日本企业理念与日本宗教伦理——以近世住友家法为中心

The Enterprising Idea and the Religious Ethics of Japan

日本企业中的"终身雇用制"、"年功序列制"、"劳动组合"是日式企业的三大支柱,这一提法是詹姆斯·阿贝格兰在上世纪中期,对日本企业进行调查后,在《日本式经营》一书中率先提出来的。半个世纪后,阿贝格兰进一步强调,美国企业很明显的是"营利性企业"。相对于此,"日本企业并不是单纯以替股东和经营者创造利益为目的而存在的经营组织。……企业是全体员工的生命共同体"。显然资本主义经济实体的企业是在两种不同的理念下运营的。本文不打算讨论日本式企业具体的运营和管理模式,而是从前近代住友家法入手,讨论欧美以外日式企业存续的理念及支撑这一理念的文化理据,并探寻日本本土原始宗教与佛教文化交汇融合后的宗教伦理的内涵及影响。这一讨论对于认识不同理念下的资本主义、认识孕育日式资本主义企业运营背后深层次的文化提供另一种思考。

'Lifetime employment','annual merit ranking order'and'labor association'(an equivalent of the trade union)are the three supporting pillars of Japanese enterprises — a point first put forward by James C.Abegglen in the middle of the last century in his book,The Japanese Factory,after he researched some Japanese enterprises. Half a century later,Abegglen further emphasized that American enterprises were'profit-oriented'whereas Japanese enterprises were more focused on the survival of the whole working staff as a life community.Obviously,enterprises as capitalist economic entities are being run under two different ideas. Instead of going into the specific operation and management mode of the Japanese enterprises,this paper takes Sumitomo's Family Code of Ethics as an example to explore the ideas that sustain non-western,Japanese enterprises and their cultural underpinnings. In particular,attention is paid to the content and impact of the religious ethics which has blended aboriginal religion with imported Buddhism. It is hoped that some insight into the deeper cultural structure of the ideas that have given birth to Japanese-styled enterprises may be gained.