Introduction

Ever since studying ethnography nearly three decades ago, the collecting and recording of news articles, documents, and visual data, as well as the writing of journals, have been a part of my life. I recorded a TV program, which was broadcast by Nippon Hoso Kyokai (NHK) on July 14, 2001, in Japan. It was a documentary that featured Japanese blue-chip companies describing their success in changing their taishitsu [inclusive terms of corporate culture and climate], which had previously induced unethical practices, such as attempting to avoid recalling defective vehicles by Mitsubishi Motors and chronic stagnation with low morale among workers.1 At the NHK studio, besides the NHK anchor, Hiroshi Motomiya, a writer of a popular manga or cartoon based in the Japanese business world, there were two editors of business magazines in Japan and employees of Japanese blue-chip companies that had become more successful by changing their corporate culture. However, if the program were shown (with English subtitles) today, not only the NHK producers and participants in the program at that time but also viewers around the world would be astonished. One of the companies that had representatives confidently describing their success in cultural change on this program was Tokyo Electric Power Company (TEPCO).