Focusing on the experiences of foreign employees working in Japanese firms, this book identifies the trends and realities facing both expatriates and firms in the current landscape of the Japanese labour market. By utilising interview data from both expatriates and Japanese HR staff, this study identifies the fact that self-initiated expatriates often do not remain in Japanese firms for long and highlights the main factors that influence their decisions to leave; including difficulty adjusting to Japan's lifetime employment system, seniority-based pay, and the prevalence of unpaid overtime. The book reveals that whilst Japanese firms are adjusting to improve the retention of foreign employees, there remains a clear expectation gap between the two sides. Moreover, it outlines further potential adjustments that could be implemented to reduce the turnover rate of expatriates and create a more harmonious workplace both for expatriates and for local employees. This is an urgent challenge for Japan as it faces labour shortages. Featuring an in-depth exploration of first-hand experiences from direct testimonies of expatriates in Japanese firms, this book will be a valuable resource for academics and students of Japanese studies, human resource management, and organisation studies.

Scandals and failures in some of the best known international Japanese-owned companies have shown that there is sometimes a considerable difference between the public and internal narratives of Japanese firms. This book explores the extent to which Japanese firms' public claims reflect wider reality. Exploring how and why corporate narrative-management is 'accepted' or 'rejected' by external and internal audiences in Japan, the book clarifies what narrative-management means for Japanese organizations. It argues that the role of narrative-management has become much more prevalent in Japan in recent years, but that it does not serve quite the same role as it does in the Western environments where the theory and practice first emerged. The author presents interview-based case studies within four very different large Japanese organisations, all of which have deployed and loudly announced new restructuring plans based largely on Western models of corporate 'best practice'. The book aims to describe and account for these Japanese corporate narratives, and asks what they are, why they are deployed and who believes in them. As the first narrative-related work in the Japanese context, this volume provides an insight into the development of Japanese narrative-management. It will appeal to students and scholars of Japanese Business, International Business and Organizational Studies.

Scandals and failures in some of the best known international Japanese-owned companies have shown that there is sometimes a considerable difference between the public and internal narratives of Japanese firms. This book explores the extent to which Japanese firms' public claims reflect wider reality. Exploring how and why corporate narrative-management is 'accepted' or 'rejected' by external and internal audiences in Japan, the book clarifies what narrative-management means for Japanese organizations. It argues that the role of narrative-management has become much more prevalent in Japan in recent years, but that it does not serve quite the same role as it does in the Western environments where the theory and practice first emerged. The author presents interview-based case studies within four very different large Japanese organisations, all of which have deployed and loudly announced new restructuring plans based largely on Western models of corporate 'best practice'. The book aims to describe and account for these Japanese corporate narratives, and asks what they are, why they are deployed and who believes in them. As the first narrative-related work in the Japanese context, this volume provides an insight into the development of Japanese narrative-management. It will appeal to students and scholars of Japanese Business, International Business and Organizational Studies.