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Japanese-German Business Relations: Co-operation and Rivalry in the Interwar Period PDF

301 Pages·1998·1.64 MB·English
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Japanese–German Business Relations The Nissan Institute/Routledge Japanese Studies Series Editorial Board J.A.A. Stockwin, Nissan Professor of Modern Japanese Studies, University of Oxford and Director, Nissan Institute of Japanese Studies; Teigo Yoshida, formerly Professor of the University of Tokyo, and now Professor, Obirin University, Tokyo; Frank Langdon, Professor, Institute of International Relations, University of British Columbia, Canada; Alan Rix, Professor of Japanese, The University of Queensland; Junji Banno, Institute of Social Science, University of Tokyo; Leonard Schoppa, University of Virginia Other titles in the series The Myth of Japanese Uniqueness, Peter Dale The Emperor’s Adviser: Saionji Kinmochi and Pre-war Japanese Politics, Lesley Connors A History of Japanese Economic Thought, Tessa Morris-Suzuki The Establishment of the Japanese Constitutional System, Junji Banno, translated by J.A.A. Stockwin Industrial Relations in Japan: the Peripheral Workforce, Norma Chalmers Banking Policy in Japan: American Efforts at Reform During the Occupation, William M. Tsutsui Education Reform in Japan, Leonard Schoppa How the Japanese Learn to Work, Ronald P. Dore and Mari Sako Japanese Economic Development: Theory and Practice, Penelope Francks Japan and Protection: The Growth of Protectionist Sentiment and the Japanese Response, Syed Javed Maswood The Soil, by Nagatsuka Takashi: a Portrait of Rural Life in Meiji Japan, translated and with an introduction by Ann Waswo Biotechnology in Japan, Malcolm Brock Britain’s Educational Reform: a Comparison with Japan, Mike Howarth Language and the Modern State: the Reform of Written Japanese, Nanette Twine Industrial Harmony in Modern Japan: the Invention of a Tradition, W. Dean Kinzley Japanese Science Fiction: a View of a Changing Society, Robert Matthew The Japanese Numbers Game: the Use and Understanding of Numbers in Modern Japan, Thomas Crump Ideology and Practice in Modern Japan, Roger Goodman and Kristen Refsing Technology and Industrial Development in pre-War Japan, Yukiko Fukasaku Japan’s Early Parliaments 1890–1905, Andrew Fraser, R.H.P. Mason and Philip Mitchell Japan’s Foreign Aid Challenge, Alan Rix Emperor Hirohito and Showa Japan, Stephen S. Large Japan: Beyond the End of History, David Williams Ceremony and Ritual in Japan: Religious Practices in an Industrialized Society, Jan van Bremen and D.P. Martinez Understanding Japanese Society: Second Edition, Joy Hendry The Fantastic in Modern Japanese Literature: The Subversion of Modernity, Susan J. Napier Militarization and Demilitarization in Contemporary Japan, Glenn D. Hook Growing a Japanese Science City: Communication in Scientific Research, James W. Dearing Architecture and Authority in Japan, William H. Coaldrake Women’s Gidayu and the Japanese Theatre Tradition, A. Kimi Coaldrake Democracy in Post-war Japan, Rikki Kersten On the Margins of Japanese Society, Carolyn S. Stevens The Right to Life in Japan, Noel Williams The Dynamics of Japan’s Relations with Africa, Kweken Ampiah Treacherous Women of Imperial Japan: Patriarchal Fictions and Patricidal Fantasies, Hélène Bowen Raddeker Japan, Race and Equality: the Racial Equality Proposal of 1919, Naoko Shimazu Japanese–German Business Relations: Cooperation and Rivalry in the Inter-war Period, Kudo Akira Japanese–German Business Relations Cooperation and rivalry in the inter-war period Kudo Akira London and New York First published 1998 by Routledge 11 New Fetter Lane, London EC4P 4EE This edition published in the Taylor & Francis e-Library, 2001. © 1998 Kudo Akira All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reprinted or reproduced or utilized in any form or by any electronic, mechanical, or other means, now known or hereafter invented, including photocopying and recording, or in any information storage or retrieval system, without permission in writing from the publishers. British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library Library of Congress Cataloging in Publication Data Kudo, Akira, Japanese–German Business Relations : Cooperation and rivalry in the inter-war period / Kudo Akira. p. cm. – (Nissan Institute/Routledge Japanese studies series) Includes bibliographical references and index. 1. Japan—Foreign economic relations—Germany. 2. Germany—Foreign economic relations—Japan. 3. Technology transfer—Japan—History—20th century. 4. Technology transfer—Germany—History—20th century. 5. Investments, Japanese—Germany— History—20th century. 6. Investments, German—Japan—History—20th century. 7. Competition, International—History—20th century. I. Title. II. Series. HF1602.15.G3K83 1998 337.43052–dc21 97-42299 CIP ISBN 0–415–14971–1 (Print Edition) ISBN 0-203-01851-6 Master e-book ISBN ISBN 0-203-11623-2 (Glassbook Format) Contents List of tables viii Series editor’s preface ix Acknowledgments xi Introduction 1 Part I Overview 1 Japanese–German business relations 11 I Japanese–German relations in the inter-war period 11 II Strategy choices of German companies 18 III Forms of business relationships 21 IV Conclusion 32 Part II Export strategy 2 Competition and cooperation: I.G. Farben, international dyestuff cartels, and Japan 35 I German dominance and the Japanese challenge in the 1920s 35 II The Japan strategy of the international dyestuff cartels 37 III The conclusion of special market agreements 42 IV The Mitsui indigo agreement 44 V Conclusion 48 3 Rivalry between German and Japanese trading companies: C. Illies & Co. and Mitsubishi Shoji 49 I The actors 49 II The battle 55 III Conclusion 64 4 Competition and cooperation