What can eastern philosophy teach us about business ethics?

Journal of Business Ethics

Volumn 19, Issue 1, 1999, Pages 71-79

  Koehn, Daryl ^a  

^a UNIVERSITY OF ST THOMAS   (United States)

Author keywords

[No Author keywords available]

Indexed keywords

EID: 0010591374     PISSN: 01674544     EISSN: None     Source Type: Journal    
DOI: 10.1023/A:1006102022834     Document Type: Article

References (30)

1. APEC (Asia Pacific Economic Cooperation) is now the most important regional economic organization in the world, with its members constituting 53% of the world economy. Kiyohiko Fukushima, Book review of Asia Pacific Fusion: Japan's Role in APEC in SAIS Review, vol. 16, no. 2 (1996), pp. 205-207.
2. An internet search for the term "Asian values" yields over 400,000 hits as of February 25, 1997.
3. Herodotus, The Persian Wars, trans. A. D. Godley (Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 1975).
4. And, of course, the "West" affects the "East" and vice versa. The Chinese dissident Liu Binyan has argued that "though Confucianism is gradually coming back to China, it cannot be compared to the increasingly forceful influence of Western culture on the Chinese people in the last twenty years." Binyan quoted in Stein Tonnesson, "Orientalism, Occidentalism, and Knowing About Others," in NIASnytt, no. 2 (April, 1994) at http://nias.ku.dk./ Nytt/Thematic/Orientalism/orientalism.html.
5. Thi Lam, "The Notion of "Asian Values Is A Myth" at http://www.viet.net/vietmag/507.
6. Akio Kawato, "Beyond the Myth of Asian Values," first published in Chuokoron, December 1995 at http://ifrm.glocom.jp/DOC.
7. Aristotle, Politics, 1252b.
8. Even the West is far from a monolith of liberal democracies. It might prove very interesting to compare "Western" countries such as Albania or Serbia with Malaysia or the Philippines.
9. Mary Midgley, Can't We Make Moral Judgments? (NY: St. Martin's Press, 1993), pp. 87-96. Many tend to forget that the U.S. has played an enormous role in shaping modern Japan. "The differences between Japan before and after 1945 are dramatic. In the years of occupation following the war, the U.S.A. refashioned all of Japan's political and social institutions. During the war, for example, Japan was dominated by the military caste. Afterwards, the U.S. written constitution officially defined Japan as a pacifist state." Daniel Nassim, "Shaming the Japanese," in Living Marxism, no. 81 (July/August 1995) at www.junius.co.uk/LM/LM81/LM81_Books.html.
10. Mary Midgley, Can't We Make Moral Judgments? (NY: St. Martin's Press, 1993), pp. 87-96. Many tend to forget that the U.S. has played an enormous role in shaping modern Japan. "The differences between Japan before and after 1945 are dramatic. In the years of occupation following the war, the U.S.A. refashioned all of Japan's political and social institutions. During the war, for example, Japan was dominated by the military caste. Afterwards, the U.S. written constitution officially defined Japan as a pacifist state." Daniel Nassim, "Shaming the Japanese," in Living Marxism, no. 81 (July/August 1995) at www.junius.co.uk/LM/LM81/LM81_Books.html.
11. Xiaorong Li, "'Asian Values' and the Universality of Human Rights," Report from the Institute for Philosophy and Public Policy, vol. 16, no. 2, Spring 1996 at http://www.puaf.umd.edu/ipp/.
12. Edward Said, Orientalism (London: Routledge, Kegan and Paul, 1978). See also Koichi Iwabuchi, "Complicit Exoticism: Japan and Its Other" in Continuum: The Australian Journal of Media & Culture, vol. 8, no. 2 (1994) at http://kali.murdoch.edu.au/ ~continuum/8.2/Iwabuchi.html.
13. Edward Said, Orientalism (London: Routledge, Kegan and Paul, 1978). See also Koichi Iwabuchi, "Complicit Exoticism: Japan and Its Other" in Continuum: The Australian Journal of Media & Culture, vol. 8, no. 2 (1994) at http://kali.murdoch.edu.au/ ~continuum/8.2/Iwabuchi.html.
