Amid the current, protracted recession in Japan, new corporations — termed global excellent companies by the authors of this book — have been rising since the end of the 20th century. They are not yet in the spotlight but have a huge market share worldwide with regard to their specialized products and services.These corporations have climbed to the top of the global market while many other large Japanese companies have fallen into a slump. The authors highlighted their corporate policies and strategies for achieving high earnings — the secret of “producing something from nothing” and “enabling the lesser to win against the greater”. They have long focused on specific niches, improved the speed of their business undertaking, and effectively used information technology. The authors set out to study these companies and analyze their practices so as to gain insight into the way companies should be managed in the 21st century.

Amid the current, protracted recession in Japan, new corporations ? termed global excellent companies by the authors of this book ? have been rising since the end of the 20th century. They are not yet in the spotlight but have a huge market share worldwide with regard to their specialized products and services.These corporations have climbed to the top of the global market while many other large Japanese companies have fallen into a slump. The authors highlighted their corporate policies and strategies for achieving high earnings ? the secret of ?producing something from nothing? and ?enabling the lesser to win against the greater?. They have long focused on specific niches, improved the speed of their business undertaking, and effectively used information technology. The authors set out to study these companies and analyze their practices so as to gain insight into the way companies should be managed in the 21st century.

Who are Asia's biggest business leaders? What kind of leadership skills and philosophies do they possess that have put them at the forefront of their respective industries? What makes these business leaders, in particular, best-equipped to meet the challenges of a 21st century global economy? In Rediscovering Japanese Business Leadership, we gain insights into the leadership strategies of Japan’s most successful global brands, including Toyota, Canon, and Nintendo. This book will be the first title in a series on Asian business leaders, leading companies and corporate philosophies in the 21st century. The inaugural volume will focus on business leaders and strategies at Japanese companies that are not only driving and reshaping their respective industries in the 21st century, but are demonstrating a knack for consistently meeting the various challenges of today's rapidly changing world.

Since the bursting of Japan’s bubble economy, from 1990 onwards, its multinational companies (MNCs) have faced new competitive challenges, and questions about the management practices on which they had built their initial success in global markets. Japanese engagement in the international economy has undergone a number of phases. Historically, Japanese MNCs learnt from foreign companies, frequently through strategic alliances. After the post-war ‘economic miracle’, Japanese manufacturers in particular converted themselves into MNCs, transferred their home-grown capabilities to overseas subsidiaries, and made an impact on the world economy. But the period after 1990 marked declining Japanese competitiveness, and asked questions about the ability of Japanese MNCs to be more responsive and global in their strategies, organization, and capabilities. It has been argued that the established management practices of Japanese MNCs inhibited adaptation to recent demands of global competition. This volume presents new case evidence on how Japanese MNCs have responded to the new challenges of the global market place, and it provides examples of how they have transformed strategies and competitive capabilities. This book was originally published as a special issue of Asia Pacific Business Review.

After two decades of reinvention, Japanese companies are re-emerging as major players in the new digital economy. They have responded to the rise of China and new global competition by moving upstream into critical deep-tech inputs and advanced materials and components. This new "aggregate niche strategy" has made Japan the technology anchor for many global supply chains. Although the end products do not carry a "Japan Inside" label, Japan plays a pivotal role in our everyday lives across many critical industries. This book is an in-depth exploration of current Japanese business strategies that make Japan the world's third-largest economy and an economic leader in Asia. To accomplish their reinvention, Japan's largest companies are building new processes of breakthrough innovation. Central to this book is how they are addressing the necessary changes in organizational design, internal management processes, employment, and corporate governance. Because Japan values social stability and economic equality, this reinvention is happening slowly and methodically, and has gone largely unnoticed by Western observers. Yet, Japan's more balanced model of "caring capitalism" is both competitive and transformative, and more socially responsible than the unbridled growth approach of the United States.

Specialist manufacturers have existed in Japan from even before the start of industrialization in the late nineteenth century. Proliferating since but remaining steadfastly lean, many of them can be categorized as leading medium-sized enterprises. This book looks at how they are globalizing and assuming a role as East Asian specialists.

For some time Japan has been under fire for adjusting too slowly to new realities. While this criticism may be valid on some levels, Japan has been transforming in tandem with both regional and global forces. However, these changes have been largely overshadowed by the immense changes in Asia; including the rise of China, the 1997 Southeast Asian financial crisis and North Korea's development of nuclear weapons. Has Japan, the world's second largest economy, only been muddling through? In this volume the contributors show that although the challenges faced are great, Japan is changing in areas ranging from political leadership, education policy, official development assistance, peace building and security, to defence production, business associations and innovation policy. The book analyses processes of change, focusing on the dynamics of change - rather than structural change or institutional change per se - from four levels: the individual, domestic, regional and global. Forces from outside Japan, such as a changing world order and changes in power relationships in Asia, have driven change along with pressures emerging within Japan, such as the increasing power of public opinion and competitiveness within markets. This book will be of interest to scholars and students of Japanese and Asian Studies, Politics, International Relations, Globalization, Business and Economics.