Japanese Challenge Research Articles

When Myths Collide: An Analysis of Conflicting U.S.-Japanese Views on Economics, Law, and Values

This paper examines why Americans so often feel compelled to describe the Japanese in such strong terms. Americans are threatened by Japan. It is not that Japan is stronger, or bigger. The problem is that the Japanese are perceived as different. The difference threatens American assumptions about the American way. This will be illustrated by first reviewing what the problem is between the United States and Japan - centering on the trade imbalance. Then some scholars' analyses of this problem are reviewed, not to find the cause of the problem, but to identify common themes. The common theme is that Japan and the United States do things differently. The differences are reflected in the way government and business relate, in the different role of law in the two societies and in different perceptions about values inherent in the individual or the community. These dif- ferences are described, at least as reflected in the scholarly literature on the subjects. Finally, the hope is that by recognizing that the Japanese challenge the American myth about the market economy, and how it should function in terms of individualism and societal relations, one can come to the conclusion that the strong terms used to describe Japanese conduct mask the real problem: that Japan challenges America's myth about itself.

American Power, the New World Order, and the Japanese Challenge. By William R. Nester. New York: St. Martin's Press, 1993. vi, 492 pp. $39.95.

American Power, the New World Order, and the Japanese Challenge. By William R. Nester. New York: St. Martin's Press, 1993. vi, 492 pp. $39.95.

Biotechnology: the emerging battlefield for US and Japanese pharmaceutical companies

The Japanese pharmaceutical industry has lagged behind the US in developing and marhting innovative new compounh. A gap anabsis rebing on international publication and patenting stahtics as well as market survgs shows that the US is the clear leader in biophannaceuticals. Recent Japanese public and private efforts to close the gap have posed no immediate threat to US pharmaceutical companies. The conflict over industrial policy among the ministries involved will take some time to be resolved. However, information networking activities and cross-border technology linkages of Japanese companies should not be underestimated. Biotechnology is current4 transforming theJapanese pharmaceutical induse, and the US will have to deal with a gowing Japanese challenge in the long run. Preventive US counter-measures should include investments in in-house biotechnology research, acquisitions of smaller biotechnology start-up ventures, global commercialization o f biophannaceuticals, and proactive management o f technology linkages with Japanese companies.

American power, the new world order and the Japanese challenge

American power, the new world order and the Japanese challenge

STM‐based nanotechnology: The japanese challenge

AbstractJapan is launching an ambitious ten‐year nanotechnology project, the goal of which is the “ultimate manipulation of atoms and molecules”. An important aspect of this project is the use of the scanning tunneling microscope (STM) to modify materials on the nanometer scale. Another five‐year Japanese project devoted entirely to STM‐controlled atom‐scale fabrication is already nearing completion. Japanese industrial laboratories have also produced some outstanding results in this area of research. This article reviews recent Japanese efforts in STM‐based nanotechnology and attempts to put these in a worldwide perspective.

Europe and the Japanese Banking Challenge

AbstractThe dramatic overseas expansion of Japanese banks during the 1980s provoked major policy debates within the European Community. Fears that Japanese firms in the banking industry might replicate earlier successes in other industries, together with charges that Japan did not grant reciprocal access to European banks, raised important questions for EC member states committed to the implementation of common banking policies. Adoption of the crucially important Second Banking Coordination Directive and other public measures enabled the Community flexibly to impose strong controls on Japanese banks in the region. The nature of these public measures toward Japanese firms in the Community's banking industry, together with related EC policies toward local Japanese competition in other industries, suggested the emergence of a more general EC policy model for confronting the vaunted ‘Japanese challenge.’

