NY Times: Rising Internet Use Quietly Transforms Way Japanese Live - “The NEC Corporation, a confirmed member of Japan Inc., is soliciting applications internally for jobs in its expanding Internet-related businesses via e-mail, encouraging employees to seek new opportunities without necessarily asking permission of their bosses. In the past, that would have been insubordination of the first order and a sure-fire way of wrecking one’s career. Although loath to own up to subverting the traditional ways, NEC concedes that requirements that new employees and old managers seeking promotions take a test proving a specified degree of English language skills are largely a result of the Internet.”

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