Factors That Have Contributed to the Success Story of Japan

Asian Business Essay

Outline and analyse the factors that have contributed to the success story of

Japanese corporations in global markets, taking care to assess both internal and

external factors.

Japanese corporations had very humble beginnings and started off with almost nothing after the Second World War The war had destroyed much of their wealth, infrastructure and morale of its people. All they had left were their people and this was what the Japanese banked on to rise above the rest of the globe. Japanese corporations mainly used their people in a strategic way without compromising their welfare. This equal balance brought a win-win situation for both employees and employers and was one of the corner stones of Japanese corporations’ success. Japanese corporations also strategically planned their pathways to success without rushing into it unlike many other corporations. This slow and steady strategy coupled with several government incentives aided their victory in having a foot in the world market.

The Japanese first started off at the bottom with almost nothing new in terms of manufacturing. As a result, instead of having pride and starting from scratch which would have been very costly and time consuming, they used existing technology from the giants at the time which were mainly USA and Great Britain. Their strategy was to take existing technology and make it better. The Japanese governments also played a part by having protectionist policies that restricted imports which helped companies in Japan have an equal playing field without having to struggle with better foreign products. Immediately after the war they were aided by the American government who paid the Japanese government large sums for "special procurements” of which payments amounted to 27% of Japan’s total export trade [ (Allinson & Gary, 1997) ]. During the Korean War, Japan was granted full Sovereignty with the departing of the Supreme Commander of the Allied Powers which...