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How Reciprocal was the Business–Government Relationship? The Wedge of Competition in Early Industrializing Japan

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  18 February 2015

Peter von Staden
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Abstract

The literature on early industrializing Japan characterizes the business–government relationship in antithetical terms of “cooperation” or “independence.” The first position advances that interaction between these actors is largely covert and mutually beneficial and the second characterizes business as ever chary of government interference. These positions have been brought under the framework of “Reciprocal Consent” where government accords business control of industry while retaining its jurisdictional remit. It is argued that this arrangement observed in Japan's energy industry emerged because government was not a financial stakeholder. By contrast, in the iron and steel industry under study here, government was the primary stakeholder. The Shingikai or Councils of Deliberation records show that in the early development of this industry, economics played a central role in shaping the business–government relationship and setting the limits of “reciprocity”.

Type
Articles
Information
Enterprise & Society , Volume 10 , Issue 2 , June 2009 , pp. 237 - 264
Copyright
Copyright © The Author(s) 2009. Published by Cambridge University Press on behalf of the Business History Conference. All rights reserved.

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References

Bibliography of Works Cited

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The Japan Year Book. Tokyo: The Japan Year Book Office, 1919.Google Scholar
Johnson, Chalmers. MITI and the Japanese Miracle: The Growth of Industrial Policy, 1925–1975. Stanford, CA: Stanford University Press, 1982.Google Scholar
Kamesake, Tsunesaburo, ed. The Who’s Who in Japan. Tokyo: The Who’s Who in Japan Publishing Office, 1937.Google Scholar
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Koizumi, Tetsushied. Asahi Jinbutsu Jiten [Asahi Bibliographical Dictionary], Tokyo: Asashi Shinbunsha, 1990.Google Scholar
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Nichigai, Asoshietsu, ed. Seijika Jinmei Jiten [Biographical Dictionary ofPoliti-cians]. Tokyo: Hatsubaimoto Kinokuniya Shoten, 1990.Google Scholar
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Tsusho, Sangyosho [Ministry of International Trade and Industry], ed. Shoko Seisakushi: Tekkogyo [The History of Commercial and Industrial Policy: The Iron and Steel Industry], vol. 17, Shoko Seisakushi, [The History of Commercial and Industrial Policy]. Tokyo: Shoko Seisakushi Kankokai, 1970.Google Scholar
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Yonekura, Seiichiro. The Japanese Steel Industry, 1850–1990: Continuity and Discontinuity. London: Macmillan, 1994.Google Scholar
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