Reflection of Passion

During the '30s and '40s, the Japanese army often used a form of discipline called binta, usually a slap or punch in the face. Discarded after the war, the practice has suddenly reappeared in Japanese business as a way of toughening new employees.

At a training center near Mount Fuji last March, 84 recruits to Tokyo's Mitsumi Electric Co. were told to administer binta to one another. All obliged. Two of the men got an extra dose from a Mitsumi superior for dozing during a late-night meeting. When one of the two unions at Mitsumi broke the news last month, the incident attracted considerable criticism, but the company remained placid. One Mitsumi executive said the mass binta was "a gesture for reaffirming friendship." Another said it was "regrettable, but it was, after all, a reflection of passion.'

Forced Marches. Still, the Japanese Bar Association is investigating the incident, and the press has run many analyses of the meaning of it all. One explanation: with the postwar rise of individualism in Japan and the more recent decline of the economy, many corporations are leaning toward stern training measures for new employees. Says Hiromasa Ezoe, president of Tokyo's Japan Recruit Center: "The driving need for our businessmen is to beat their recruits into high-performance workers as fast as possible." Hundreds of corporations now send new employees to Defense Forces barracks for a few days of drill, and one chemical company recently forced recruits to march 15 miles over mountainous terrain. After that, work seems easy.

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