ABSTRACT
Yoshihiko Miyauchi, the chairman of Orix, the largest leasing company in Japan reflects the management position. For the last 20 years he has been one of the most vocal corporate leaders arguing for the deregulation and liberalization of the Japanese business system. All the more because Japanese companies are entering into a knowledge-based society, business leaders are thinking even more seriously about the merits and demerits of a new approach. A number of influential corporate opinion leaders continue to defend traditional Japanese practices and maintain that the existing system can very well survive the current critical situation and be rejuvenated. Japanese companies have established considerable expertise in the management of information, and it should therefore be possible to modify and revitalise the traditional Japanese employment system without discarding that crucial asset. "Non-elite" regular employees observe with anxiety the creation of a new incentive system that will create growing differences in pay, promotion and job opportunities.
