Exporting Electrodes to Australia in the 1930s:

Abstract

Using the internal records of trading companies operating in Australia that were seized by the Australian government after the Japanese attack on Pearl in December 1941, the present study examines the role played by Okura & Company and its Managing Director in Sydney, Sawada Shigeo, as intermediaries in the development of a potential Australian market for Japanese electrodes in the interwar period. International trade in foreign markets required Japanese manufacturers to respond “flexibly” to the terms, conditions, and practices of the new markets into which they were exporting, especially in relation to any technological difficulties (real or perceived) with their products. General trading companies (like our example, Okura & Company) were employed to provide essential market information and to bridge any “gaps of recognition” between Japanese manufacturers (like our example, Tokai Electrode Manufacturing Company) and their new, non-Japanese clients. The interwar experience of “market development” in Australia was integral to the remarkable success of Japan’s export-oriented industries during the postwar reconstruction period, when electrode manufacturing quickly became an important export industry for Japan.