What does it mean by the business conducts that make the society happy in today’s world?

Omi merchants had a significant philosophy of business conducts called Sanpo-yoshi which is translated as 3-way satisfaction. It means the business transactions you conduct should be beneficial to you as the seller, as well as to the buyer and to the society in general.

In order to make it beneficial to the society, Omi merchants contributed a lot to the local community by building roads, bridges, and temples. They believed that if you created wealth, you should give some of it back to the community. Because of their contribution to the community, they were well respected and popular, hence they thrived more.

The concept of Sanpo-yoshi invented and practiced by Omi-merchants is over 200 years old after all. The system was very different back then. It was much simpler. They didn’t have a globalized economic system like we do today. So just contributing to the community was enough to make it beneficial to the society. However, if we are to reinvent Sanpo-yoshi in today’s’ context, we need to take a lot of other things into consideration.

By pulling all my studies of ecology, psychology, sociology, and philosophy together, I pondered on a happy society in today’s context.