“In reality, Japan's defeat meant not the demise of imperial-way Zen and soldier Zen but only their metamorphosis and rebirth as corporate Zen. Perhaps Zen's newest incarnation is more benign than its past variants, in that it does not seem to require loyalty even unto death. But in the mid-1970s, a new phenomenon was detected among Japan's corporate warriors: karöshi, or "death from overwork" At least some part of postwar Japan's economic miracle must be assigned to the willingness of company employees to work themselves to death.”