ABSTRACT
The explicit acceptance of status inequalities, the receipt of favours acknowledged to create an obligation of indebtedness but in no way detracting from the individual's sense of self-respect, and the granting of favours in conscious expectation of a return in loyal service, the genuine and positive approval of the sentiments of personal loyalty to superiors and protective solicitude for inferiors, combined with clear 'sociological' insight into the material implications of such relationships—all these features of the patron-client relationship just described as a useful tool for 'getting on' in Japanese society are equally characteristic of employment relations over a large sphere of Japanese industry.
