"Investing Japan demonstrates that foreign investment is a vital and misunderstood aspect of Japan’s modern economic development. The drive to become a modern industrial power from the 1860s to the 1930s necessitated the adoption and internalization of foreign knowledge. This goal could only be achieved by working within the overarching financial and technological frameworks of Western capitalism. Foreign borrowing, supported by the gold standard, was the crux of Japan’s pre-war capital formation. It simultaneously financed domestic industrial development, the conduct of war, and territorial expansion on the Asian continent. Foreign borrowing also financed the establishment of infrastructure in Japan’s largest cities, the nationalization of railways, the interlinked capital-raising programs of “special banks” and parastatal companies, and the rapid electrification of Japanese industry in the 1920s. Simon James Bytheway investigates the role played by foreign companies in the Japanese experience of modernization while highlighting their identity as key agents in the processes of industrialization and technology transfer. Investing Japan delivers a complex, multifaceted analysis, intersecting with the histories of formal and informal economic imperialism, diplomacy, war financing, domestic and international financial markets, parastatal and multinational enterprise, and Japan’s “internationalization” vis-à-vis the emerging global market."

Foreign Direct Investment in Japan presents a detailed examination of trends of inward foreign direct investment (FDI) and their impact on the Japanese economy. Historically much less open to foreign trade and investment than other major economies, Japan experienced an unprecedented jump in FDI inflows around the turn of the millennium. This book looks at the profound changes in Japan that made this jump possible and considers foreign firms' potential contribution to productivity and overall economic growth. Detailed case studies illustrate that in certain sectors the presence of foreign firms already is a key factor shaping industry dynamics. Yet, despite recent changes, resistance to inward FDI remains strong and the government could do much more if it were committed to attracting FDI. Overall, Japan continues to appear reluctant to embrace fully, and therefore seems unlikely to benefit even more substantially from, globalization.

The direct participation of foreign firms in the economy of Japan is lower than in any other advanced industrial nation. The contributors consider what policy actions, if any, the Japanese government can take to increase direct investment.

A collection of 20 articles and a translation of the Real Estate Syndication Law, intended for both experienced real estate professionals and investors new to Japan.

As part of a study on Japanese direct investment, this study covers four other countries of Indonesia, Malaysia, Singapore and Thailand, which together account for 95 per cent of the total flow of Japanese investment into ASEAN in the period 1985-87. This study has three main parts: a review of existing theoretical approaches to overseas investment and especially Japanese overseas investment; a study of supply side factors driving and shaping demand side factors within the ASEAN host countries.

These proceedings include papers on Japan's World Role in the 1990s, the economic dimensions of Japan and North America, and Japan and North America as Partners in the Pacific Community. It also provides the concluding remarks.