Strategic Sustainability Report: Australian Company Expanding to Japan

This report examines sustainability issues in Japan and provides guidance for an Australian company, Swap Corporation Ltd., considering expansion into the Japanese market. It highlights environmental concerns such as waste management, nuclear disasters, and river flooding, and emphasizes the importance of understanding Japanese business customs, culture, political landscape, and legal obligations, including contract and labor laws. The report also touches upon Japan's economic factors, such as GDP growth, inflation, and trade, to offer a comprehensive overview for strategic decision-making. Desklib provides students with access to this and other solved assignments.

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Contents
Introduction...........................................................................................................................................2
Sustainability issues in Japan.................................................................................................................2
Factors affecting the decisions of Australian company while entering into Japan................................4
Conclusion.............................................................................................................................................9
References...........................................................................................................................................11

Introduction
The report brings out a sustainability issue in Japan and how swap corporation ltd., which is
an Australian company, will handle the sustainability issues if it expands in Japan. What an
Australian company has to learn before entering Japan for expansion. When looking at the
history of the country, Japan, it is seen that the country has been suffering from Air pollution,
water pollution, and soil contamination (Terao, and Otsuka, eds., 2016). When compared to
early times, Japan has become cleaner and more responsible in avoiding the environmental
issues but even after formation of policies Japan’s business, industrial and agricultural
activities contribute to number of environmental issues that do not allow Japan to maintain its
sustainability. The report brings out several environmental sustainable issues such as natural
nuclear disasters, river flooding and improper management of waste (Smith, 2018). Further, it
brings a discussion on certain business customs that generally are followed by every business
and these are also marked as business etiquettes. Every country has different business
etiquettes, at one place, it can be considered as influencing and graceful whereas at the other
place, it can be considered as disrespectful. Moving into more depth in the report, it discusses
the political situations of Japan to show whether it will support an Australian venture or it
will unnecessarily get stuck in legal obligations. The social conditions of Japan tell about
what culture and language they follow. Legal obligation necessitates the following of certain
laws such as contract law and labour contract act. At last it highlights the economic
conditions of the country (Sustainability JFS, 2014).
Sustainability issues in Japan
From the sustainability reports of the country, it can be seen that country`s business,
industrial and agricultural activities face a wide range of environmental issues. One of the
biggest environmental issues is management of waste, which is resulted from huge amount of
trash. Due to small size of islands and lack of spaces, it becomes impossible to accommodate

the trash production (Sustainability JFS, 2014). The municipal corporations of Japan burns
huge amount of trash. The issues related to air pollution forced the government authority to
adopt aggressive recycling policies. Application and implementation of strict management
regulations and policies by the Japanese government has enforced the residential population
to get an idea to how they can dispose the trash. For instance- small Japanese town named
“kamikatsu” has devised to get a production of zero waste by 2020 (Smith, 2018). The people
in this small town have developed systematic method of recycling the waste up to 80 percent.
Another environmental issue in Japan is to deal with aftermath of nuclear plant disaster in
2013 (Smith, 2018). In the same year, the radioactive water was leaking from the plant
directly into the Pacific Ocean. The related reports reveal that high level of radioactive
particles that is extremely dangerous were found near the nuclear reactors. This nuclear plant
disaster led to serious air pollution that started in the latter half of the 20th century. Aggressive
governmental policies allowed the citizens to be designated and treated by WHO (world
health organisation) to renew or purify the air in those cities (Sustainability JFS, 2014).
Other related environmental issues emerge due to extreme rainfall in Japan. The average
frequency of mudslides caused due to extreme rainfall has been increasing. Japanese
government decided to project 4.4 times rise in the probability of river flooding at the end of
the century. The country has already faced a toiled increase in death frequency due to severe
river flooding (Smith, 2018). In the sustainable report in 2010, OCED has strived to make
necessary environmental progress with the help of series of aggressive policies. This has been
reflected through reduced emission of poisoning gases, municipal waste generation, and
water usage. The reports have revealed that Japan has made conscious efforts to ignore
strictly ecological model for sustainable development to encompass the approach that
focussed on finding the connections that exist between economic growth, social values, and
ecological protection (Strupeit, and Palm, 2016).

