The Development of Depreciation
Accounting and Straggle for Survival;
A Case of the Onoda Cement Co., Ltd
Seiji Fujitsu
Onoda Cement Co., Ltd., one of private enterprises that adopted Factory
System at the earliest time of Meiji
in 1899 when they, for the first time, counted the depreciation cost for
their fixed capital, although it was not for all of their machinery.
In 1904, they counted the depreciaton cost for all of their fixed capital.
This could be said as the first year when they calculated the profit in
its current concept and made up themselves as a modern private company.
This paper deals with their trial-and-error practices for depreciation
accounting and its relations to their struggle for survival as a private
company.
A Historical Survey to the Ethic
of Social Responsibility among
American Businessmen
Junjiro Amakawa
Although the idea of social responsibility has its origin in the Puritan-
ethic of "stewardship", it was "the Gospel of Wealth" by Andrew Carnegie
which made it popular among American businessmen. When A. A. Berle
admitted the corporation as a "conscience-carrier of 20th-century American
society, he could be called as an advocate of "Stewardship of puritanism".
But the other important factors actualized the development of social
responsibility. These were problems of labor relations, the emergence of
big business, the rise of professional managers, the idea of mass-production
and mass-consumption, problems of comunity relations, etc. Depending OIL
the comparative importance among these factors, managers of big corpora-
tions emphasized, as their responsible conducts, the high-wage and welfare
policy in the 1910's, "service for buyers" in the 1920's, and cordination
among many interest groups in the 1930's. Since the middle of this century,
however, the responsibility to the general public has been most concerned.
about by the American professional managers.
The Technological Innovations
of the Boston Manufacturing Company
Kishichi Watanabe
The basic features of the Boston Manufacturing Company, the originator
of the "Waltham Type" of cotton manufacture, were as follows: (a) the
first large integrated production system from raw cotton to cotton cloth,
established on power loom; (b) the large amount of capital, raised by a
wealthy
systematic administrative organization, especially a vertical organization
in management; (d) a well organized labor policy, a direct marketing
policy, and a new factory accountng system.
This article is primarily concerned with the technolological innovation
at the initial stage of the company: what kind of technological innovation
the company carried out; who did it and how; what was its result in
terms of output of cloth ; how much productivity increased; what was the
relationship between the strategy for the production method and marketing
policy; etc.
AN ASPECT OF FORD MOTOR COMPANY:
BUSINESS IDEOLOGY, MANAGEMENT
ORGANIZATION AND MASS-PRODUCTION SYSTM
Koichi Shimokawa
When Henry Ford was building up his famous management and production
system for model T, he was also shaping his unique business ideology
which 4s known as Fordism. This paper tries to examine the nature of his
ideology, and its relations with the management organization of the Ford
Motor Company.
Although he advocated "service" as a business objective rather than
"profit", he actively engaged in profit making as far as it was earned
through production. He accused bank-capitalists and inactive stockholders
of carrying away a part of profit which should be retained for the re-
duction of production cost. Cost reduction could lead to the low price
and high wage which would favor customers and laborers.
Fordism as a business ideology could not help having an effect on the
history of the Company. Henry Ford emphasized the importance of the
mechanical aspect too much and did not applied his Ford System to the
management organization as a whole. According to P.F.Drucker, the decline
and confusion of the Company during 1930's might be caused by his failure
to recognize the importance of the management organization. This paper
also analizes the conflict between ideology and organization during reor-
ganizing process of 1940's.
THE RISE AND DEVELOPMENT
OF MODERN ENGINEERS IN
Tokyo Institute of Technology
Ryoichi lwauchi
It is sometimes argued that the rapid industrialization in
much to the development of modern engineers which was attained by the
introduction of western-type educational system into theearlystageafter
Meiji Restoration. However, we have very few researches which support
this argument with detailed data and an adequate framework to explain.
the relationship between economic development and educational system.
This paper tries to explore the rise and development of modern engineers
during the period from 1870's to 1920's, basing on the data of the "Survey
of the Graduate from Eighteen Techinical Colleges", which contains about
10,000 cases and shows their occupational careers and geographical mobility.
This paper adopts the framework of "flow approach" of technical man-
power. This is a comprehensive approach which is comprised of five levels:
the policy making, the development of educational agents, recruitment to
employment market, .utilization in industry and government, and geogra-
phical mobility.