CSR and Ethics in Japanese Companies: A Search for Harmony

Behind a seemingly universal adherence to the concept of Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR), there are different approaches rooted in distinct traditions. Even among Western countries, there is a great diversity in the CSR approach (Adams et. al., 1998, Maignam and Ralston, 2002). Recent literature has shifted attention to all the institutional factors favoring corporate responsibility (Waddock, 2008). Despite the large number of debates on how to integrate the concept and philosophy of CSR into the contexts of different countries, and although CSR has been present in management literature for quite a long time (Bowen, 1953, Fitch, 1976, Zenisek, 1979), it was not until the early 1980s that a few authors began introducing Japanese CSR into Western academic debates. In this paper, while taking a multidimensional approach (philosophical, institutional and organizational), we will explore the nature of CSR’s importance in the Japanese company, in the Japanese society, the CSR approach taken and in what phase of CSR development is Japan. We will also analyze the influence of institutional variables in order to figure out how Japanese companies have adopted the concept of CSR and how they have integrated it into corporate processes and management strategies.