ABSTRACT
Japan is an international economic giant, but remains closed in many respects. During most of the Tokugawa era (1603-1868), sakoku (closed door) was the law of the realm. Today, the country remains secluded in many ways. Its “gross national cool” may give it a marginal international caché, but it is a global economy without a globalizing society. One indicator is foreign direct investment (FDI). FDI fosters globalization. It brings
expatriate staff and allows locals to find employment at home with foreign organizations, often a first step to an overseas assignment. However, FDI accounts for only 4% of Japan’s national income, vs. 23% for the United States and 27% for Germany (UNCTAD 2013). FDI statistics are imprecise but the gap is so wide that there is no doubt that Japan is an outlier among large mature market economies. Demographically, Japan is also an exception. Only 1.7% of its residents are foreign,
of which about 19% are Japan-born Koreans (Ministry of Justice 2012). Foreigners are 0.9% of the labor force in Japan, vs. 9.4% in Germany and 14.7% in Sweden. Germany and Sweden, like Japan, never had large and long-lasting empires, but unlike Japan, they now have a significant number of workers from several continents. Corporations do not release employee breakdowns by nationality, but following dis-
cussions with experts and a survey of available data, there is no doubt that headquarters of Japanese corporations, compared to those of other countries, have only small numbers (at most) of foreigners in managerial positions. The few exceptions prove the rule. The most famous one was Carlos Ghosn. A Brazilian-born French citizen, he ran Nissan, but only after French car maker Renault bought control of the company. Overseas, Japanese are dramatically under-represented in international organizations.
At the United Nations (UN), Japan’s financial contributions should give it 202-73 spots in the professional ranks, rather than the 65 who hold such positions (2011 data, private communication, former UN Official 2012). A broader measure of UN employment indicates that there are more than twice as many French than Japanese and more than 60% more Germans and Italians than Japanese, even though Japan contributes more to the budget and is more populated (United Nations 2009). Relative to Japan’s huge economy, Japanese are rare in the ranks of the World Bank, the International Monetary Fund (IMF), and big nongovernmental organizations (NGOs). In the corporate world, non-Japanese businesses employ very few Japanese nationals outside of their Japanese subsidiaries (see also Carroll 2010). Moreover, insularity is rising. Younger Japanese are less keen on living overseas than
their parents were. Today’s Japanese want domestic safety, not foreign adventure
(Furukawa and Minahan 2012, 76). A Japanese diplomat told us that even in the Foreign Ministry, junior officials were not eager to be stationed outside Japan (we address these issues at greater length later).
