TNCs of Japan and ASEAN: current development trends, cooperation and competitive potential in the 21st century

Abstract

The article analyzes modern investment strategies in the global markets of transnational corporations in Japan and South-East Asia. The author, based on offi cial UNCTAD data, comes to the conclusion that the volumes of total and foreign assets of corporations of these countries diff er — Japanese TNCs have hundreds of billions of dollars, while South Asian TNCs have tens of billions of dollars. However, this does not directly aff ect the geographical scope of their corporations — in both cases, the transnationalization of entrepreneurship has not only a regional but also a global scope. However, the scope of activities of TNCs in Japan and Southeast Asia is somewhat diff erent-historically, Japanese TNCs are most successfully developing in the segments of automotive, household appliances and electronics, while modern TNCs from Southeast Asia occupy niches in the restaurant business, food and beverage production, construction and real estate. It is revealed that business in Singapore and Malaysia has reached the largest scale of transnationalization in Southeast Asia, i.e. the transnationalization of entrepreneurship is developing very unevenly in the subregion.