Tomlinson, Phil (2001) The nature of the Japanese transnational corporation and the real effects of transnational activity upon Japan’s machinery industries. PhD thesis, University of Warwick.

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Abstract

This thesis is concerned with exploring the nature of the Japanese transnational corporation and analysing the real effects of their transnational activities within Japan’s machinery industries. The machinery industries are the most important of Japan’s manufacturing sectors. The sector is also the most open of all Japanese manufacturing industry to the forces of globalisation and has seen the global emergence of Japan’s so-called “national champions”, such as Toyota, Hitachi and Sony.

Japan’s transnationals have been pursuing global strategies to compete with their international rivals. In particular, they have been strategically developing their own transnational production networks, consisting of their core keiretsu partners and suppliers, to facilitate the use of global outsourcing. These transnational activities are changing the nature of Japan’s domestic industrial structure. In this respect, there have been concerns that the global expansion of Corporate Japan has had real consequences for domestic Japanese manufacturing. In particular, there have been concerns that the growth in Japanese transnational production will lead to a “hollowing out” of Japanese manufacturing industry (Fujita and Hill 1989; Cowling and Tomlinson, 2000).

These important issues form the subject matter of this thesis. We begin by tracing the emergence of Japan’s transnational corporations - within the machinery sector - and the growth in Japanese transnational production. Using a Case Study of the Japanese automobile industry, we then highlight the growth in Japanese transnational production networks, known as the new keiretsu. This new keiretsu provides Japan’s transnational corporations with an inside option to “divide and rule” both their suppliers and their global labour force. We uncover direct evidence of this strategy from interviews and a questionnaire with Managing Directors and Senior Managers of Japanese auto-suppliers, based in the UK. We argue that such activities create interdependent linkages between the Japanese transnationals’ affiliates around the globe. Consequently, the transnationals’ strategic decisions, which determine the level of production, investment and employment at their domestic and foreign affiliates will then have a real effect upon the performance of domestic Japanese manufacturing. We provide both econometric and survey evidence to show that this is indeed the case. Finally, in the light of our conclusions we suggest possible ways forward for Japanese industrial policy.

Item Type:	Thesis or Dissertation (PhD)
Subjects:	H Social Sciences > HD Industries. Land use. Labor > HD28 Management. Industrial Management
Library of Congress Subject Headings (LCSH):	Corporations -- Japan, Machinery industry -- Japan, Toyota Jidōsha Kabushiki Kaisha, Hitachi Seisakujo, Sonī Kabushiki Kaisha
Official Date:	2001
Dates:	Date Event 2001 UNSPECIFIED
Institution:	University of Warwick
Theses Department:	Department of Economics
Thesis Type:	PhD
Publication Status:	Unpublished
Sponsors:	Cowling, Keith ; Waterson, Michael, 1950-
Extent:	xv, 286 leaves : charts
Language:	eng

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