I’m Bill Tsutsui with another Postcard from Asia from the Center for East Asian Studies
Back in the days of Japan’s high-growth economy, salarymen across the country raised their voices in song: company song, that is. The equivalent of the university fight song, the Japanese company song embodied corporate values and was designed to instill shafu, company spirit, in employees. Japan’s economic bust of the early 1990s brought a decline in workplace warbling but now, as the nation shows signs of recovery, the company song is making a comeback. Japan’s largest retailer, Ito Yokado, for example, has its new recruits singing “Flap your wings, carry hope on your shoulders…hand-in-hand, Ito Yokado people will make a rainbow across the world.” I can feel my shafu rising already. How about you?
With thanks to John Schneiderwind for this text, from the Center for East Asian Studies, I’m Bill Tsutsui. Wish you were here.
