The Japanese Model and its Implications for International Transfer and Work Transformation

Abstract

AbstractThis chapter considers contrasting interpretations of the Japanese model and their implications for international transfer and work transformation. It compares accounts of Japanese production paradigms as exemplars of neo-Fordism, post-Fordism, or Toyotaism, and locates these accounts within wider debates about evolving work and employment relations in Japan during the post-war period. It considers four rival interpretations of the rise of distinctively Japanese forms of work and employment — culturalist, institutionalist, class relations, and political economy approaches — and the implications of each of these interpretations for the transfer debate. It concludes that an historical analysis of evolving class and gender relations, the role of the state, and wider geo-political contexts is important for understanding the rise of the Japanese economy in the post-war period, the distinctive features of Japanese firms, and the internationalization of economic activity from the 1980s.