The past and future contributions of research on Japanese management

Publications on Japanese business have decreased as Japan continued to experience slow economic growth and fell behind other countries in competitiveness. While implementation of “Abenomics” policies has resulted in some encouraging economic growth, Japan faces additional challenges stemming from demographic change and globalization. These environmental trends along with technological change including digitalization and artificial intelligence appear likely to transform Japanese business and Japanese managerial practice as we know them, presenting new opportunities to learn from Japan. In this special issue, we reflect on the impact of past research on Japanese management, present several studies with implications about how Japanese business is changing, and pose questions for future research.