CSR in Japan

History of CSR in Japan:

For over 50 years the topic has been publicly debated, slowly developing as a concept
CSR in Japan traces back to a resolution issued by the Japan Association of Corporate Executives in 1956, entitled “Awareness and Practice of the Social Responsibilities of Businessmen.”
CSR developed through five phases as defined by Kawamura.
- Firstly, civic movements arose in the 1960s from distrust of polluting industrial companies, eventually becoming a high-profile issue in Japanese society.
- Phase two began during the post-oil shock era of the 1980s, when the populace became dissatisfied with the primacy given to corporate profits by the Japanese government. In response to these first two phases, companies set up anti-pollution departments and philanthropic foundations.
- The third phase began in the 1980s, when as the Japanese bubble began to expand, more attention was given to philanthropic efforts and support for the arts.
- In the 1990s, the Japanese bubble collapsed and global warming rose in profile as an international issue, giving rise to the fourth phase, in which companies set up environmental departments, began to engage in social contributions and the Charter for Good Corporate Behaviour (below) was passed.
- The fifth and final phase was initiated by renewed corporate scandals, resulting in CSR ratings and departments proliferating among Japanese companies.

Japan Business Federations Charter of Corporate Behaviour (Charter established Sept. 14, 1991; 5th version released Sept. 14, 2010). Clauses include

Develop and provide socially beneficial and safe goods and services for consumers.
Proactively initiate measures in acknowledgment of environmental issues. Japan Business Federation’s Charter of Corporate Behavior
Actively engage in community involvement activities.

The Japanese experience shows that both legislating corporate social responsibility through general regulations, and implementing specific measures within various systems is useful, but scholars have found that the latter method is more meaningful, with the former not being legally meaningful.
Research by Masahiko Kawamura at the Social Development Research Group concludes that addressing corporate sectors separately through legislation is most useful; demanding that each sector ha a commitment to social responsibility, and maintained through regular inspections or rules specific to each system.

Today, CSR remains a vitally important management issue for Japanese corporations. Although questions of some companies of compliance with CSR law have been raised, efforts to create standardised CSR management have largely been upheld.

Panasonic’s activities have long been guided by a management philosophy which states that a company is a public entity of society. The founder, Konosuke Matsushita, is quoted in saying ‘Companies and society are not separable, but rather are a single entity.’