可学--尽管他并不真实存在Kenshi Hirokane-Kodansha Ltd弘兼宪史 讲谈社出品YAMATO, the ancient name of Japan, essentially means “big harmony”. To achieve such balance, Japanese society has refined a plethora of cultural traits: humility, loyalty, respect and consensus. In the field of business, however, this often results in a lack of leaders who are willing to stand out from the crowd, promote themselves and act decisively. “The nail that sticks up gets hammered down” is a common Japanese refrain; “the hawk with talent hides his talons” is another. Whereas American and European bosses like to appear on the covers of global business magazines, their Japanese counterparts are comfortable in their obscurity. Business in Japan is generally run as a group endeavour.大和，日本旧称，本意为“大同和谐”。为了达到这种平衡和谐，日本社会提炼出了诸多文化特点，有：谦逊、忠诚、尊重、共识。然而，在商界，这种平衡常常意味着领导缺位，没有人愿意脱颖而出，尽显锋芒，敢作敢当。日本有一句俗语，“枪打出头鸟”劝诫人们不要出风头，“有干将器,不露锋芒”也是一例。不同于欧美商人好在全球商业杂志封面上一展英姿，日本同仁更喜欢默默无闻。通常，日本的企业的成就都是得益于团队的努力。Such democratic virtues served the country well in the post-war period. But today they hold too many Japanese firms back. Japan boasts some of the best companies in the world: Toyota, Canon and Nintendo are the envy of their industries. But they operate on a global scale and have tentatively embraced some unconsensual American methods. In much of the Japanese economy—especially its huge domestic services sector—managers are in something of a funk. Firms do not give promising youngsters responsibility early on, but allocate jobs by age. Unnecessarily long working hours are the norm, sapping productivity. And there are few women and foreigners in senior roles, which narrows the talent pool.这样的民主主义作风在战后的日本是如鱼得水。而如今这种作风却阻碍了日本公司的发展。该国拥有不少世界顶级公司, 如丰田、佳能、任天堂等，都算的上是业界翘楚。这些公司业务遍布全球，而对接受打破均衡的美国方式却是心存疑虑。在绝大部分日本企业中，特别是庞大的国内服