Japanese industrial standards have long been the benchmark for quality products within Asia, indeed, within the world. Major Japanese industries like Toyota, Sony, and Honda, to name but a few, are household names that have contributed to this small island nation's status as the world's second largest economy. Japanese business practices and theories have permeated the mindset of its surrounding nations, and the country's long-term investment in the ever-growing Chinese market has further secured its status as an economic powerhouse. The A to Z of Japanese Business is an examination of the origins and characteristics of Japan's business culture. This handy reference book includes most of the important words or company names that foreign business people visiting Japan might encounter and provides an overview of Japanese corporate culture both from an historical standpoint and with reference to its most distinctive features as they affect organization and management. This is accomplished through its historical chronology detailing significant events of the past as well as recent developments within the Japanese economy and business world in general, various appendixes offering lists of business expressions that are in daily use along with a selection of the most commonly used business proverbs, a bibliography, and hundreds of cross-referenced dictionary entries on Japanese companies, their founders and managers, the ever-present bureaucratic bodies, and progress in the major industries.

Every war leaves an imprint in history, but few have had such a pervasive impact in so many respects as the Russo-Japanese War of 1904-1905. Politically, it fatally weakened the Russian Empire while allowing Japan to follow more dangerous paths. Diplomatically, it shook the power balance in Europe and reshaped it in the form of two coalitions, leading to World War I. With regard to the art of warfare, it emphasized the use of trench warfare and machine guns on land and the deployment of battleships and the use of torpedoes at sea. Yet, despite its importance at the time, it has become very much a forgotten war. The A to Z of the Russo-Japanese War provides considerable breadth and depth of coverage based on Japanese, Russian, and Western sources. The breadth is accomplished through a wide-ranging introduction, a detailed chronology and an extensive bibliography. The depth comes in the hundreds of entries on military and political leaders, major battles and lesser encounters, tactics and strategy as well as the weaponry and of course the causes and consequences. The result is the first major reference work on the Russo-Japanese War in English and the largest in any language.

The growth of Japanese business to a dominant world position in the post-war era has attracted many Western studies and analyses of Japanese management methods in comparision with those of the West. This is an inside account by leading Japanese experts of the way in which individual Japanese firms came to dominate world markets. The text charts the rise of household names such as Canon and Toyota against the background of growth and restructuring that took place in Japan after the war. It should interest anyone who wishes to understand the strategies by which Japanese business has achieved its success.

Since the and‘lost decadeand’ of the nineties, the progress of Japanese administrative and economic reform has been intense. Although some early critics characterized the reforms as and‘window dressing, and’ it is becoming clearer that systemic reform has taken hold and the new Japanese economy is picking up. This deeply knowledgeable book provides a penetrating analysis and expert evaluation of matters of crucial concern to business lawyers including corporate governance, contract law, business liabilities, intellectual property, media, employment, taxation, investment, the legal profession, the judiciary, and much more as they are developing and intersecting in Japan today. In the course of the detailed presentation, the contributors touch on such details of interest to those doing business in Japan as the following: status of foreign lawyers; mergers and acquisitions and leveraged buyouts; grounds for terminating contracts; real estate transactions; antimonopoly law and licensing guidelines; IT and e-commerce law; managing, disciplining, and terminating employees; occupational safety and health; labor union law; corporation income taxation; government programs offering low cost finance; consumer protection laws; and litigation and alternative dispute resolution. One of the most valuable benefits of the contributors' approach is the keen insight offered into the tatemae (outward appearance) well known to frustrate and mislead foreigners in almost any dealings with the Japanese.

The fourth estate.