14. Lindqvist ends his book as follows: "Anywhere in the world where there exists a deeply concealed knowledge which, if brought out into the open, would make us conscious, splinter our world view and force us to question ourselves, you find the Heart of Darkness." Lindqvist quoted in Stein Tonnesson, "Orientalism, Occidentalism, and Knowing About Others," in NIASnytt, no. 2 (April, 1994) at http://nias.ku.dk./Nytt/Thematic/Orientalism/ orientalism.html.
15. Amartya Sen suggests we think of Asian Values as whatever Asians would prefer if given the freedom to make their own choices. Sen quoted in Leslie Nurse, "Speaker Challenges Ideas of Asian Values" at http://www.cis.yale.edu/ydn/paper/9.28/9.28. 95storyno.E.A.html.
16. This claim is enshrined in the 1993 Bangkok Declaration.
17. Kawato, op. cit.
18. Shinji Fukukawa, Chairman and CEO of DIHS, questions whether it is possible for Asia to share values with Europe and the United States: "The Western concept of respecting the notions of the public and a framework of systems may not be compatible with Asian ways of thinking centered on blood relations and connections developed through local contacts or professional contacts, as well as the respect for harmony. There is sufficient reason to believe that this could develop into conflicts between Asia, on the one hand, and Europe and the United States. . . ." Shinji Fukukawa, "The Need for Analysis on Values and Characteristics Shared by Asians" at http://www.dihs.co.jp/ACTIVITY/2FUKUKAWA_ E.HTML. Fukukawa's claim is somewhat disingenuous given the huge amount of conflict already occurring within Asia. We are entitled to wonder about Asia's "respect for harmony" when we look at recent events. Even if some peoples of the East do share a high esteem for certain behaviors not considered especially praiseworthy in the West, major religious and economic differences contribute to substantial tensions in the Far East. One need only think of the border skirmishes involving North and South Korea, China's missile firings in the Taiwan strait and Taiwan's countering military maneuvers, the tension between Japan and South Korea regarding the Sea of Japan, the dispute between Thailand and Malaysia over fishing rights in the Gulf of Siam, and the ongoing war of words among China, Taiwan, Vietnam, and the Philippines concerning the oil-rich Spratly Islands.
19. Lam, op. cit. Fruin also refers to the "peril" posed by the Japanese and notes Americans' worries about Japanese economic strength. In 1990, up to 25% of Americans had unfriendly feelings toward the Japanese. W. Mark Fruin, The Japanese Enterprise System (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1994), p. 1.
20. Lam, op. cit. Fruin also refers to the "peril" posed by the Japanese and notes Americans' worries about Japanese economic strength. In 1990, up to 25% of Americans had unfriendly feelings toward the Japanese. W. Mark Fruin, The Japanese Enterprise System (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1994), p. 1.
21. Stein Tonnesson, "Do Human Rights and Asian Values Go Together?" in NIASnytt, no. 4 (December 1996) at http://nias.ku.dk/Nytt/Thematic/ human_rights/hasianvalk.html.
22. Kenneth Inada, "A Buddhist Response to the Nature of Human Rights," in Journal of Buddhist Ethics at http://www.gold.ac.uk/jbe/2/inada.1.html.
23. Rebecca Redwood French, The Golden Yoke: The Legal Cosmology of Buddhist Tibet (Ithaca, NY: Cornell University Press, 1995), pp. 318-319.
24. Huang Quanyu, Richard S. Andrulis, and Chen Tong, A Guide to Successful Business Relations with the Chinese (NY: The Haworth Press, 1994), pp. 119-120.
25. Carl Sewell and Paul B. Brown, Customers for Life: How to Turn That One-Time Buyer into a Lifetime Customer (NY: Doubleday Currency, 1990.
26. Boye Lafayette De Mente, How to Do Business with the Japanese (Lincolnwood, IL: NTC Publishing, 1994), p. 211.
27. Mente, p. 217.
28. Diana Rowland, Japanese Business Etiquette (NY: Warner Books, 1995), p. 112.
29. Chin-ning Chu, The Asian Mind Game (NY: Rawson Associates, 199), p. 156.
30. Mente, p. 170.