Business: Active Image

Anything in the U.S. remotely equal to Japan’s Keidanren, or Federation of Economic Organizations, would generate nightmares for federal trustbusters and apoplexy in Ralph Nader. Keidanren raises money for the ruling Liberal Democrats and functions as the governing body for the interlocking Japanese business empire. It has no legal authority to tell its 110 trade and industrial-association members what to do. But its policy “guidelines” are rarely ignored. Lately, though, Keidanren has been accused by environmentalists of failing to stop pollution, and by consumerists of allowing prices to leap.

Shoring up Keidanren’s image is the first order of business for its new president, former Toshiba Electric Chairman Toshiwo Doko. At 77 — only three years younger than his predecessor —Doko continues Keidanren’s tradition of gerontocracy. But he is a man of action who skippered the recovery of Ishikawajima-Harima Heavy Industries (shipbuilding), then switched to Toshiba in 1965 and led its resurgence from a deep plunge into debt.

Doko employs a management style that is characterized by self-spun homilies. Sample: “Act instead of thinking it over. Only action produces ideas.” Doko’s actions are expected to be in tune with the consensus of Keidanren’s hierarchy. The federation’s first resolution under his leadership called for a lifting of the selective price freeze that the government imposed during the energy crisis.