Case Details
Global Social Responsibility: Japan's Pasona Revitalizes Awaji Island
This case features Nambu Yasuyuki, the Founder and CEO of Japan’s Pasona Group, which has in recent years placed the revitalization of Awaji Island at the heart of its corporate agenda. Since founding Pasona in 1976, Nambu has led Pasona to become one of Asia’s leading human resources companies, achieving 3.35 trillion yen (USD 21.8 billion) in net sales and employing over 21,000 people. Pasona is a publicly listed firm (TYO: 2168) with 62 group companies, offering recruitment, outsourcing, and temporary staffing services both within Japan and globally through its overseas offices.
As a Japanese entrepreneur with a heart for global engagement and collaboration, Nambu’s vision is to develop Awaji Island, the largest island in the Seto Inland Sea in the Hyogo Prefecture, into the world’s “best well-being island.” The goal is to make Awaji Island a beacon of peace and tranquillity amidst an increasingly complex geopolitical landscape. Not only did Nambu relocate Pasona’s corporate headquarters to Awaji Island. Nambu also introduced initiatives that leveraged Japan’s global soft power, attracted young talents from all over the world, embraced international arts and culture, and resulted in partnerships with universities and international organizations. The question for Nambu moving forward was how he could continue to achieve his global vision through commitment to his employees, responsibility to society, as well as long-term value creation that is characteristic of stakeholder capitalism.
Learning Objective:
1. Describe why the overconcentration of economic activity in Tokyo and the declining and ageing population in rural areas are major social and economic issues in Japan.
2. Analyse how corporate initiatives in rural revitalization fit into the framework of Carroll’s “pyramid of corporate social responsibility (CSR).”
3. Draw on the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (UNSDGs) to examine how a company can contribute toward sustainable development.
4. Compare and contrast “stakeholder capitalism,” a concept that Klaus Schwab, Founder of the World Economic Forum, has written about, with “shareholder capitalism,” as proposed by American economist Milton Friedman.
5. Examine what scholars of corporate and public diplomacy have called the “Japanese mindset” of Japanese companies, where the founder, employees, and shareholders ensure that “helping Japan” remains a strategic objective regardless of profits.