Revisiting the Roots of Japan's Economic Stagnation: The role of the Japanese corporation

For a long period in the 20th century, the development of the Japanese corporation appeared congruent with the development of the Japanese economy. The growth-maximising behaviour of the Japanese corporation and the preference for internal growth over acquisitions (see Odagiri, 1992) appeared to suit the long-term ambitions of Japan. Now, that formerly clear connection between the ambitions of corporate Japan and the Japanese public interest is no longer so clear. Increasingly, the global ambitions of the corporation appear as an impediment to Japan's economic development. By favouring the development of large-scale transnational corporations, Japanese industrial policy-making appears to have contained a fundamental flaw. Japan is now dominated by large-scale organisations with global ambitions, controlled by corporate elites. It is unlikely that their strategic decisions will correspond with the wider public interest, which raises the possibility that Japan is now afflicted with 'strategic failure'. Other examples from around the world suggest that Japan is not unique in this respect. Alternative ways forward are suggested.     

Diffusion with distinction: The diffusion of household durables in the UK

Futures researchers have long been interested in studies that investigate the diffusion of innovations among consumers. Often this is simply as a basis for extrapolating future trends in access to technologies. But also this literature has been particularly useful in providing frameworks for understanding the processes by which new commodities come into circulation and spread across populations of adopters. In this paper we seek to deepen the analysis. We argue that many studies have oversimplified the issues by treating populations of potential adopters as being homogeneous. This, we believe, is inadequate for understanding the diffusion of products in consumer markets. Drawing on debates from cultural studies and the sociology of consumption, as well as emerging theories from evolutionary economics, and analysing household survey data, we show that there are discernible social groups that adopt products at different rates. These differential rates of adoption are attributable to the existence of groups with different tastes, and not simply a question of different income groups.     

The Japanese Crisis — A Case of Strategic Failure?

This paper provides an alternative insight into Japan's current economic problems. We concentrate upon the role played by the economy's central actors, namely Japan's transnational corporations. Since the early 1980's, Japan's transnationals have become dominant players in the global economy, and now have a higher rate of physical investment in new, overseas greenfield sites than their competitors. This has had detrimental consequences for Japan's domestic economy, particularly for small firms who operate in keiretsu networks. This has led to concerns about the 'hollowing out' of Japan's domestic industry raising the possibility of long-term industrial decline and 'strategic failure'.     

Promoting women's sport: theory,policy and practice

After discussing some of the responses to the 1988 LSA International Conference, particularly the theory-practice or academic-practitioner relation, this paper goes on to explore the roots of leisure studies and the sociology of leisure in Britain, and to account for the impact of cultural studies upon the study of leisure. It is argued that the critical dimension to cultural studies could restore to the study of leisure some of the major concerns of classical social and cultural theory.

The 1985 talk was published, with the same title, in Ernst Meijer (Ed.), Everyday Life, Leisure and Culture (English Edition, undated), Dutch Centre for Leisure Studies, Tilburg University, Postbox 90153, 500 Le Tilburg, The Netherlands.