UC Berkeley

The coronavirus and the subsequent COVID-19 pandemic has brought about unprecedented changes throughout the world. The focus of this research is analyzing how the COVID-19 pandemic has affected corporations in Japan and how that has reflected on current shifts in management styles. When COVID-19 hit Japan in March 2020, the Japanese workforce moved online to telework and had to adapt to the new reality of motivating a remote workforce and dealing with new hurdles. This research seeks to highlight not only the challenges that Japanese corporations and the employees of such corporations have had to face, but also the catalytic nature that the pandemic has created when it comes to transforming the Japanese corporate culture.