Sanji Muto

2019/03/27

Image: Sanji Muto (Courtesy of Kokumin Kaikan)

Sanji Muto entered the political world with the slogan "Political Reform" from the perspective of a businessman, unable to bear the corruption and depravity of party politics. However, real-world politics was preoccupied with seizing power without regard for the people, and was far removed from Muto's ideal of democracy. Feeling that his own activities as a member of the Diet were powerless to effect political reform, Muto decided to retire from politics in January 1932. Already 64 years old, Muto was thinking, "I want to spend the rest of my life quietly at home."

When Muto went to Tokyo, his seniors from Keio University—Wasaku Natori, Ikunoshin Kadono, and Momosuke Fukuzawa—visited him and brought up the matter of the Jiji Shimpo newspaper, whose management was failing and whose reconstruction was uncertain. "It would be a disservice to Yukichi Fukuzawa to let his legacy disappear. Won't you please take it over, Muto?" Muto was not only a first-rate manager of his time, but also had a background in the newspaper business and was a skilled writer. Above all, Muto loved justice and hated evil. It was the consensus of the public that if anyone could rebuild Jiji Shimpo, it was Muto. When the name of Yukichi Fukuzawa, whom he deeply admired, was brought up, Muto could not flatly refuse.

Muto was born on March 1, 1867. His father was Kunisaburo Sakuma and his mother was Tane. The Sakuma family was well-known for generations as wealthy farmers and village headmen in Heichi Village, Mino Province (now Kaizu City, Gifu Prefecture).

It was a natural progression for his father, Kunisaburo, an avid reader, to pick up Yukichi Fukuzawa's "Things Western (Seiyō Jijō)," which was highly acclaimed at the time. Hearing from his father that "Yukichi Fukuzawa's Juku has an Enzetsukan (Public Speaking Hall). You can practice public speaking there," Muto asked his father for permission to go to Tokyo and enter Fukuzawa's Juku.

Upon arriving in Tokyo, Muto entered Wada Juku (later the Yochisha Elementary School), which was for younger children within Keio University. Public speaking sessions were also held at Wada Juku, and Yukichi Fukuzawa attended them, telling the students things like, "Keep your body healthy and develop a fine physique so that you are fit for activity," and "Be kind and polite in your words and attitude." The stories he heard directly from Yukichi Fukuzawa moved Muto and left a deep impression on his heart.

Muto soon moved from Wada Juku to the main Juku, and began living in a dormitory called Dojoryo. Muto said, "I naturally came into contact with the great personality of Yukichi Fukuzawa and went out into the world under his influence," pointing out that this was significantly different from later students who only encountered Yukichi Fukuzawa through the written word.

In 1884, after graduating from the Juku, Muto traveled to San Francisco and followed the path of a working student, known as a "schoolboy," working while attending school. This included day labor such as wiping hotel windows and cleaning private homes. What Muto felt while working in American homes was that the attitude toward servants was kind, refined, and the language used was polite. This experience of being in a position of being employed himself led to his attitude toward employees when he managed companies. Subsequently, Muto attended school while serving meals to boarders at Pacific University.

Returning to Japan after three years, Muto came up with the idea of starting a newspaper advertising agency and a magazine production business. It was Japan's first advertising agency, operating out of a rented house in Ginza. The magazine, published under the name "Hakubun Zasshi," consisted of clippings from old newspapers and magazines with two or three original manuscripts added. After several jobs, Muto met with Hikojiro Nakamigawa, Yukichi Fukuzawa's nephew who was leading the reform of Mitsui. His abilities were recognized, and he joined Mitsui Bank in January 1893. Six months later, he was transferred to the Kobe branch, and in April of the following year, he was ordered to work at Kanegafuchi Spinning (Kanebo). At the time, the Japanese spinning industry was still in its infancy, and Kanebo was facing a recession and was on the verge of dissolution when it came under the umbrella of Mitsui Bank, with Nakamigawa entrusted with its management restructuring.

At that time, Kanebo had its first factory in Sumida, Tokyo, but it planned to export to Qing Dynasty (China), and a branch factory was to be built in Kobe. Muto was involved from the factory construction stage as the manager of the Hyogo factory. Eiji Asabuki, who was the executive director under President Nakamigawa at Kanebo, frequently visited the Kansai region and took Muto with him to greet spinning companies in Kansai. Asabuki repeatedly advised Muto, "The Hyogo factory must be as modest as possible. Keep the office simple." Muto learned the basics of management and the attitude of valuing employees from Nakamigawa and Asabuki, who could be called his senior disciples under Yukichi Fukuzawa.

Muto is said to have worked 365 days a year without a single day off for the first four or five years. From 8:00 in the morning until after 9:00 at night, wearing a suit with a torn seat sewn like a rag and an engineer's cap, he would go anywhere, even into the engine room. As a result, his hat was covered in oil. In that appearance, he ran around the office and the factory. Because Muto, the manager, worked harder than anyone else, his subordinates also worked without Sundays or holidays.