Factors affecting the decisions of Australian company
while entering into Japan
Business customs
Business customs differs in every country. For instance in Japan, in business
mentality, connections are useful but choosing the contacts carefully is important.
Japanese businessperson want their people to learn as much as they can especially in
regards to professional qualifications and background. Business customs in Japan
prefer verbal agreements rather than the written ones and should not be at all
pressured to sign a particular document (Digitaljournal.com, 2019). It encourages to
remain cooperative at all stages. Individualism is not encouraged; decisions are
mostly formed within the group. Foreigners must get acceptance from the whole
group before they actually are influenced in a decision-making process. Due to
contemporary competition in Asia, the previous concept of unhurried Japanese
negotiation process do not exist anymore and is not at all applicable. It also includes
the inquiring about the individual`s family, uses apologies conversation in order to
express gratitude as it is considered as polite conversation in Japan
(Digitaljournal.com, 2019).
Culture-
Culture mostly includes the family factors, religion, education, healthcare system
and language. Many Japanese people do not identify and call them as a ardent
follower of any one religion. The believe system of the people is formed on the basis
of incorporated elements of different religion (Ohira et al., 2017). Therefore, being a
Australian company who is deciding to enter into Japan market in order to expand
then the company has to form such strategies that can serve the people of various
religions (Tansakul, Suanmali, and Shirahada, 2018). Apart from this, it is important
for an Australian company to discover each business etiquette that Japan follows

such as they say silence is golden which is linked to credibility as silence empowers
loudly about wisdom and self-control. People generally follow a more introvert and
formal approach, especially when it is concerned with forming business
relationships. For example- at times, in order to release stress in the business
meeting, people resorts to silence so that they can move away from the area of
difficulty. Another believe system in Japan says that group solidarity is paramount.
It implies that a single arrow can be easily broken whereas, a bundle of ten can not
be (Tansakul, Suanmali, and Shirahada, 2018). Although, the culture values are
valued even if when a individual wants to achieve its own recognition and individual
appraisal but the group concept is also true in Japan. Australian company “swap
corporation ltd.” strive to give group credits and team concept is more important
(Heidenheimer, 2018). The business culture marks that treat the old executives with
a more remarkable deference as compared to which they do for younger ones while
interacting. For example- be very sure to greet the elder and senior person before
you treat anyone else in the group. Therefore, while understanding the business
customs, Australian company can conduct a session of training and learning centre
that will enable the employees, learn them, and offer the business card to a senior
one first.
Political factors
The political factors in both Japan and Australia are just opposite. Although the
emperor holds the resources but he has minimal power of the state. The population
and public elect the parliament (Chapman, and Itaoka, 2018). The country has been
maintaining a good business and non-business relation to all the countries either
small or big. The country also maintains a good trading and corporate relation with
other more countries (Terao, and Otsuka, 2016). As far the political environment is

concerned, Japan functions through liberal democratic party whom landslide victory
in 2012 elections and operate through two-thirds in the House of Representatives
(Digitaljournal.com, 2019). The government has huge power and it is stable too.
Other political factors include taxation policy, environmental law, labour law,
tariffs, trade restrictions, and the political stability (Ward, and Rustow, 2015).
Recently it is being reported that Japan has territorial disputes with Russia in regards
to kuril islands. This dispute is in the part of control of marine and several natural
resources such as possible reserves and natural gases. Apart from all these factors,
the Australian company has to understand the official language and more than 99
percent of population speaks Japanese as their crucial language (Digitaljournal.com,
2019).
Legal factors
As due to environmental scandal prone, the country has strict healthcare policies
made by government. It includes screening, infection disease, prenatal care where
patient is responsible only for paying 30 percent of amount and rest of amount is
paid by government. In order to provide a equality and easy access to certain
insurance policies, government has created a separate committee and provided them
with certain personal medical services. Moreover, the modernisation of corporate
law is based on corporation code, which was implemented in 2006 (Kuno, and
Kimura, 2017). Under the Japan`s law, the country different basic types of
companies such as Anglo-American corporations, limited liability company of
America, limited partnership of Anglo-American, and general partnership of Anglo-
American and limited liability partnerships (Cornelissen, and Mine, 2018). The
Australian company can opt laws of limited liability partnership where it will be safe
too. The trademark law of Japan’s act, 1959. Under this law, organisations who are

