This book combines a theoretical study of Japan's economic structures and multinational enterprises with a post-modern analysis of the contemporary multinational enterprise. The author considers the appropriateness of the post-modern approach for discussing economic activities, in particular the New Economy, and also Japanese society and culture. Kensy analyses Japan's economic structure, interpreting its methods, strategies and results in a post-modern context and presents a survey of socio-economic development in Japan since the beginning of westernization. He goes on to discuss Japanese models for the transformation of society in the future, with particular reference to the Keiretzu. Finding Japan to be a truly postmodern society, Kensy shows that Japan is prepared to be a leader in the New Economy. Kensy takes an innovative and stimulating approach that will be of interest to those seeking to better understand the development and future of the economic structures of Japan.

For Western economists and journalists, the most distinctive facet of the post-war Japanese business world has been the keiretsu, or the insular business alliances among powerful corporations. Within keiretsu groups, argue these observers, firms preferentially trade, lend money, take and receive technical and financial assistance, and cement their ties through cross-shareholding agreements. In The Fable of the Keiretsu, Yoshiro Miwa and J. Mark Ramseyer demonstrate that all this talk is really just urban legend. In their insightful analysis, the authors show that the very idea of the keiretsu was created and propagated by Marxist scholars in post-war Japan. Western scholars merely repatriated the legend to show the culturally contingent nature of modern economic analysis. Laying waste to the notion of keiretsu, the authors debunk several related “facts” as well: that Japanese firms maintain special arrangements with a “main bank,” that firms are systematically poorly managed, and that the Japanese government guided post-war growth. In demolishing these long-held assumptions, they offer one of the few reliable chronicles of the realities of Japanese business.

Japan's economy has long been described as network-centric. A web of stable, reciprocated relations among banks, firms, and ministries, is thought to play an important role in Japan's ability to navigate smoothly around economic shocks. Now those networks are widely blamed for Japan's faltering competitiveness. This book applies structural sociology to a study of how the form and functioning of this network economy has evolved from the prewar era to the late 90s. It asks whether, in the face of deregulation, globalization, and financial disintermediation, Japan's corporate networks - the keiretsu groupings particularly - have 'withered away', losing their cohesion and their historical function of supporting member firms in hard times. Using detailed quantitative and qualitative analysis, this book's conclusion is a qualified 'yes'. Relationships remain central to the Japanese way of business, but are much more subordinated to the competitive strategy of the enterprise than the network economy of the past.

This work provides an analysis of the inner workings of Japan's keiretsu - the corporate alliances that have been the cause of much debate. The text aims to reveal what the keiretsu really are and how they work, covering topics such as how foreign firms ca

This volume is excellent. Students who are interested in Asian business should read it and will find the comprehensive bibliography offered by the different contributors very helpful. In light of the recent global financial crises, it is time to re-examine the Asian miracles, as well as the Western models of business organizations and regulations. This volume offers great insights not just on Asian business but also on Western economies and business. It is also time to adopt an integrative approach recommended by Yeung through comparative research of businesses and economies in different institutions and cultures. Yifei Sun, Economic Geography An absolute must-have for college library reference shelves, filled cover-to-cover with keen analyses that any businessperson seeking to make inroads in an Asian market needs to study at length! Midwest Book Review This book serves as an important guide to the many fascinating research questions about Asian business waiting to be addressed. The study of Asian business has reached equality in importance to the study of business in Europe and North America. Researchers who study any of these regions have an incentive to follow the study of business in the other regions, if for no other reason than that many global firms from each region operate in all regions now. Nonetheless, the more important reason for knowledge transfer among researchers of each region is that these exchanges can only advance everyone s research. Henry Yeung and the contributors are to be thanked for setting out a rich agenda for research on Asian business that will elevate this study to equality with research elsewhere in the world. Eurasian Geography and Economics This book is extremely comprehensive and well researched. It will be of particular interest to scholars in the fields of international business, development studies, economic geography, regional studies as well as international and national policymakers. Science Technology & Society The rise of Asia as an important region for global business has been widely recognized as one of the most significant economic phenomena in the new millennium. This accessible and comprehensive Handbook brings together state-of-the-art reviews of Asian business in an expansive range of areas including: business organizations strategic management marketing state business relations business and development business policy issues. It is argued that whilst academic studies on Asian business have been in existence for over two decades, there is relatively little systematic integration of our knowledge and research on Asian business. The contributors, drawn from a variety of disciplines within the social sciences, aim to redress the balance with their lively, cutting-edge discussion. Serving as a timely overview of more than two decades of scholarly research, this Handbook will be an essential resource for academics, students and researchers interested in Asian business.

This book provides a holistic and practical approach to Japanese concepts of lean management throughout the business value chain. It explains principles like Kaizen, Kata or Keiretsu in a pragmatic and logical way with many industry examples and case studies. The authors describe comprehensively how lean management enables companies to concentrate on value-adding activities and processes to achieve a long-term, sustainable competitive advantage. Moreover, the book shows how lean management principles are ultimately applied in industries like aviation, civil engineering, automotive, healthcare, education and other industries.

As the Japanese economy languished in the 1990s Japanese government officials, business executives, and opinion leaders concluded that their economic model had gone terribly wrong. They questioned the very institutions that had been credited with Japan's past success: a powerful bureaucracy guiding the economy, close government-industry ties, "lifetime" employment, the main bank system, and dense interfirm networks. Many of these leaders turned to the U.S. model for lessons, urging the government to liberate the economy and companies to sever long-term ties with workers, banks, suppliers, and other firms.Despite popular perceptions to the contrary, Japanese government and industry have in fact enacted substantial reforms. Yet Japan never emulated the American model. As government officials and industry leaders scrutinized their options, they selected reforms to modify or reinforce preexisting institutions rather than to abandon them. In Japan Remodeled, Steven Vogel explains the nature and extent of these reforms and why they were enacted.Vogel demonstrates how government and industry have devised innovative solutions. The cumulative result of many small adjustments is, he argues, an emerging Japan that has a substantially redesigned economic model characterized by more selectivity in business partnerships, more differentiation across sectors and companies, and more openness to foreign players.

"For anyone interested in Keiretsu (Japan's enterprise groups), Gerlach's Alliance Capitalism is a must-read. He offers insightful and comprehensive analyses of their character, behavior, and recent rapid transformation. His knowledgeable discussion of their roles in Japanese economic performance supplements as well as challenges the increasing number of analyses offered by Japanese and American economists of the many aspects of Keiretsu."—Kozo Yamamura, University of Washington

Traditonal western forms of corporate organization have been called into question by the success of Japanese keiretsu. Firms, Markets and Economic Change draws on industrial economics, business strategy, and economic history to develop an evolutionary model to show when innovation is best undertaken. The authors argue that innovation is a complex p

These readings address various aspects of the transformation of the Japanese economic system from one based on the government-business-bureaucracy triad to one which accommodates such changes as the further slowdown of growth, the rapid ageing of the population and structural changes.