among German companies: Krupp, I.G. Farben, and Japan’s synthetic oil project 66 I Japan’s project for synthetic oil production and Krupp’s activities in Japan 67 vi Contents II Action taken by Oshima of Imperial Fuel, and Krupp and I.G. Farben’s response 74 III Conclusion 85 Part III Licensing strategy 5 Downstream transfer of the Krupp-Renn process 89 I The Krupp-Renn process and Japanese businesses 89 II The plant-construction process 93 III The technology-absorption process at Mitsubishi Mining’s Chongjin plant 100 IV Conclusion 107 6 Downstream transfer of the Haber-Bosch process 110 I Diffusion of the Haber-Bosch process in Japan 111 II Technological absorption of the Haber-Bosch process by Taki Fertilizer Works 116 III Conclusion 127 7 Downstream transfer of the I.G. process for synthetic oil 130 I I.G. Farben’s licensing strategy and the Japanese synthetic oil industry 130 II Development of licensing strategy 133 III Probing the unsuccessful results 140 IV Conclusion 144 8 Upstream transfer of the Shimadzu process 148 I Technological cooperation on an equal footing: the establishment of Ost Lurgi 149 II An attempt at licensing upstream 152 III Revision of the technological cooperation 157 IV Conclusion 161 Part IV Direct investment strategy 9 Giving up control: Siemens, Fuji Electric, and Fujitsu 165 I The period of forced export strategy 166 II From localization of sales to localization of manufacturing 177 III Fuji Electric’s management crisis and the move toward cooperation 187 IV Forced localization of automatic switchboard manufacturing 195 V The forced separation of companies 207 VI Conclusion 215 10 Concluding remarks 218 Summary 218 Contents vii Ambition and pride 220 Notes 223 Bibliography 262 Index 279 Tables 1.1 German trade with Japan, 1913–38 21 1.2 Foreign ownership of industrial rights in Japan (as of December 7, 1941) 24 1.3 Ownership and management forms of foreign-affiliated companies, 1931 27 4.1 Enquiries from Japan regarding high-pressure reaction pipes (as of December 1938) 67 4.2 Enquiries from Japan regarding high-pressure reaction pipes, 1938 68 4.3 Enquiries from Japan for which permission to export was refused (as of January 25, 1941) 73 5.1 Japanese companies granted licenses for the Krupp-Renn process, 1937–42 92 5.2 Tonnage of pig iron produced by rotary kilns, 1940–5 95 6.1 Introduction of the Haber-Bosch process in Japan, 1935–40 114 6.2 University and college graduate personnel, Taki Fertilizer Works (as of May 1934) 117 6.3 University and college graduate personnel, Taki Fertilizer’s ammonium sulphate plant, 1943 117 6.4 Organization of general and operative personnel, Taki Fertilizer Works (as of December 31, 1938) 118 6.5 Numbers of German engineers and foremen dispatched to Taki Fertilizer Works, 1936–8 121 9.1 Western Electric’s market share based on Siemens’ proposal, 1913 168 9.2 Implementation of Communications Ministry’s telephone system expansion plan (business years 1916–36) 178 9.3 Adoption of automatic switchboards for public telephone system (business years 1926–9) 181 9.4 Ministry of Communications’ company contracts (business years 1926–31) 182 9.5 Business results of Fuji Electric (business years 1923–37) 184 Series editor’s preface ‘. . . [W]e are a people whose glorious history will bear to be held up to the gaze of Western nations. We have learned a great many things from the West, but there are some instances of our having outstripped our tutors.’ So wrote Count Okuma in Fifty Years of New Japan, published in 1910, some five years after Japan had emerged victorious in the Russo–Japanese war. Over the eighty-seven years that have elapsed since those words were written, the history of Japan’s relations with the rest of the world has passed through phases more turbulent than Okuma could probably have imagined. The tragic and terrible history of the 1930s and 1940s gave way, however, to decades in which the Japanese forged an amazing (and often deserved) reputation for economic development and efficiency. The idea of the Japanese outstripping their tutors is no longer as exotic as it must have sounded to an English-speaking readership in 1910, but its content has been radically changed with the passage of time. Japan has been widely accused by some Americans and others of exploiting American goodwill and soft attitudes since the 1950s in such a way as to maximize ruthlessly the interests of Japanese corporations and the Japanese economy in general. Whatever the truth of these accusations, during the late 1990s many influential Japanese have been moving to the view that forces of globalization leave Japan little choice in terms of national interest but to move toward a more open, less controlled, form of economic, political and social order. Entrenched resistance to such a fundamental systemic change remains strong, but the balance of influences is shifting significantly. How the Japanese seek to resolve the quandary of how far they can preserve a distinctive Japanese identity and practice in an increasingly globalizing world is fascinating to watch. The Nissan Institute–Routledge Japanese Studies Series seeks to foster an informed and balanced, but not uncritical, understanding of Japan. One of its aims is to show the depth and variety of Japanese institutions, practices and ideas. Another is, by using comparison, to see what lessons, positive and negative, can be drawn

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This volume approaches the history of Japanese-German relations from a business history perspective. Starting with an overview of Japanese-German relations which focuses on the environment, strategies and forms of inter-firm relations, Akira Kudo then uses case studies to provide a broader picture,
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