The supplier network and aircraft production in wartime Japan

The Japanese aircraft industry, which was very small scale before the Second World War, became Japan's largest manufacturing industry by the end of the war. This article explores the basis for the growth of the aircraft industry during this time by focusing on Mitsubishi Heavy Industries Company's No. 5 Works. It was revealed that during the war, the supply of basic inputs increased substantially: labour force, equipment, and ‘machinery parts’ were in sufficient supply and none of these was a binding constraint on production. The binding constraint existed in the supply of ‘special parts’. In other words, aircraft production expanded as the supply of special parts increased. This increase in the supply of special parts and still faster growth in the supply of machinery parts came about through the expansion of the supplier network in terms of both the number of suppliers and the geographical area in which they were located. These findings imply that outsourcing played a key role in the growth of aircraft production in wartime Japan.     

BOEKE'S VIEW OF EASTERN SOCIETY — With Special Reference to His Critics —

Today those who characterize the economy of underdeveloped areas by the coexistence of a modern sector and a pre-modern sector within one political unit tend to refer to J. H. Boeke as a pioneer exponent in theorizing this dualism. But his dualism differs from the economic dualism of this sort. Again it differs from the so-called sociological dualism, despite his emphasis on social dualism. By confusing theoretically social dualism with economic dualism, he advocates in effect what is called a socio-economic approach. Inspite of Boeke's logical inconsistency abundant in his theorizing, what he was virtually claiming in order to find the real cause of economic stagnation in Eastern colonial society was the importance of making searching inquiry into the structural interrelationship between economic factors and social factors.     

‘Voice’ and ‘exit’ in Japanese firms during the Second World War: Sanpo revisited*

During the Second World War, the Japanese government and private sector searched for and implemented new mechanisms for coordination and motivation. One of these was sangyo hokokukai (sanpo). The Sanpo unit was basically an organization of the employer and employees of each firm, which held meetings to moderate labour relations. As a result of government policy to promote sanpo units, around 70 per cent of the total workers in Japan were organized into sanpo units in the early 1940s. As the members of trades unions and the workers of the companies that had factory committees were only 7 per cent and 5 per cent of the total workers in 1936 respectively, sanpo was the first large‐scale mechanism for Japanese employees to have a voice. This article examines the role of sanpo, using prefecture‐level and firm‐level data, based on a framework integrating the ‘voice view’ of unionism and transaction cost economics. It was found that sanpo reduced the participation rate in labour disputes, and enhanced labour productivity at least for some of the time.     

EC INTEGRATION AND JAPANESE FOREIGN DIRECT INVESTMENT IN THE EC

This study proposes two hypotheses to identify the cause(s) behind the short-term cyclical Japanese manufacturing foreign direct investment in the European Community (EC) in the late 1980s and early 1990s: (i) a catch-up process of Japanese firms in anticipation of EC single market integration in 1993 and (ii) the so-called bubble economic phenomenon caused by the overheated economy following expansionary monetary policy in Japan in the late 1980s. Applying multinomial logit models to the data on parent firms of 283 Japanese manufacturing subsidiaries established in the EC from 1988 to 1992 reveals strong support for the bubble economy hypothesis but not for the catch-up hypothesis. Results also show that under a bubble economy situation, tax-related incentive policies in host countries—e.g., an investment tax allowance for foreign direct investment—are quite important in attracting Japanese firms.     

Price-Quality Correlations in the Japanese Market

This study tested the consumer's rule of thumb, price indicates quality, in the Japanese market. The data source was the Monthly Consumers product testing magazine published by the Japanese Consumer Association. Spearman's rho correlations of price and quality ranged from +.87 to −.80, with a mean of −.06. The slightly negative, near zero mean correlation indicated that, on the average, price was a very poor indicator of quality. Among product categories, bicycles had the highest mean correlation, +.54; mean correlations for other product categories exhibited considerable variation. Comparisons of correlations within a product category, such as television sets or microwave ovens, revealed that a significant positive correlation at one point in time was not a reliable guide to the level of price-quality correlation for that product category at later points in time. Comparing results from this study with results from previous studies of Consumer Reports and Consumers Research reveals a smaller percentage of positive correlations and a lower mean correlation for the present study.     

THE IMPACT OF THE MINIMUM WAGE ON FEMALE EMPLOYMENT IN JAPAN

This article examines the impact of the minimum wage on employment, focusing on women in their 20s and 30s, who are known to be typical low‐wage workers in Japan. The results, based on a panel estimation, suggest that the minimum wage has a measurable impact on employment; the workers whose current wage is below the revised minimum wage are about 20–30 percentage points less likely to be employed in the following year than comparable low‐wage workers who are not affected by the revision of the minimum wage. The estimation results are sensitive to the choice of the control group. (JEL J23, J38, J88)