Takafumi Kurosawa

Beyond Marshallian Agglomeration Economies: The Roles of Trade Associations in Meiji Japan

In both developed Western nations and developing countries, economic growth was based on the development of industrial districts, which were much more organized and institutionalized in modern Japan than economist Alfred Marshall had described. Local trade associations played an important role in enhancing Marshallian externalities, arising from the ease of imitating improved ideas and transacting unfinished products among clustered enterprises by facilitating joint actions in the supply of public goods, such as through the creation of local district brands and through the efficient provision of business information. These activities were clearly beyond the scope of agglomeration economies. This article examines the case of Kiryu, one of the best-known silk weaving districts in Japan.

Nestlé coping with Japanese nationalism: Political risk and the strategy of a foreign multinational enterprise in Japan, 1913–45

This paper focuses on the strategy adopted by the MNE Nestlé in Japan between the establishment of a branch at Yokohama in 1913 and the end of World War II. It highlights the difficulties encountered by the firm in its attempts to open up and operate production facilities due to strong opposition from local condensed milk makers, supported by the state. Eventually, in 1934, Nestlé opened a factory by founding an incorporated company, ARKK, all of whose shareholders were Japanese working for Nestlé. Although the war drastically curtailed the activities of both Nestlé Japan and ARKK, the organisational facilities set up during the inter-war period provided a springboard for Nestlés post-war success in Japan.

From the Non-European Tradition to a Variation on the Japanese Competitiveness Model: The Modern Japanese Paper Industry Since the 1870s

In this chapter we focus on the development of the “modern” Japanese paper industry, which was introduced from the West to produce yoshi (Western machine-made paper) in the 1870s. Japan’s traditional papermaking (or washi) culture, introduced from the East, has a long history. In the beginning, the central government’s demand for paper supported the development of the modern paper industry, as it needed yoshi for the announcement and documentation of its modernization policy. Subsequently, the private sector promoted industrial development over the following 130 years, except during the wartime economy. The modern paper industry in Japan has always been characterized by rapid growth, low import dependency, and cartelization. The “Big Three” dominated the market after their merger in the 1930s, but the GHQ’s democratization policy welcomed new industry entrants after the Second World War. Various innovations, including the vertical integration of pulp and papermaking processes and the establishment of coastal manufacturing bases to utilize imported material, were the sources of growth after the Second World War. Japan became the second largest papermaking country in the world for almost three decades beginning in the 1970s, but globalization, the emergence of new developing countries, and the tide of M&A has transformed this industry.

Common European Assets: A Japanese View on the ‘European Enterprise’

The purpose of this paper is to provide a ‘Japanese perception’ of European enterprises. This is a very general theme that encompasses all the points of the argument in the entire book; thus, it is not possible to provide an empirical examination. Instead, this paper will explore the answers to the following four questions: (1) Is the ‘European company’ visible in Japan? (2) If not, why? Is Europe’s extreme diversity a reason for this lack of visibility? (3) What kinds of implications arise from the activities of Japanese subsidiaries in Europe? (4) Is it possible to extract a Europe-wide commonality by considering the historical interaction between the geographical environment and the competitiveness of enterprises?