It Is Not That All Cultures Have Business, But That All Business Has Culture

Abstract

The idea of the joint-stock company was originally invented in Europe and spread to the rest of the world. The general view among the scholars of different disciplines is that culture is always a factor secondary to a more fundamental reason for, or logic of, human behavior. Economists, for example, tend to argue that culture as a residual factor might change the priority of valuable objects people pursue. But for them the fundamental logic for human behavior is the principle of maximization of self-interest. The chapter argues that the notion of the kaisha can be conceived as a modern re-arrangement of the traditional ie. The superiority of the kaisha over other stakeholders has been a recursive feature of a history starting from the traditional ie via pre-modern business establishments to modern corporations in Japan. Understanding Chinese kinship as ‘mutuality of being’ can further help us to understand the Chinese family ethics.