1 Paper submitted for the 17th Annual Meeting of EAMSA 23rd - 25th November 2000 Changes in the Japanese Business Environment and Proactive Approaches to Human Resource Management Darren MCDONALD Department of Business Studies & Informatics, Faculty of Business Administration, Daito Bunka University 1-9-1 Takashimadaira, Itabashi-ku, Tokyo, 175-8571. JAPAN Home Tel/Fax: +81-3-3550-4001 E-mail: darren@ic.daito.ac.jp Masao HANAOKA Department of Business Studies & Informatics, Faculty of Business Administration, Daito Bunka University 1-9-1 Takashimadaira, Itabashi-ku, Tokyo, 175-8571. JAPAN Home Tel/Fax: +81-466-25-7487 E-mail: hanaoka@ic.daito.ac.jp Correspondence regarding this paper should be sent to Darren McDonald. Both authors will be giving the presentation. Detailed data that could not be included in this paper will be provided at the presentation.