This book examines the progress of internationalisation of European and Japanese business in four different fields: the commodities and service trade, capital transfers, enterprise management, and information and culture.

This book examines the progress of internationalisation of European and Japanese business in four different fields: the commodities and service trade, capital transfers, enterprise management, and information and culture.

This book examines the progress of internationalisation of European and Japanese business in four different fields: the commodities and service trade, capital transfers, enterprise management, and information and culture.

In the first, 1987, edition of this book, Dr. Higashi and Dr. Lauter have discussed and analyzed the initial stages of the internationalization process The authors with Michio Watanabe at a reception in Hakone, Japan, 1988. xvi THE INTERNATIONALIZATION OF THE JAPANESE ECONOMY of the Japanese economy as it had evolved between 1985 and 1986. In this, the second, edition, they explore the developments during 1985-1988 and show how the gradual transformation of the economy from export-Ied to domestic demand-Ied growth has taken place, what the results of the trans formation process are, what remaining problems still have to be resolved, and what directions the Japanese economy might take in the future. While the transformation process is by no means completed, Drs. Higashi and Lauter provide a broad, policy-analysis based overview that enables the reader to understand not only the economic but also the basic political and social issues involved in the internationalization process. In this sense, the authors stay away from the extreme positions that characterize so many of the publications on Japan today and attempt to provide a realistic view of the changes and the impact of these changes. I believe that this book is a fair and balanced representation of events.

The internationalization of the J apanese economy, or the shift from an export-Ied to a domestic demand-Ied growth, is one of the important cu ne nt developments in the world-economy. lt involves the interaction of a variety of economic, social and cultural factors which many observers outside of Japan need to appreciate in order to understand what the process entails. Drs. Higashi and Lauter have written a book which is providing de tailed insight into the policy alternatives which the Japanese government has chosen to achieve the objectives of the internationalization process. Moreover, they have also analyzed the potential problems which sur round the implementation of the complex policies. I believe that their book is a valuable addition to both the academic and the generalliterature on Japan's efforts to change its role in the world economy and to contribute to the well-being of people everywhere. Michio Watanabe Tokyo, March 1987 Minister of International Trade and Industry December 1985-July 1986 Minister of Finance July 1980-November 1982 Xl The Internationalization Of The Japanese Economy 1 THE PATH TO ECONOMIC POWER Japan, known around the world as a smalI, resource-poOf island country, has experienced a greater than tenfold increase in its gross national product (GNP) in real terms since 1950.

In this study the views of Japan's leading experts on the globalization of Japanese business, management and industrial relations explain how traditional Japanese-style management is responding to the changes following the collapse of the bubble economy. The areas covered include the changes made in management itself inside Japan and also how it is adapting itself when transferred overseas. The book demonstrates how management is moving towards a hybrid type in overseas operations and towards a western-style in Japan, where contractual principles are beginning to be given greater weight.

In order to regain its competitiveness, Japan is restructuring and globalizing its business and economics system, as well as other aspects of society. How it is resolving this is of huge interest to its global trading partners. With contributions from well-known North American and Japanese academics, this book discusses these issues from historical, analytical and empirical perspectives.

The rise of the Japanese multinational company (JMNC) marked, from the 1980s onwards, an historic change in the structure and in the dynamics of the international economy. For the first time, businesses from a non-Western nation established a competitive global presence, and they did so by bringing their advanced products and management systems to the developed economies of Europe and North America. In the last 30 years, our interpretations of JMNCs have undergone a series of revisions. Korean firms followed JMNCs in the 1990s and the Chinese likewise in the 2000s. A seeming decline in JMNC competitiveness and developments in the structure of the international economy challenged a business model of parental company direction, control and capabilities. Both trends asked questions about how Japanese subsidiaries should operate in global production chains increasingly reliant on contracting out and off-shoring, and how JMNCs might engage more in strategic cooperation and empower subsidiary decision-making. The contributors to this volume consider a wide range of relevant issues: they demonstrate the long-term evolution of JMNCs; they compare the experience of JMNCs with firms from the other two major Asia Pacific economies, Korea and China; they evaluate the applicability of established foreign direct investment (FDI) theory to MNCs from Japan and the Asia Pacific; and they reflect on the internal organization of JMNCs at the global, national and subnational level. This book was originally published as a special issue of Asia Pacific Business Review.