ABSTRACT
Given the continued expansion of various Japanese corporations into countries around the world in general, and into Asia in particular, 1 an overseas assignment is slowly becoming a prerequisite for advancement into senior managerial posts in many companies. In this chapter I shall examine the meanings – the terms, assumptions and metaphors – that guide the activity of Japanese business expatriates in Singapore. The premise guiding my analysis is that in order to understand the social and organizational activities of present-day Japanese business people, there is a need to analyse how their actions are related to a variety of (economic, political and cultural) processes termed 'globalization'. Theoretically, my project answers recent scholarly calls for a recognition of the fact that in order to understand present-day social and cultural trends in the world there is a need to 'go international': to theorize and conceptualize changes in the way the 'world' is now perceived and acted upon by a variet y of social groups (such as states, movements, organizations or ethnic collectivities) and individuals. 2
