Social capital and producer organizations in Japanese political economy

Abstract

Although the small and medium‐sized firms have been an integral part of Japan's economic growth patterns, the way these firms are organized has mostly been studied only in relation to the more glamorous keiretsu organizational patterns. Japan's small and medium‐sized firms did not develop only in the shadow of the keiretsu, but rather grew out of collective self‐reflection and self‐determinism that persisted, and indeed thrived in the late twenties century. Japanese producers of small and medium‐sized firms have struggled to realize their interests by creating a specific social system. The identities of producers of small and medium‐sized firms also have deployed along the development of regional system and local pride.