Book Description
As the Japanese economy languished in the 1990s Japanese governmentofficials, business executives, and opinion leaders concluded that theireconomic model had gone terribly wrong. They questioned the veryinstitutions that had been credited with Japan's past success: a powerfulbureaucracy guiding the economy, close government-industry ties, "lifetime"employment, the main bank system, and dense interfirm networks. Many ofthese leaders turned to the U.S. model for lessons, urging the governmentto 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 andindustry have in fact enacted substantial reforms. Yet Japan never emulatedthe American model. As government officials and industry leadersscrutinized their options, they selected reforms to modify or reinforcepreexisting institutions rather than to abandon them. In Japan Remodeled,Steven Vogel explains the nature and extent of these reforms and why theywere enacted.

Vogel demonstrates how government and industry have devised innovativesolutions. The cumulative result of many small adjustments is, he argues,an emerging Japan that has a substantially redesigned economic modelcharacterized by more selectivity in business partnerships, moredifferentiation across sectors and companies, and more openness to foreignplayers. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (1)

Japan Is Changing, But In Distinctly Japanese Ways
Twenty years ago, Japanese management wall all the rage. Then came a long, protracted slump and attention turned elsewhere. Japan fell into oblivion. But while nobody took notice, an interesting thing happened. The Japanese model implemented its own transformation. It was remodeled into something new, but still distinctly Japanese. How this transformation occurred and what kind of new model came into being form the story of this book.

The Japanese traditional system differs from the liberal market model in important ways. It emphasizes the benefits of long-term relationships in labor, banking, and supplier relations. You have an active external labor market on the one hand, a lifetime employment system and a dual economy on the other. A market for corporate control dominated by shareholders' rights versus a main bank system and stakeholders governance. Free market entry and exit versus supplier networks. No model is intrinsically better, although the liberal model may be better adapted to a fast-changing economy at the technology frontier or to sectors where radical innovations occur, whereas the Japanese model has an institutional advantage in a catching-up phase or in sectors that rely on incremental improvements in production processes, such as automobiles and consumer electronics.

Contrary to what some expected, the Japanese model did not converge toward the U.S. one. Nor did it become an hybrid, although elements of flexibility were introduced at various levels. In fact, Vogel shows that liberal market reforms have very few natural advocates in Japan: even groups with the greatest apparent stake in liberalization, such as large manufacturing exporters or consumer associations, are reluctant to embrace reforms that might affect social stability or undermine relations with workers, financial institutions, other business partners, and the government. The Koizumi administration nevertheless succeeded in introducing important reforms, but with a distinctive policy pattern. Japanese authorities proceed with reforms slowly and cautiously; they package delicate compromises, including substantial compensation for those who might be disadvantaged by the reforms; they design reforms to preserve the core institutions of the model as much as possible; and they seek new ways to build on the strengths of existing institutions.

The remodeled Japan differs from the earlier version in at least three important ways. It is more selective: In the face of hard times, companies have become more discriminating in their Partnerships. They have reevaluated their long-term relationships with workers, banks, and other firms, and they have loosened some and tightened others. They have shifted from a reflexive acceptance of these partnerships to a more rational assessment of their costs and benefits. It is more differentiated: Companies have become more variable in their practices. There never was a uniform Japanese model that applied equally to all sectors and all companies, but the model has fragmented further. And it is more open: Japanese corporations have more foreign owners, managers, and business partners than ever before, and these foreign actors bring with them different practices and norms.

Apart from telling a compelling story, this book also distinguishes itself by its extensive use of the comparative case method. It compares patterns of institutional change across countries (Japan versus the United States and Germany), across policy issues (labor market reform versus financial reform, for example), across industrial sectors (automobiles versus retail), across companies (Toyota versus Nissan, etc.) and across time (Seiyu before and after allying with Wal-Mart). This variation across issue areas allows the author to test several hypotheses about the impact of reforms, with sometimes surprising results. The author's scholarship also spans across disciplines, and the result is a fine example of how political science can blend with business studies and institutional economics. ... Read more

Book Description
The third edition of Governing Japan provides a comprehensive introduction to Japanese political institutions, processes and culture, taking account of the remarkable changes of recent years. ... Read more

Book Description
This book describes the government of Japan, with emphasis on the period of readjustment since the peace treaty of 1952. ... Read more

Book Description

Government Deficit And Fiscal Reform In Japan presents a theoretical-based comprehensive analysis of economic consequences of government deficits and fiscal reform in Japan. Particular emphasis is directed at developing tools that can be applied to theoretically and empirically clarify essential economic concerns in Japan such as generational incidence of fiscal reform and a growing dependence on government bonds for covering financial deficits. This book evaluates the recent movement of Japanese fiscal reform and government deficit.