From the trial and error and various failures he experienced in the early days of the Hyogo factory, Muto realized that the secret of factory management was to spare no expense on repairs to ensure perfect maintenance and improvement of machinery, and to treat employees well and provide them with education so that they would naturally work willingly. Muto practiced "paternalistic" management, which became his management style, based on the belief that "treating workers well is the best investment." This later became the foundation for Muto's measures to promote the welfare of workers, such as creating a Kyosai Kumiai (Mutual Aid Association) system ahead of other companies and establishing vocational schools and sanatoriums. Furthermore, he published the magazine "Kanebo no Kiteki" (The Kanebo Whistle) for employees and "Joshi no Tomo" (Friend of Women) for female workers to keep employees widely informed about the company. Muto summarized that this management method of Kanebo was based on the family system and was aimed at being kind to employees as members of one family.

Muto, who rose to become the manager and then president of Kanegafuchi Spinning Co., Ltd., never neglected his research on spinning and never compromised on quality improvement. In this way, the management style of Kanebo, which grew into a major corporation boasting some of Japan's highest sales and total assets, characterized by "paternalism" and "familialism" that treated employees well, became a model for subsequent Japanese companies.

Behind the spinning industry that led Japan's exports from the Meiji era to the early Showa era, there is also the fact that it was achieved by using female workers from poor rural villages at extremely low wages. Even so, while Muto strictly demanded labor from his workers, he absolutely did not tolerate the inhumane acts of kicking and trampling on female workers that were seen in some spinning factories. Although some critics dismissed Muto's actions as hypocritical, Muto himself was dead serious about his paternalism.

A person in charge of workers at the time recalled Muto in his heyday as follows. While Muto was in a car heading toward the factory, he saw a girl walking barefoot with a clog that had a broken strap in her hand. Muto said, "Wait a moment," stopped the car, and said, "You're going to the spinning mill, aren't you? Get in this." He told the driver to take the girl to the mill, while he himself got out of the car and walked to work with his lunch box under his arm. It is said that such acts by Muto were too numerous to mention throughout his life.

In 1919, Muto participated as an employer representative in the first International Labour Conference held in Washington, D.C. At this meeting, he distributed an English booklet introducing Kanebo's worker welfare system. This also contributed to improving the international status of Japan, which was then considered a developing nation.

In 1923, Muto founded the Jitsugyo Doshikai (later the Kokumin Doshikai) for the purpose of political education and political reform. The following year, Muto ran for and was elected to the House of Representatives, stating his convictions: "Our country's politics has now reached the height of corruption and depravity, and if things continue as they are, (omitted) the nation is destined to decline. At this time, it is the most urgent task for the people to rise up, purge this corruption, and return to pure politics." Muto continued his activities as a member of the Diet while remaining president of Kanebo for several years, but resigned from that position in 1930.

The story returns to the beginning. In April 1932, Muto, who took over the reconstruction of Jiji Shimpo, became an advisor to the company and devoted his heart and soul to getting the management on track as the de facto president. At the same time, he personally wrote columns such as "Omoigama" and "Getsuyo Rondan." As a newspaperman, he also focused his efforts on political education for the public. Whenever Muto started something on his own initiative, he would always say, "I will bear the cost." The employees called this "personal burden." In this way, Jiji Shimpo drastically reduced the deficit it had been recording every year, to the point where Muto could say, "In 1934, the 100th anniversary of Yukichi Fukuzawa's birth, we will overcome the deficit and report it before the teacher's grave."

Muto began a series titled "Exposing the Banchokai" in order to "seal the tendency of the disgraceful collusive relationship between some political parties and the business world, which he considered disgusting for the establishment of good democratic politics" (Shuji Aritake). The articles written in the series eventually developed into a trial involving major politicians, bureaucrats, and business figures known as the Teijin Incident, but that was after Muto's death.

"Exposing the Banchokai" caused a sensation, but at the same time, rumors of danger to Muto's person began to circulate.

On the morning of March 9, 1934, Muto left his villa as usual and was walking toward Kita-Kamakura Station to go to the Jiji Shimpo office when he was struck down by a bullet from a man who suddenly appeared. The perpetrator committed suicide on the spot. Muto, who was rushed to the hospital, fell into an eternal sleep the following evening, watched over by his family. The Kamakura Police Station summoned people related to the Banchokai and investigated their connection to the incident, but quickly closed the investigation, concluding that it was a crime committed out of a personal grudge.

On March 16, a main funeral was held at the Kokumin Kaikan in Osaka, and a farewell ceremony was also held at the Jiji Shimpo office in Tokyo. The Kokumin Kaikan is a building that Muto opened in June 1933 as a hall for political education, investing his private funds and modeling it after Yukichi Fukuzawa's Enzetsukan (Public Speaking Hall). For Muto, who had been based in Tokyo since taking over Jiji Shimpo, the day of the main funeral was his second visit to the hall since the opening ceremony, this time in silence. The Kokumin Kaikan has continued to hold public speaking sessions and lectures even after Muto's death, reaching a total of over 1,000 times today, and Muto's grandson, Haruta, currently serves as the chairman.

At Kanebo, which Muto had left, a labor dispute occurred three months later and a labor union was formed. Jiji Shimpo, having lost Muto, saw its management deteriorate and ceased publication in 1936. Looking at Muto as a manager, one cannot help but feel that Muto's personality—where he and the organization became one and he was called "the person who manifested the spirit of Yukichi Fukuzawa"—constituted an indispensable element of management.