The Environmental Crisis in Japan and the Origins of Japanese Manufacturing in Europe

Abstract

Japanese manufacturing in the developed regions of Europe and North America has been strongly associated with the more competitive sectors of Japan's high growth economy, such as consumer electronics, semi-conductors and transport equipment. During the earliest years of Japanese productive investment in Europe, however, a significant number of projects from Japan's less competitive chemicals sector were being established. These projects, together with those from other chemicals-related sectors of Japan's domestic industry, will be shown to have emerged in response to the widespread concern over environmental and pollution issues which dominated public affairs in Japan during the decade after 1965.