Book Description
This book examines the evolution of intergovernmental relations in postwar Japan. These relations are shown to be both complex and dynamic, and the Japanese model is revealed as one in which aspects of both central control and local autonomy have co-existed with the balance shifting gradually over time towards the latter. The Japanese system has helped to maintain broad-based economic growth since it has at its core a strongly egalitarian fiscal transfer mechanism. At the same time, it has proved to be consistent, to a much greater extent than previously recognized, with political development, or progress in the attainment of such political values as liberty (personal rights) and equality (broad participation in public affairs) for individuals and communities. This is because the national government has proved flexible enough to accommodate, although not always with grace or alacrity, citizen concerns about the quality of life. The Japanese approach to intergovernmental relationships has also been successful in solving coordination problems which often arise between local and central government units and in building capacity to support greater and effective decentralization. Coordination problems have been handled through a variety of mechanisms including the practice of agency delegated functions, while local capacity issues have been addressed through such practices as the exchange of personnel across different levels of government and the use of attractive compensation and training packages to recruit and retain local staff. The Japanese experience thus provides an example of gradual and guided decentralization based on shared responsibilities between local and central governments for mobilizing, managing, and spending public resources in the pursuit of sustainable development. ... Read more

Book Description
This digital document is a journal article from Journal of Accounting and Public Policy, published by Elsevier in 2005. The article is delivered in HTML format and is available in your Amazon.com Media Library immediately after purchase. You can view it with any web browser.

Description:
The authors aim to verify the relation between vulnerability and information security investment. This relation is empirically analyzed using data on e-local governments in Japan. The results suggest that the decisions an economic entity makes concerning information security investment depend on vulnerability. Our research lends empirical support to prior economic research. ... Read more

Book Description

Ozaki Yukio, who was returned to his seat in the Japanese Diet twenty-five times, served in that body from its inception in 1890 to 1953. He was several times a cabinet member and, for ten years, mayor of Tokyo. A strong advocate of representative government, he both witnessed and propelled Japan's transformation from a late feudal society to a modern state. His autobiography, available in English for the first time, gives an insider's account of key episodes and leaders over seven decades of Japanese history.

Ozaki's political life spanned the Meiji rise to power and Japan's defeat in World War II, and he played a significant role in each phase of that epic. As a young reporter, he gained preeminence with incisive calls for supremacy in East Asia. A European trip that showed him the devastation of World War I converted him to advocacy of arms reduction and international cooperation. He watched with dismay as Japan encountered isolation and military disaster. Known for the courage of his convictions, he became a marked man, carrying a death poem in his pocket. His sturdy independence survived the American Occupation, as he deplored his associates' readiness to heed occupation dictates.

Ozaki's story reverberates with the immediacy of his personal knowledge of every major Japanese political figure for three-quarters of a century. It is the account of a man who made history as well as writing it. His story is the story of modern Japan. Through it, readers will gain first-hand knowledge of Japanese constitutional history, one with rich relevance for contemporary Japanese politics.

Customer Reviews (1)

Marvellously-told story of Japan's political development
Ozaki was a real original, a samurai fighting for political modernization and responsible government. Elected to the very first Diet in 1890, he served for more than 60 turbulent years. He knew everyone in Japanese public life and draws sharp portraits of them and their actions. The story is told clearly enough (with annotations where needed) and vividly enough to serve as an introduction to Japan's political history. The editing and translation, by Ozaki's grand-daughter, is excellent.

Will O'Neil ... Read more

Book Description
The ever-present tension between industry, which is ruled by the logic of the market, and government, which is ruled by the logic of the political process, is a subject much discussed but little investigated. These original essays draw on recent research on government-industry relations to
present a comparative overview of the political economy in West Germany, France, Britain, the United States, and Japan. This work is the first volume in the series Government-Industry Relations, which will explore the relationship between government and industry in various capitalist
economies. ... Read more