The Genesis of Keiei Jinruigakuat the National Museum of Ethnology in Japan

Abstract

This article aims to discuss the origin and development of Keiei Jinruigaku (anthropology of administration/management) in Japan, with a special focus on the joint research group, that belongs to the National Museum of Ethnology, in Osaka, since 1993. It is not merely a branch of anthropology but an amalgam of business administration and anthropology. Major targets of research of this group were company museum, company funeral, company mythology and company culture as well as a management philosophy. The total publication surpasses 25 volumes, including English and Chinese, other than Japanese versions. The International Forum on Business and Anthropology (IFBA) which was organized by this group in 2010 is also referred. As the first Japanese textbook on Keiei Jinruigaku was published in 2019, a summary of its content is described chapter by chapter. Lastly, I would like to mention that the bulk of this article was presented in the 7th and 8th International Conferences on Business Anthropology (ICBA), which were held in Yinchuan, China in 2018 and in Kunming, China in 2019, respectively.