This volume approaches the history of Japanese-German relations from a business history perspective. Starting with an overview of Japanese-German relations which focuses on the environment, strategies and forms of inter-firm relations, Akira Kudo then uses case studies to provide a broader picture, before finally considering strategy, organisational strategy and technology and management transfer in the light of problems identified earlier.

In the twentieth century, dyes, pharmaceuticals, photographic products, explosives, insecticides, fertilizers, synthetic rubber, fuels, and fibers, plastics, and other products have flowed out of the chemical industry and into the consumer economies, war machines, farms, and medical practices of industrial societies. The German chemical industry has been a major site for the development and application of the science-based technologies that gave rise to these products, and has had an important role as exemplar, stimulus, and competitor in the international chemical industry. This volume explores the German chemical industry's scientific and technological dimension, its international connections, and its development after 1945. The authors relate scientific and technological change in the industry to evolving German political and economic circumstances, including two world wars, the rise and fall of National Socialism, the post-war division of Germany, and the emergence of a global economy. This book will be of interest to historians of modern Germany, to historians of science and technology, and to business and economic historians.

Mutual Perceptions and Images in Japanese-German Relations, 1860–2010 examines the mutual images formed between Japan and Germany from the mid-nineteenth to twenty-first centuries, and the influence of these images on the development of bilateral relations. Unlike earlier research on Japanese-German relations, which focused on the similarity of these countries’ historical trajectories, this publication presents a more nuanced picture. It relativizes perceptions of a special “spiritual relationship” between Japan and Germany as well as their commonalities of “national character” through an exploration of previously untapped historical visual and textual sources. With essays by sixteen leading scholars in the field, this collection is an invaluable contribution to the historiography of modern Japan and Germany, and to the field of international relations. Contributors are: Hans-Joachim Bieber, Fukuoka Mariko, Hakoishi Hiroshi, Iwasa Takurō, Katō Yōko, Kawakita Atsuko, Gerhard Krebs, Kudō Akira, Heinrich Menkhaus, Danny Orbach, Peter Pantzer, Sven Saaler, Satō Takumi, Volker Stanzel, Suzuki Naoko, Tajima Nobuo, Tano Daisuke, and Rolf-Harald Wippich.

This edited volume examines the American influence on West German and Japanese industry from the 1950s to the 1970s, providing a valuable contribution to the debate on 'Americanization' from a historical and comparative perspective. Individual contributions provide an in-depth analysis of the adoption and modification of management and technological issues from the US in West Germany and Japan at the micro-economic level.

This 2003 book offered the first in-depth international survey of contemporary research and debates in business history. Over the two decades leading to its publication, enormous advances had been made in writing the history of business enterprise and business systems. Historians are documenting and analyzing the evolution of a wide range of important companies and systems, their patterns of innovation, production, and distribution, their financial affairs, their political activities, and their social impact. Each essay is written by a prominent authority who provides an assessment of the state and significance of research in his or her area. This volume is a reference work that will be of immense value to historians, economists, management researchers, and others concerned to access the latest insights on the evolution of business throughout the world.

The first English-language study of German-Japanese interwar relations to employ sources in both languages.

The Political Economy of Japanese Globalisation reveals the key dimensions of Japanese globalisation today by analysing both its inward and outward manifestations. This is the first book to examine fully the issue of globalisation in relation to Japan. Organised in three parts, The Political Economy of Japanese Globalisation reveals the meanings and implications of the study of Japan's globalization in the context of on-going debates about globalisation in general. The book demonstrates how, despite the passing of the 'Japanese model', Japan can still provide significant insights into the meaning of this phenomenon. The first part of the book examines globalization in politics and international relations: Japan's particular position in globalization; its recent role in the East Asian political economy; and the relative identities of Japan and Europe. Part two looks at the economy and business at the heart of Japanese globalization: Japan's globalization in Asia as part of oriental capitalism; its recent financial reforms; the US globalization in Japan; Japan's impact on Germany and the meaning of 'Japanization' and 'globalization'. The third part of the book assesses the social issues in Japan in the context of globalization, highlighting the positive political impact of globalization seen in the way externally generated pressures have brought into focus 'universal' values, such as citizenship, human rights and democracy. Providing a clear analysis of the political economy of Japanese globalization in one volume, The Political Economy of Japanese Globalization is a major resource for postgraduates and researchers in Japanese studies, Asian studies, international relations, international political economy, as well as for all those dealing with Japan professionally.