Philosophical and Culturological Foundations of Japanese Corporate Culture: A Conceptual Analysis of Ringi-Seido and Nemawashi Practices

In light of Japan’s predicted cultural, demographic and economic crisis, researches, aimed at identifying the root causes of this phenomenon by examining the country’s controversial successes and failures in the 20th century, are gaining traction. This article investigates the philosophical foundations of key Japanese management practices, specifically the formalized decision-making procedure ringi-seido and the informal groundwork nemawashi, in search of connections to problems within the cultural aspect of the Japanese economic system. Employing an interdisciplinary approach, combining culturology and philosophy, the study examines the cultural codes and concepts of East Asian thought, including the Confucian ritual li (礼), Tetsuro Watsuji’s ethics betweenness aidagara (間柄) and Kitaro Nishida’s topology basho (場所). Correlating these practices with philosophical concepts will demonstrate their embeddedness within the cultural logic of Japanese society and elucidate both their anthropological nature and their functional effects, ranging from the maintenance of social harmony to the formation of sustainable models of corporate interaction.