This volume analyzes Japan’s industrial organization both from a historical perspective and by looking in details at specific industries such as iron, steel and the automotive industry. Big business, business groups and industrial policy are also discussed. The volume also provides a survey of the literature in Japanese which will help the reader in search of original sources.

This book is the 2nd edition of the author's earlier book with the same title. It contains additional five chapters that are added to reflect the most recent changes in the economy and law in Japan.At a time when foreign interest in the current Japanese market and economy is significant and becoming increasingly prominent, Japanese corporate behavior and practices are two potentially confusing areas for international businessmen, accountants and lawyers. This book features numerous insights into Japanese perspectives on finance, law and business, based on the author's expertise in these three areas. As the data provided in this book is pertinent to understanding Japanese laws and business practices, this text will be of great interest to foreign companies aspiring to be successful in Japan./a

This is one of the few books written in English by a Japanese author with expertise in finance, law and business. The book presents issues pertaining to the three areas from Japan's and US viewpoints, and is based on ten articles, published in reputable journals, on current issues in finance and law in Japan. It includes additional comments on Japan's banking and finance industry. The book contains a number of citations which will help readers understand more about Japanese law and finance. It also serves as a reference source for people outside Japan interested in Japanese law and finance. This book will be of interest to businessmen, accountants and lawyers who wish to know more about the second largest economy in the world.

This new book gathers together a collection of case studies of innovation in various industries in modern Japan, challenging accepted notions of Japanese innovation and emphasizing new and diverse trends and practices.

`Miwa is one of the leading young Japanese scholars debunking the myths - all too common in the west but eagerly promoted in Japan also - about the distinctive Japanese way. He soberly examines the roles of government and banks, firms and networks, workers and managers. The result is a fine analysis of how where and why the Japanese economic system fundamentally resembles that in the west, with a clear explanation of the few areas where it significantly differs.' - Leslie Hannah, London School of Economics and Political Science `Professor Miwa has earned quite a name for himself in Japan for his brilliant but biting iconoclastic views. Now, Western readers will learn what the fuss has been about. Self-styled authorities on the Japanese economy will squirm, for Miwa takes no prisoners; his logic is relentless, merciless and - inevitably - right.' - J. Mark Ramseyer, the University of Chicago Law School `This is a monumental work, demystifying the Japanese economy and contesting the conventional view that `Japan is different'. In doing so, Professor Miwa paves the way for a new era of comparative study.' - Kazuo Koike, Hosei University, Tokyo `Professor Miwa, no longer an enfant terrible, has established himself as one of the most far-reaching researchers of the contemporary Japanese industrial organisation. His argument is always pointed, provocative, outrageous, but illuminating and productive.' - Yutaka Kosai, Japan Center for Economic Research, Tokyo We love Japan, but many of us for wrong reasons. Studies of Japan's economy are full of misconceptions, described by such keywords as dual structure, keiretsu, corporate groups, main banks, subcontract, and industrial policy. Without using these keywords, the author demonstrates that Japan has for a long time been a world of exchange by agreement rather than by coercion, and that the standard principles of economics explain the dominant patterns of the Japanese economic phenomena. Providing detailed information on firms and industrial organization in Japan, this volume is a doorway both to proper understanding of Japan's economy and the study of actual firms and the market in general.

Structured into sub-sector by sub-sector analyses and written by an authority in the area, this book provides a clear and accessible examination of industrial development, without over-generalizing or being weighed down by historical details.

This title was first published in 1980: This volume analyzes Japan's industrial organization both from a historical perspective and by looking in details at specific industries such as iron, steel and the automotive industry. Big business, business groups and industrial policy are also discussed. The volume also provides a survey of the literature in Japanese which will help the reader in search of original sources.

First published in 2000. Routledge is an imprint of Taylor & Francis, an informa company.

This open access book provides an in-depth examination of Japan's policy responses to the economic challenges of the 1980s and '90s. While MITI's earlier role in promoting rapid growth has been addressed in other studies, this volume, based on official records and exhaustive interviews, is the first to examine the aftermath of rapid growth and the evolution of MITI's interpretation of the economy's changing needs. Covering such topics as the oil shocks, trade conflict with the United States, and the rise and collapse of the so-called bubble economy, it presents a detailed analysis and evaluation of how these challenges were interpreted by government officials, the kinds of policies that were enacted, the extent to which policy aims were realized, and lessons for the longer term. This book is recommended especially to officials of countries concerned about the challenges that follow on high economic growth and to readers interested in Japan’s contemporary economic history.

Most of Japan's leading textile firms date back to the turn of the century. Unlike many of their Western competitors, however, Japan's larger companies have survived the "decline" of a sector consumed by fierce international competition. Providing the fullest English-language account of Japanese textiles, Dennis L. McNamara explores the entire sweep of the industry, from factory to high-fashion brokerage to policymaking circle. Tracing the strategies by which the textile industry has survived, he provides a distinctive view of Japanese capitalism in a climate of change. McNamara reconstructs a world riven by the competing interests of state and capital, firm and industry, labor and management, mill and merchant. We encounter giant "mogul" companies and upstart independent "mavericks"—such firms as Toray, Toyobo, Itochu, Tsuzuki, Kondobo, Onward, and Renown—all hustling to restructure for survival. Drawing on extensive interview data as well as recent Japanese and English-language work in political economy and social anthropology, McNamara describes a dynamic of competition between moguls and mavericks in a turbulent business torn by divisions but bound together by compromise. He finds that, despite enormous international pressures, the industry has maintained much of its market share, largely because state bureaucrats and leaders of major firms have managed to create a cooperative politics of adjustment. A corporatist structuring of interests, he concludes, has helped to moderate decline and maintain stability, permitting survival among the moguls without preventing the successful participation of mavericks.