I could easily write a similar list about American companies. Let’s see...
Investors keep funding dumb money-losing ventures like WeWork and Juicero!
Employees aren’t kept long enough to justify training them!
Switching jobs frequently and smooth talk is valued much more than a solid track record!
Developers keep switching to the latest JS framework for no good reason!
Maybe one culture is better economically than the other, but I can’t see it explaining a 2x wage difference. But if you posit that Japanese management culture is universally really bad, then you have to explain things like:
lack of foreign firms coming in and outcompeting
Japanese companies succeeding making cars in America
It’s not like they were the only major investor in WeWork. There was Insight Partners, for example. But I could find some other examples if you want...
Employees aren’t kept long enough to justify training them!
This is actually a benefit in disguise, at least for the efficiency of management in large organizations. And is probably sufficient to explain a large chunk of the 2x difference.
The hyper effective self learners who thrive in this paradigm and get promoted end up being smarter per unit time than even the best japanese employees. Which translates to being smarter overall after several promotion.
I.e. every minute spent on something reduces their attainable competence somewhere else as schedules are maxed out once you reach middle management. There’s only 24 hours a day after all.
The Japanese value stability much, much more than Americans. This harms their economy in various ways:
Firms that are losing money are kept alive
Employees that underperform are not fired
Seniority is prized much more than talent (if someone is promoted higher due to talent, other employees will be unhappy)
Customers continue to patronize their known vendors due to loyalty, even if those vendors aren’t very good
The idea of “disruption”—the holy grail of Silicon Valley—is anathema to Japanese.
I could easily write a similar list about American companies. Let’s see...
Investors keep funding dumb money-losing ventures like WeWork and Juicero!
Employees aren’t kept long enough to justify training them!
Switching jobs frequently and smooth talk is valued much more than a solid track record!
Developers keep switching to the latest JS framework for no good reason!
Maybe one culture is better economically than the other, but I can’t see it explaining a 2x wage difference. But if you posit that Japanese management culture is universally really bad, then you have to explain things like:
lack of foreign firms coming in and outcompeting
Japanese companies succeeding making cars in America
Wework was actually funded by Masayoshi Son at the Japanese company SoftBank. They failed an IPO which presumably means Americans wouldn’t invest.
It’s not like they were the only major investor in WeWork. There was Insight Partners, for example. But I could find some other examples if you want...
This is actually a benefit in disguise, at least for the efficiency of management in large organizations. And is probably sufficient to explain a large chunk of the 2x difference.
The hyper effective self learners who thrive in this paradigm and get promoted end up being smarter per unit time than even the best japanese employees. Which translates to being smarter overall after several promotion.
I.e. every minute spent on something reduces their attainable competence somewhere else as schedules are maxed out once you reach middle management. There’s only 24 hours a day after all.