Abegglen revisited Japan in 1955 as a researcher of the Ford Foundation, to study Japanese industrial organization and personnel practices which led to the publication of his work The Japanese Factory. He served successively as professor and director of the Graduate School of Comparative Culture at Sophia University, chairperson of Asia Advisory Service K.K., and dean emeritus of Globis University in 2006. He taught "Management of Japanese Enterprises" at that school until his death from cancer on May 2, 2007.[citation needed]
Work
Abegglen's academic interests centered on Japanese enterprises and economic systems and their priority to western capitalism.[citation needed]
The Japanese Factory
The Japanese Factory, published in 1958, pointed out the following features of employment and the strength of their mechanism in Japanese corporations:
Lifetime employment: Employment extends over the whole working life of the employee
Seniority-based wages: Compensation is determined by the number of years of employment in the company
Periodic hiring: Employing young people fresh out of school
In-company training: Employing workers based on personal qualities rather than job suitability, providing on-the-job training after hire
Enterprise union: one labour union for each enterprise
Publications
Abegglen authored and co-authored ten books on Japan. A selection:
The Japanese Factory (1958)
Big Business in America (1955)
Kaisha, the Japanese Corporation (1985)
Sea Change: Pacific Asia as the New World Industrial Center (Free Press: 1994)
21st Century Japanese Management: New Systems, Lasting Values (Palgrave Macmillan: 2006)
Personal life
Abegglen lived permanently in Japan with his Japanese wife after 1982 and took Japanese nationality in 1997. He died of cancer on May 2, 2007, aged 81, in Tokyo, Japan.
