00056164

open access

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The Experience of Foreign Multinational Enterprises in Japan, 1946-1974

国民経済雑誌

196(1)

23-47

神戸大学経済経営学会

2007-07

2012-04-03

The paper provides an overview of foreign multinational enterprises (MNEs) in Japan during the "boom years" of the 1950sand 1960s, considering the post-World War II re-entries and new entries, including the predominance of joint ventures with Japanese firms. It explores explanations on the pace of foreign MNEs' involvements, the industrial composition, and the variety of experiences. Because of the relative importance of US MNEs, they provide the main focus, yet Dutch, German, Swiss and British MNEs are also included. In 1974, according to American statistics, US business in Japan was about ten times that of Japanese business in the United States. Yet, compared with other advanced countries, Japan in the years 1946-1974 (and subsequently) attracted a relatively small amount of inward foreign direct investments. The paper indicates the reasons for this that other authors have supplied and argues that the mixture of key reasons altered through time. It considers whether US-Japanese differences in human resources management offer a reason for the relatively low investment. The paper makes distinctions between US and Japanese human resources management and demonstrates the variety in the ways by which individual foreign MNEs dealt with the differences.

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