Firms and Industrial Organization in Japan

1. Front Matter

   Pages i-x

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2. Introduction and Summary

   1. Introduction and Summary

      • Yoshiro Miwa

      Pages 1-29

3. Small Business and Division of Labour

   1. Front Matter

      Pages 31-31

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   2. Monopoly, Corporate Profits and the Dual Structure

      • Yoshiro Miwa

      Pages 33-40

   3. The Image and Reality of Small Business and Small Business Policies

      • Yoshiro Miwa

      Pages 41-57

   4. Supplier-Assembler Relationships in the Motor Industry

      • Yoshiro Miwa

      Pages 58-80

4. Financial Market

   1. Front Matter

      Pages 81-81

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   2. Economic Analysis of the ‘Loan-Concentration’ Mechanism

      • Yoshiro Miwa

      Pages 83-99

   3. Main Bank and its Functions

      • Yoshiro Miwa

      Pages 100-122

   4. An Anatomy and Critique of the Corporate-Group View

      • Yoshiro Miwa

      Pages 123-141

5. Industrial Policy

   1. Front Matter

      Pages 143-143

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   2. Industrial Policy of Japan: A Beginner’s Guide

      • Yoshiro Miwa

      Pages 145-156

   3. Economic Consequences of Investment Coordination in the Steel Industry

      • Yoshiro Miwa

      Pages 157-176

   4. Coordination within Industry: Output, Price and Investment

      • Yoshiro Miwa

      Pages 177-191

6. Intra-firm Organization and Inter-firm Relationships

   1. Front Matter

      Pages 193-193

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   2. Corporate Governance in Japanese Firms: The Body of Employees as the Controlling Group and Friendly Shareholders

      • Yoshiro Miwa

      Pages 195-216

   3. Inter-firm Relationships

      • Yoshiro Miwa

      Pages 217-235

   4. Conclusion

      • Yoshiro Miwa

      Pages 236-238

7. Back Matter

   Pages 239-312

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`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.

• Controlling
• industrial organization
• Japan

• University of Tokyo, Japan

  Yoshiro Miwa

YOSHIRO MIWA

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