American power, the new world order and the Japanese challenge

Introduction - PART 1: LIBERALISM, NEOMERCANTILISM, AND THE NEW WORLD ORDER - Power and the Changing Nature of International Relations - American Liberalism: Triumph and Tragedy - Japanese Neomercantilism: The New Hegemony - PART 2: POLITICAL ECONOMIC BATTLEGROUNDS - The Shifting Balance of Economic Power - The Shifting Balance of Political Power: Hearts, Minds, and Policies - American Policy toward Japan: The Sisyphean Dilemma or What is the Sound of One Hand Clapping? - The Mature Industry Front - The Foreign Investment Front - The High Technology Front - The Financial Front - PART 3: WHAT IS TO BE DONE? - American Power and the Japanese Challenge into the Twenty-First Century - Notes - Index

Flexible, integrated operations: The new Japanese challenge

Many Japanese companies are experiencing declines in profitability because of a labor shortage, rising interest rates, Japan's aging population and the restraints of the social contract of life‐time employment. In response, they are moving to a new phase of competition beyond quality and just‐in‐time manufacturing, developing process reengineering strategies to cope with the recessionary, marketplace and employment changes in the Japanese economy.

Strategy Options Available to EC Automakers to Meet Coming Challenges

With elimination of trade barriers between members of the European Community soon to take place, special problems are posed for European automotive makers. Presently, very different approaches are taken by individual nations to the marketing challenges posed by the Japanese auto makers. France and Italy, for example, virtually excluded entry of Japanese cars, while Germany and the United Kingdom have allowed substantial numbers of Japanese cars to penetrate their markets. This article documents the current European marketing situation and suggests business strategy by which the Japanese challenge can be faced.

A Letter from New York

This article examines how an offshoot of the Operations Research Society of America (ORSA) has become an effective vehicle for airing production and operations management (POM) issues in the United States. It discusses the POM issues which American academics and industrialists find important when facing recession and the Japanese challenge. Finally it notes that universal agreement on means of meeting POM challenges has not been achieved.

From ‘mission-oriented’ to ‘diffusion-oriented’ paradigm: the new trend of U.S. industrial technology policy

As post-World War II history shows, several ‘diffusion-oriented’ countries. Japan and Germany in particular, have performed better economically than some ‘mission-oriented’ countries, like France and the U.K. As the leading ‘mission-oriented’ innovator and ‘first mover’ country with three decades of economic and technological dominance and impressive ‘spin-off’ achievements, the U.S. has been eclipsed in its traditional competitive advantage by many ‘smart followers’ which have strong technical resources and complementary assets, and which could rapidly assimilate innovators technical advances and compete away innovator's economic rewards. In order to revive, the U.S. Federal government is undergoing a structural transition in its industrial technology policy toward a ‘diffusion-oriented’ paradigm. This new trend also reflects the growing skepticism and even disillusionment about the conventional ‘spin-off’ rationale. In the ‘diffusion-oriented’ policy framework, the U.S. Federal government's active participation in ‘generic’ and ‘precompetitive’ technology is a rather novel strategic movement in this country. However, there are still many delicate issues involved in, especially. ‘precompetitive’ industrial joint R&D remaining to be solved. Moreover, this new policy orientation in the U.S. may have some far-reaching implications. First, global technological progress may be slowed down because other countries cannot replace the U.S. in radical innovation. Second, the Japanese experience may be emulated widely because its ‘diffusion-oriented’ strategy constitutes the new ‘Japanese challenge’. Finally, the U.S. would face many challanges in this transition because the U.S. institutional framework will need to be modified and this will take time.

Trojan Horse, the ultimate Japanese challenge to western industry: Barrie G James, Mercury Business Books, London 1989, 284 pp, £15.00

Trojan Horse, the ultimate Japanese challenge to western industry: Barrie G James, Mercury Business Books, London 1989, 284 pp, £15.00

SHOP FLOOR PERFORMANCE INDICATORS

The Japanese industrial challenge is well‐known. As a consequence, study of the Japanese management approach has become a very popular subject. In this article Ludo Gelders highlights some aspects of the Japanese production management approach he observed during a recent Japanese study tour.

