This document discusses key aspects of Shintoism and how its values and customs influence business ethics in Japan. It covers 12 main points: (1) the natural order and focus on sincerity, honesty and purity, (2) the importance of purification rituals, (3) the belief that everything has a soul, (4) the emphasis on groups over individuals, (5) the four circles of business relationships based on closeness, (6) balancing debts and benefits, (7) the highly contextual culture, (8) importance of face-saving, (9) different perceptions of work and importance of company over job, (10) the hierarchical and seniority-based concept of authority, (11) the non-

2. Prepared by group 4

3. OBJECTIVES:
• To provide information about Shintoism and its
values, practices, customs and traditions.
• To understand how these customs are used in
ethics of business.
• To be able to compare the difference of
Shintoism’s customs from other religions in
connection to business.

4. • Shinto- way of the gods.
• “Shin” – spirit
• “To” – a philosophical path or study
• Japanese “kami-no-michi”
• Establish connection from present-day
Japan to ancient past.

5. • Kami- divinity, gods, or sacred essence
that manifests rocks, trees, rivers,
animals, places, and even people.
• Kami and people exists within the
same world.
• Shinto- the largest religion in
Japan, having 80% of the population.

6. • In the late 6th century AD the name
Shinto was created for the native religion
to distinguish it from Buddhism and
Confucianism, which had been introduced
from China.

7. 1. THE NATURAL ORDER
2. IMPURITY
3. PURIFICATION

8. 4. EVERYTHING HAS A SOUL
5. SUPERIORITY OF GROUPS
6. FOUR CIRCLES OF BUSINESS
RELATIONSHIPS
7. BALANCING DEBT AND
BENEFITS

9. 8. HIGHLY CONTEXTUAL
CULTURE
9. FACE-SAVING
10. PERCEPTION OF WORK

10. 11. CONCEPT OF AUTHORITY
12. NON-VERBAL
BEHAVIOR

11. 1. THE NATURAL ORDER

12. • Kannagara- the law of the natural order
• Knows the divine, human, and how people
should live.
• Shinto- focuses on sincerity,
honesty, and purity.
• Kannagara “great mind”

13. 2. IMPURITY

14. • One should want to be cleansed for peace
of mind and good fortune rather than
because impurity is wrong.
• Wrong deeds are impurity, as
opposed to purity.
• Dead people without sacrifice will
become evil while proper sacrifice
will purify the dead.

15. 3. PURIFICATION

16. • Purification- is important and is done daily, weekly,
seasonal, lunar and annual basis.
• These rituals are the lifeblood of Shintoism.
• New buildings are blessed by Shinto
priests, including cars and
businesses.
• There is also re-purify.

17. 4. EVERYTHING HAS A SOUL

18. • Confucianism, Shintoism and Buddhism believes
that everything has its own soul.
• Soul- “numen”
• Combination of numen – the great life force of
the universe.
• Meaning of work for them
becomes unique because of valuing
an object.

19. • Work is understood to be a self-expression of the
great life force.
• Japanese try to unify themselves with the great life
force by concentrating on their own work.

20. 5. SUPERIORITY OF GROUPS

21. • Emphasis on groups.
• Group is considered to be superior to its ordinary
members.
• Members are not connected. They must join
activities to be able to connect with the force.

22. 6. FOUR CIRCLES OF BUSINESS
RELATIONSHIPS

23. • Japan has four concentric rings that encompasses
groups.
• These are: family, fellows, Japan, and the world.
• Used in business to delineate the nature of their
business dealings.

24. • First circle (family)- closely-related business
partners.
• Second circle (fellows)- cross-share holding
corporations, steady customers, banks and fellow
traders.
• Third circle (Japan)- competitors,
unrelated corporations, ordinary
stockholders

25. • Fourth circle (World)- competitors around the
world

26. 7. BALANCING DEBT AND
BENEFITS

27. • The problem in opening a Japanese market is the
way to let newcomers know what the rules are and
how the Japanese business community applies the
rules in balancing debts and benefits.
• Western firms have to understand
Japanese tenets of fairness.

28. • In order for the Western to adapt to Japanese
ethics, they have to remove obstacles to entry, alter
their group-centered climate to a democratic one
and create open access channels.

29. • Eastern religions on which the ethics are ultimately
based are thousand of years older than Christianity.

30. 8. HIGHLY CONTEXTUAL
CULTURE

31. • Japan is considered as a high context culture.
• Japanese are as likely to read the context
surrounding what is said as they are to rely on the
words spoken.
• For many Japanese, what is actually
said is not necessarily the entire
message.

32. 9. FACE-SAVING

33. • Kao- “face”
• Kao is a central component in the Japanese work
place.
• Japanese try to avoid smearing dirt on one another’s
face as it is difficult to recover from humiliation.

34. • While people from other cultures place
importance on maintaining their good name,
Japanese maintain protection of face from public
shaming or humiliation.
• Many Japanese find that a conflict
exists between their real intention
and the official position that they
feel obligated to hold publicly.

35. 10. PERCEPTION OF WORK

36. • General perception of the workplace differs
fundamentally between Japan and the West.
• In Americas and Europe, workers tend to give
emphasis on working as a certain worker of a job.
• Thus, Western people view
themselves as people with a
particular set of job skills.

37. • In Japan, the company name is more important
than the job title.
• The community they belonged to is much more
important than what they do.

38. 11. CONCEPT OF AUTHORITY

39. • Traditional workplace is highly structured and
hierarchical.
• Shintoists are conscious of rank and status within
their organization.
• Seniority is closely tied to rank in
Japan, so age and rank are also
positively correlated.

40. • Rank is reflected in the formalized etiquette used
by most Japanese in their workplace.
• Rank is especially apparent in the nature of the
type of language used to differentiate between
superiors and subordinates.
• People of higher rank are addressed
by their rank and name.

41. 12. NON-VERBAL
BEHAVIOR

42. A. HANDSHAKE
• Japanese nonverbal behavior is generally fairly
reserved. Rapid and frequent hand
movements are distracting for them.
• Handshake- a Western custom.
• Thus, Japanese make handshakes
firm
• Lose handshake may mean insincere

43. A. BOWING
• Japanese greet themselves by bowing rather
than handshake.
• Sign of forgiveness and thanks.
• The more a person bows, the more
respect he is showing.
• Similarly, when going out with
colleagues, members should pour
drinks to their superior.

44. A. EYE CONTACT
• Japanese lower their eyes to show respect.
• Younger people lower their eyes to people
older than them.
• In America, lowering eyes can mean
dishonesty, and direct eye contact is
otherwise a sign of respect.