A longitudinal research project was initiated in 1972 to track the process of management progress in the Japanese corporation. Results of a 7-year follow-up indicated that the career progress of male college graduates up to the lowest management positions can be predicted quite well based on information collected during the first three years of tenure. Based on these findings, an alternative view of management progress in Japanese organization was suggested. This new view was based on a process of early tournament mobility of managerial talent, rather than on a process of deferred competition. This latter process is commonly believed to be the basic features of management progress in the Japanese organization. The temporal generality of this early tournament mobility view was tested in a 13-year follow-up. Results generally supported the early differentiation view but suggested needed elaborations and refinements. Implications of this model are discussed.