Presentation on topic: "Theories on japanese economy" - KEIZAIRON. Held at Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences, University of Zagreb as part of curriculum assignment for History class, Japanese studies (2013, 6).

1. 日本人論 2.0
日本経済論
NIHONKEIZAIRON
“Theories on the japanese economy“
歴史のｐｐｔｘ
クリスチャン・ラヴィチ

2. Major external impacts on Japan included the
following:
•Rice cultivation - introduced from the
Eurasian Continent around the third century BC
(recent evidence shows that rice cultivation
may have been brought to Japan earlier).
•Buddhism - brought from China via Korea in
the sixth century AD. Chinese culture and
political system imported vigorously from the
seventh to the early tenth century AD.
•First direct contact with Europeans - guns
and Christianity arrived in the 16th century AD.
•Modernization - the second contact with
the industrialized West in the 19th century.
Source: The Economic Development of
Japan - The Path Traveled by Japan as a Developing Country,
Kenichi Ohno

3. 日本人論
- texts that focus on issues of Japanese
national and cultural identity.
- fields as sociology, psychology, anthropology,
history, linguistics, philosophy, biology,
chemistry and physics.
- 698 books on nihonjinron were published
in Japan between 1946 and 1978
Survey conducted by Nomura Research Institute (野村総合研究所)

4. 財閥
• literally financial cliques - were the
diversified family enterprises that rose to
prominence in the Meiji Era.
• Some of the most important zaibatsu and
their origins were: Mitsui, Mitsubishi,
Yasuda, Sumitomo, Okura, Furukawa,
Kuhara, Suzuki, Fujita, Asano.
• ZAIBATSU were strong supporters of the
militaristic government,
• during WWII nationalized by military –
due to production capability – damaged
by the destruction of the war,
• NEW DEAL act (1933-39) – F.D.R. (anti-
monopol = anti-democracy) targeted to
dissolve in 1947,
• 16 ZAIBATSU complete dissolution, and 26
more for reorganization after dissolution.
http://www.sjsu.edu/faculty/watkins/zaibatsu.htm

5. 系列
• set of companies with interlocking business
relationships and shareholdings.
• effort to reindustrialize Japan as a bulwark
against Communism in Asia
• maintained dominance over the Japanese
economy for the last half of the 20th century.
• "big six" keiretsu - at centerpoint is a bank and a
trading company (sogo shosha) - minimize the
presence of hostile takeovers,
• 2 types of keiretsu, horizontal and
vertical, can be further categorized as:
- Kigyō shūdan (企業集団 "horizontally
diversified business groups")
- Seisan keiretsu (生産系列 "vertical
manufacturing networks")
- Ryūtsū keiretsu (流通系列 "vertical
distribution networks")SOURCE: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Keiretsu

6. 系列
• horizontal keiretsu - financial keiretsu, around
a Japanese bank.
• Fuyo, Sanwa, Sumitomo, Mitsubishi, Mitsui,
and Dai-Ichi Kangyo bank groups. (Big 6)
• Horizontal keiretsu may also have vertical
relationships, called branches.
• Industries:banking, insurance, steel, trading,
manufacturing, electric, gas and chemicals
are all part of the horizontal keiretsu web.
• The member companies follow the "One-Set
Policy” - whereby the groups avoid direct
competition between member firms!
SOURCE: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Keiretsu

7. 系列
SOURCE: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Keiretsu

8. 系列
• The linkage of these corporate groups
through ownership of long-term equity and
production activities, leads to emergence of
vertical keiretsu.
• also known as industrial keiretsu are used to
link suppliers, manufacturers, and distributors
of one industry.
• one or more sub-companies are created to
benefit the parent company (for example,
Toyota or Honda).
• divided into levels called tiers. The second tier
constitutes major suppliers-smaller
manufacturers (third and fourth tiers)
SOURCE: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Keiretsu

9. JAPANESE ECONOMY
HISTORY OVERVIEW
apre WWII
• readiness to emulate the West,
• Fukoku Kyohei - wealthy country/strong
military (infrastructure-industralization)
• government reforms in education, finance
and transportation,
• best-practice agriculture – traditional
&modern combined,
• Tokaido belt – concentration of industrial
production (Osaka/Kobe – Tokyo/Yokohama),
• Organizational economies of scale —
zaibatsu (Electrification - electrical machinery
production during the 1920s had a
revolutionary impact on manufacturing,
• military expansion

13. JAPANESE ECONOMY
HISTORY OVERVIEW
POST WWII
• economic and institutional restructuring,
• internal labor markets, just-in-time inventory
and quality control circles (Theory Z),
• Japan's labor force –availability, literacy and
reasonable wage demands. (Population
growth slowed and the nation became
increasingly industrialized in the mid-1960s,
wages rose significantly)
• keiretsu—large, modern industrial enterprise
groupings—emerged.
• “Miracle Growth” between 1953 and the
early 1970s (mainly electronics, car industry)
• 1989 Economic Bubble
• deflation from the 1990s to present
• intersectional innovation - FORESIGHT (since
1970s)

14. ECONOMICS -HISTORY OVERVIEW
POST WWII
• Theory Z-William Ouchi, 1981.
workers are involved in the work process on the
factory floor. Schedules, division of labor, work
assignments, and other aspects of the labor process
are given over to workers to do as they see best.
Investment policies, wages, fringe benefits and kind of
product are not given over to workers to decide; only
how best to do that decided by top management.
Characteristics of the Theory Z
- Long-term employment and job security
- Collective responsibility
- Implicit, informal control with explicit, formalized
measures
- Collective decision-making
- Slow evaluation and promotion
- Moderately specialized careers
- Concern for a total person, including their family

15. ECONOMICS -HISTORY OVERVIEW
POST WWII
• Supreme Command of the Allied Powers (SCAP)-
dissolved ZAIBATSU
• Japanese postwar economy - strong
influence of industrial planning by the state –
Ministry of International Trade and Industry (MITI)
• industrial production increased by 36,8 percent in
1951 alone
• in the period of 1950 to 1973, the Japanese
economy expanded by almost 10 % a year. In the
1970s, it still grew by an average 5 percent a year
and in the 1980s by 4 percent a year.

17. JAPANESE
FORESIGHT
AS
INTERSECTIONAL
INNOVATION
FRAMEWORK

18. JAPANESE FORESIGHT
socio-economic examples

19. JAPANESE FORESIGHT
socio-economic examples

20. JAPANESE FORESIGHT
socio-economic examples

21. CONCLUSIONS ON
JAPANESE ECONOMIC
BOOM
A key factor of growth was the export orientation of
Japan's industry, which at the same time was protected
by selective liberalization, allowing the free importation
of inputs and intermediate goods, but closing the
market for consumer goods of foreign countries.
The low entry rate of the yen into the international
monetary system, which until 1973 was a system of
fixed exchange rates (Bretton Woods) helped Japan to
accumulate large trade surpluses. International
economic integration into the GATT (1963), IMF and
OECD (1964), where Japan soon became a major
player, aided the internationalization of Japan's
economy.
And, of course JAPAN‘s cultural and historical legacy!

22. JAPANESE
FORESIGHT
(SOCIO-ECONOMIC IMPACTS)
examples of intersectional innovation
ゲーム

24. WHAT THE ANCIENTS KNEW-JAPAN
link:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A3at1K-
SzCk&list=PLqFgUhY61PHLS5pdukBuymPCr1OdB_cGT