registered establishes a trademark right. Moreover, examination procedures are to be
registered. Organisations who claim its trademark on urgent basis and register firstly
get the opportunity on prior basis (Cornelissen, and Mine, 2018).
Another similar law undertaken by Japan government in order to protect the interest
of labours is Labour law. Labour Law of Japan is a system that lay down some
necessary conditions of employment agreement and supplementary rules that are
provided to an employee such as minimum wage law describes that the actual
amount should be at least based on local cost of living and this varies from place to
place (Kuno, and Kimura, 2017). Other consideration, which this law undertake is
the working hours. This law reveals that maximum full-timing working hours are
eight hours per day or 40 hours per week. Apart from this, if an employee works for
six to eight hours in a day, they should get 45 minutes break and if the employees
works for eight hours then they are entitled to one-hour break. This labour act
standard prescribes the minimum period of annual leaves which are paid and it is
based on employee`s seniority (Kuno, and Kimura, 2017). The law also provides
several form of unpaid leave such as maternity leave, family care leave, childcare
leave, and nursing leave. This law also states that there should be any discrimination
based on gender. This law prohibits national, ethnic, religious discrimination among
the employees in regards to working conditions (Heidenheimer, 2018).
Another laws related to business operation that every organisation needs to follow if
it works in the boundary of Japan. Consumer contract Act, 2000 that was enacted in
1999. This law ensures that no unfair consumer contract should be conducted in any
organisation. Apart from this, the law ensures that the company do not uses unfair
commercial practices, and misleading and aggressive conduct (Heidenheimer,
2018). Economic factors-

Japan’s economy is world`s third strongest after US and china. Even after so many
environmental confronts, the GDP growth has a rate of 0.4 percent. The inflation
rate is estimated at 1.3 percent and population, which are still below poverty line, is
13.5 percent with a unemployment rate of 5.6 percent. While calculating company
foreign exchange transactions, imports of the country are more than exports
(Lockwood, 2015). While looking at the history of economic conditions of japan,
the country has suffered a lot. Japan have strived to grow in 1960s and 1970s by
manufacturing steel, chemicals, automobiles, shipbuilding, and electronics.
Moreover, monetary easing has increased the prices of goods that has spurred the
customers to stop saving money. Fiscal policy has increased the government
consumption. By lowering the corporation tax, the labour participation of women
has been increased (Yang, and Chen, 2016). By the end 1970, Japan began to turn
towards more service –oriented business options such as retailing, real state,
transportation, finance, and communication. Therefore, but again Japan`s currency
lost much of its value in and after the world war-II. Japan again regain its value after
Plaza accord was signed which states than Japan`s yen is highly undervalued. After
Japan’s long-post war and a economic expansion, Japan has faced recession in 2008
(Yang, and Chen, 2016). Deflation in Japan was due to high unemployment rate that
resulted into low GDP rate. The level of unemployment has been increasing. This
might be occurring due to seniority-order wage system or life-time employment
customs have been collapsing. This unique life-time delegation of employment
custom meant that a person joins the company and work with them for rest of their
lives and ultimately they are uplifted to a certain to-level management level
according to seniority and their experience (Teshirogi, Fujioka, and Iida, 2015). This
process of training ac particular person for longer period and finally delegating

power to him at the top level management led to faster economic growth from full
employment, knowledge for the job as well as the experience. This lead to positive
and rapid economic changes (Sato, Watanabe, Sasaki, Yamazaki, and Yamada,
2016). Apart from this, Japanese government has taken some initiatives that laid
down a conservative policies as many organisations have introduced the concept of
related wage system another develop countries. Australian company “swap
corporation ltd” will have to give employment to Japan’s local population under
wage related system. This may reduce the cost of Australian company as if it bring
its employees from their home country; the company will have to pay transportation
cost too (Nadtochy et al., 2016). Whereas, sourcing employees from Japan will help
in GDP growth due to increased purchasing power and it will be availed at low cost
(Strupeit, and Palm, 2016). The company has to look for various economic policies
of the country and a unique report by lucintel that can provide them valuable
information, tools, insights to find and identify new growth opportunity and it
crucial features should can be used by Australian company while entering to Japan
(Lockwood, 2015). To take the decisions strategically, the company needs valuable
information, which is indispensable and involves core activities for multinational
material product, investors, manufacturer, executives, distributors, and suppliers
(Sato, Watanabe, Sasaki, Yamazaki, and Yamada, 2016).
Conclusion
From the above discussion, it can be concluded that Japan always remained a victim of
environmental issues. Therefore, a fictitious company named “swap corporation ltd.” from
Australia wants to expand its business operation in Japan. Before expanding, swap
corporation ltd. has to undertake some important topics to be considered such as political
conditions, economic conditions, business customs, social conditions, and legal condition of

the Japan. Swap corporation ltd. should choose to expand in Japan because it will get an
good, experienced, and qualified workforce (Katagiri, and Kim, 2018). Most importantly, age
is no barrier to work in Japan, people work even when they are sixty-five. Another benefit
that swap corporation ltd. can get if it expand in Japan is its technological assistance and
advancement. Moreover, Japan has become one of the frontier in industrial technology,
which means that prominent technology policy researchers pay more attention to Japan when
they want any technological assistance.

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