Newspaper Article

Japan revives an ailing economy ; Entrepreneurial spirit replacing historical ties

Clay Chandler and Kathryn Tobert

2000

Overview

In many ways [Shotaro Watanabe], 64, is a typical Japanese manager. He has spent his entire career at Kao. He has never worked abroad. He greets foreign visitors with a polite bow and an apology for his inability to converse in English. But get him talking about how he runs his business and Watanabe sounds as though he's channelling the spirit of General Electric Co.'s hard-charging chief executive, Jack Welch. Watanabe speaks with near-religious zeal about \"shareholder value,\" boosting \"return on equity\" and scrapping business lines that don't make money. Watanabe's is the voice of a new Japan. His eager endorsement of competition and profits is one of many signals that inhabitants of this traditionally risk-averse, group-oriented society are learning to love, or at least to live with, freer markets.

• Publisher: Torstar Syndication Services, a Division of Toronto Star Newspapers Limited