Case study On Japans Changing Culture

Abstract

Panasonic was established in 1920 but it's initially it was known as Matsushita before 2009. It is one of the building blocks of the rise in Japan as a major economic power. It was a company that embraced the Japanese traditional culture. The company treated its employees with great care from ‘cradle to the grave'. However, the company started experiencing changes that affected the traditional culture it had adopted. The prolonged economic slump that Japan experienced in 1990s was the final blow to the company. It started laying off some employees as well as revising the traditional employee benefits.

However, the company started its recovery and moved into new industries such as software engineering and network communication technology. It is still undergoing a slow transition as it tries to incorporate new culture into the traditional culture. The company started making profits again in 2009 and similar to other companies, the global recession had an impact on its operations and it ended up closing some plants as well as laying off more workers which was the end of the life time employment commitments which was a vital component of the traditional culture (McInerny, 2007).