性善説・性悪説 VS 契約書
外交では基本的に性悪説で考えるという。国と国との間では、相手を信頼して騙されれば大変危うい事になるだろう。企業間の取引においても同様で契約書のあり方に性善説の傾向が現れるか、性悪説の傾向が現れるかを見る事ができる。
私の経験では、欧米の契約書は極めて厳密で、日本の企業間の契約書は、あまり厳密ではない。それは契約書の厚さで判断する事ができる。日本の契約書は、欧米のそれの３分の１位である。
日本人は基本的に相手を信頼する事が前提になっており、人によっては契約書は取り交わした事がないという中小企業の社長もいる。欧米人からすれば、危なっかしいと感じるだろうが、基本的に人は信頼するものだという事が普通に行われるという事は素晴らしい事だと思う。
The belief that human nature is fundamentally good・The belief that human nature is fundamentally evil vs "contract"
In diplomacy, the basic approach is to assume that people are fundamentally evil. Between countries, it would be extremely dangerous if one trusted the other and was deceived. The same is true in transactions between companies, and we can see whether the way contracts are written reflects a tendency toward the assumption that people are fundamentally evil or not.
In my experience, Western contracts are extremely strict, while Japanese contracts between companies are not so strict. You can judge this by the thickness of the contracts. Japanese contracts are about one-third the length of Western contracts.
In Japan, trusting others is a given, and there are even some presidents of small and medium-sized companies who have never signed a contract. From a Westerner's perspective, this may seem risky, but I think it's wonderful that it is so commonplace that people basically trust each other.
