THE MAIN PURPOSE of this volume is to shed some light on the state of Japanese-German business relations throughout the whole of the twentieth century and at the beginning of the twenty-first. A further aim is to provide some clarification on the structures and processes of the world economy in the same period, while retaining a focus on Japanese and German, as well as European business, and attempting to give a clear picture of the Japanese and European ‘national’ and business economies.

Globally, Germany has long been significant. It was a major player in the two world wars in the first half of the twentieth century, and in the latter half – particularly at the end of the century and the beginning of this one – it was the driving force behind European integration and remains the most important partner of the United States in Continental Europe. For Japan, its relationship with Germany has long been important, while Japan has been a nation, which is indeed impossible for Germany to ignore. In political and diplomatic relations in the first half of the twentieth century, the two nations both came into conflict, with the ‘Japanese-German War’ in 1914, which was one facet of the First World War, as a representative example; and also cooperated, as symbolized by the conclusion of the Tripartite Pact in 1940. Simultaneously, in the realm of the economy (both business and national) there was both competition between Japanese and German companies in the world market, and collaboration through, for example, technological licensing. The relationship between the two countries, needless to say, included the study of Germany by Japan. This study was both broad and deep, encompassing the formation of the state system, science and technology, and reaching into the realm of ideology.

After the Second World War, both nations continued to remain important to each other, most of all in economic relations (both business relations and national economic relations), and their relationship developed while both their competition and their collaboration expanded. In this period, unlike the one before, Germany began to study Japanese business management and technology. More significant than this, however, are the clear parallels between the steps both countries have taken: that is to say, the parallels between defeat as allies, post-war occupation, reform and reconstruction and becoming ‘economic powers’.