The Japanese Firm as a System of Attributes: A Survey and Research Agenda

Abstract

This chapter surveys recent achievements of the economic research programme on the Japanese firm and sets its possible research agenda. The chapter makes a clear manifestation of the ‘systematic awareness’. Instead of merely listing major works on various attributes of the Japanese firm — such as employment systems, internal co-ordination, subcontracting relationships, main bank relationships, corporate governance — in parallel, the chapter attempts to identify their possible mutual dependencies and tries to relate and arrange contributions from different sub-fields of economics from a systematic perspective. Also, the chapter recognizes the roles of institutions, such as norms, regulations, and the organizations of exclusive membership, that support the reciprocal interactions of agents as equilibrium behaviour. In this regard, the chapter may be regarded as presenting an economist's attempt to bridge a gap between the traditional economic approach and other disciplines (such as sociology, political science, law).

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