The history of internal communications in Japanese companies

In Japan, even companies with dozens of employees have media for their employees. It is a measure for the managers to share management information with the employees to increase productivity and to reflect employees’ demands to management while increasing their motivation. This chapters looks at the early stages of internal communication (IC) that have often been sidelined as prehistory and the 125 years of IC history in Japanese companies. IC developed and diversified under various influences, including post-WWII human relations theory and techniques of journalism, videos, and IT. While IC is a corporate practice related to management, its full picture is yet to be discovered, requiring further research into the field.