Japan’s economic success: can the west benefit from the Japanese example

Abstract

The astounding success of the Japanese economy has in the past decade or so been believed by many to provide an answer to the West's relative economic decline. This thesis attempts to provide a more complete account of the factors involved in the Japanese success than that which is generally found in the literature on the subject; the purpose of this is to suggest that the transference of only one success factor or element of the Japanese system may not be the simple solution to Western problems as is so often assumed. It begins with a chapter on Japanese economic development for background. Chapters 3 and 4 respectively cover corporate culture and the management practices considered unique to Japan. These two areas have received the most attention in the literature on how the West can benefit from the Japanese example, the assumptions being that if these are transferred to or copied by the West, than an economic turnaround would ensue. For balance, the next chapter discusses the concomitants of these management practices which may be considered negative by the West. It continues with an examination of Japanese subsidiaries in the United States and Great Britain and then presents the theories of whether or not the system is in actuality transferable to the West by Western managers. The last chapter presents other factors in Japan’s economic success in order to argue that the 'popular' assumptions may be too simplistic to provide the resultant success expected.