Human Resource Management in Japan: An Introduction

Born in Osaka, Japan, he graduated from the Faculty of Business Administration, Kobe University in March 1989, completed the Master’s course in the Graduate School of Business Administration, Kobe University in March 1991, withdrew from the Graduate School of Business Administration, Kobe University in July 1992, and became an assistant professor at the Faculty of Business Administration, Kobe University. From October 1996 to September 1999, he studied at the University of Warwick in the UK, where he was a member of the Doctral Programme. He has held positions such as Chairperson of Committee 108 of the Research Committee on Industry-Academia Cooperation of the Japan Society for the Promotion of Science (JSPS), Oct 2014-Sep 2020, Member of the 23-24th term of the Science Council of Japan (SCJ), Apr 2018-Mar 2020, Dean of the Graduate School of Management, Kobe University, Apr 2021- President of the Council of Management Related Academic Societies.

In academic societies, he is active mainly in the Japan Academy of Business Administration, Japan Society of Labour Relations, Japan Society of Organisational Science, Japan Society for the History of Business Administration, Japan Society for Information Management, Entrepreneurial Research Forum, etc. He was President of the Japan Society of Business Administration from September 2019 to September 2022, and Representative Director and President of the Japan Society of Labour Relations from June 2014 to July 2018. Since April 2023, he has been head of the Human Capital Management Reserach and Education Center within the Graduate School of Business Admnistration, Kobe University.

His major is business administration, particularly management organisation theory and human resource management theory. His research interests to date include the impact of ICT (Information and Communications Technologies) on organisations and labour, and the transition of Japanese management and Japanese corporate society in the context of globalisation. In particular, he has analysed the weakening of the sense of community that has accompanied the penetration of global market-orientation, focusing on changes in the human resource development system, etc. In recent years, he has been interested in such themes as organisational and human resource trends in post-working style reform, the adverse effects of the supremacy of indicators in Japanese corporate society and how to overcome them, measures to strengthen organisational collaboration, the SDGs and sustainable management, measures to improve job satisfaction and motivation, and methods to develop ＂thinking people＂ and ＂creative human resources＂. His underlying interest, which is consistent across a wide range of themes, is to think deeply about what it means to be human, what happiness is, and how personal happiness and social good can be combined.