The Japanese technological challenge to Australia

The Japanese economy has experienced a period of unprecented growth since the Second World War; enormous trade surpluses and the strength of the Tokyo Stock Market have propelled Japan center stage financially, yet it is the global ascendency of Japanese technology in key strategic industries that has provided the underpinning for the economic boom. Japanese technology is now all-pervasive, it is setting the agendas for other nations, its modus operandi is being studied by others who would reproduce its characteristics and so capitalise on its successes. However, the Japanese political, legal and business framework is unique; labor relations are characterised by consensus rather than confrontation; robotics is a pivotal technology; R&D and education have pragmatic subtleties often lost to the Western mind; and attempts to emulate the technological culture have been only marginally successful. The Europe of 1992 and the American-Canadian trade block of 1999 can only isolate Australia from its traditional Western orientation and mandate a reassessment of its relationship with East Asia, and particularly with Japan as the dominant economic power. Geographicallty, Australia is part of Asia, and political, economic, and technological integration into the Asian environment is advancing rapidly. The genesis of a response to the Japanese challenge must be inaugurated at the highest level, at the level of Federal government policy, and a National Technology Strategy has already been mooted. This Strategy failed to gain popular support and was shelved; but in the longer term, some form of comprehensive technology policy may become mandatory.

The Materials revolution: superconductors, new materials, and the Japanese challenge

I The Superconductor Story 1 Superconductors! The Startling Breakthrough that Could Change our World Michael D. Lemonick with Thomas McCarroll, J. Madeleine Nash and Dennis Wyss 2. Are Superconductors Really that Super? Two Reports from `The Economist' and `The Boston Globe' Part II Materials and Society 3. Materials, Year 2000 E.D.Hondros 4. Materials in History and Society Melvin Kranzberg and Cyril Stanley Smith 5. New Materials Technology in Japan Gene Gregory 6. Beyond the Era of Materials Eric D. Larson, Marc H. Ross and Robert H. Williams Part III Materials and the Economy 7. Advanced Materials and the Economy Joel P. Clark and Merton C. Flemings 8. Ceramics Take on Tough Tasks Gordon Graff 9. What's Sexier and Speedier than Silicon? Gene Bylinsky 10. High Performance Plastics Gordon Graff 11. Optical Fibres: Where Light Outperforms Electrons Les C. Gunderson and Donald B. Keck 12. Skylines of Fabric Doug Stewart Part IV Materials Innovation and Substitution 13. The Real Challenge in Materials Engineering Thomas W. Eagar 14. Innovation in Materials George F. Ray 15. How Critical are Critical Materials? Joel P. Clark and Frank R. Field III 16. Material Substitution: Lessons from Tin-Using Industries John E. Tilton Part V New Frontiers in Materials 17. Looking to the Future in Ceramics W. David Kingery 18. Materials Processing in Space Peter Marsh 19. Seabed Materials James M. Broadus 20. The Coming Era of Nanotechnology K. Eric Drexler

The Japanese Educational Challenge

The Japanese Educational Challenge

Facing the Japanese Challenge

Facing the Japanese Challenge

Technology and the Constitution

Technology policy is an idea whose time has come. It has touched a responsive chord in the body politic in the face of the Japanese business challenge. It is provoking debates in Congress and the media as to the best modus operandi, and everyone seems to have a checklist of ideas that are important. Debates are focusing on status quo versus national industrial policy, yet a third option is apparent, that of a fourth or technological branch of government. These options are discussed, and the third may be the compromise people are searching for.

Book reviews : Merry White, The Japanese Educational Challenge: A Commitment to Children. New York: The Free Press, 1987, pp. x, 210, $ 18.95 (cloth)

Book reviews : Merry White, The Japanese Educational Challenge: A Commitment to Children. New York: The Free Press, 1987, pp. x, 210, $ 18.95 (cloth)

The Japanese Educational Challenge: A Commitment to Children. Merry White

<i>The Japanese Educational Challenge: A Commitment to Children</i>. Merry White