Stuart D.B. Picken – författare

Japanese industrial standards have long been the benchmark for quality products within Asia, indeed, within the world. Major Japanese industries like Toyota, Sony, and Honda, to name but a few, are household names that have contributed to this small island nation's status as the world's second largest economy. Japanese business practices and theories have permeated the mindset of its surrounding nations, and the country's long-term investment in the ever-growing Chinese market has further secured its status as an economic powerhouse.The A to Z of Japanese Business is an examination of the origins and characteristics of Japan's business culture. This handy reference book includes most of the important words or company names that foreign business people visiting Japan might encounter and provides an overview of Japanese corporate culture both from an historical standpoint and with reference to its most distinctive features as they affect organization and management. This is accomplished through its historical chronology detailing significant events of the past as well as recent developments within the Japanese economy and business world in general, various appendixes offering lists of business expressions that are in daily use along with a selection of the most commonly used business proverbs, a bibliography, and hundreds of cross-referenced dictionary entries on Japanese companies, their founders and managers, the ever-present bureaucratic bodies, and progress in the major industries.

One of Japan's major religions, Shinto has no doctrines and there are no sacred texts from which religious authority can be derived. It does not have an identifiable historical founder, and it has survived the vicissitudes of history through rituals and symbols rather than through continuity of doctrine. Shinto is primarily a religion of nature, centered on the cultivation of rice, the basis of a culture with which the western world is not familiar in terms of either its annual cycle or the kind of lifestyle it generates. The roots of the Shinto tradition probably precede this and reflect an awareness of the natural order. The oldest shrines came to be located in places that inspired awe and wonder in their observers, such as the great Fall of Nachi in Kumano, or in mountains that conveyed a sense of power.The expanded second edition of the Historical Dictionary of Shinto relates the history of Shinto through a chronology, an introductory essay, an extensive bibliography, and over 800 cross-referenced dictionary entries on Shinto concepts, significant figures, places, activities, and periods. Scholars and students will find the overviews and sources for further research provided by this book to be enormously helpful.

Calvinism is named after 16th century Reformer, John Calvin whose overall theology is contained in his Institutes of the Christian Religion (1559). Calvin's theology and ecclesiology provided the foundation upon which the Reformed Churches of Europe were built. It was a comprehensive and carefully expounded alternative to the doctrines of the Roman Catholic Church and was designed to expose their weaknesses and present a view of the Christian Faith that was a reformed version of the old faith.The Historical Dictionary of Calvinism relates the history of its founder John Calvin, the Reformed Church, and the impact that Calvinism has had in the modern world along with an account of modern and contemporary developments within the religious, political, and social culture it has created. This is done through a chronology, an introductory essay, an extensive bibliography, and over 300 cross-referenced dictionary entries on concepts, significant figures, places, activities, and periods. This book is an excellent access point for students, researchers, and anyone wanting to know more about Calvinism.