The Great Transformation of Japanese Capitalism

236 Pages·2016·2.38 MB·English

by  Sébastien Lechevalier

The Great Transformation of Japanese
Capitalism
In the 1980s the performance of Japan’s economy was an international suc-
cess story, and led many economists to suggest that the 1990s would be a
Japanese decade. Today, however, the dominant view is that Japan is ines-
capably on a downward slope. Rather than focusing on the evolution of the
performance of Japanese capitalism, this book reflects on the changes that it
has experienced overthepast30 years,and presentsacomprehensive analysis
of the great transformation of Japanese capitalism from the heights of the
1980s, through the lost decades of the 1990s, andwell into the 21st century.
This book posits an alternative analysis of the Japanese economic trajec-
tory since the early 1980s, and argues that whereas policies inspired by neo-
liberalism have been presented as a solution to the Japanese crisis, these
policies have in fact been one of the causes of the problems that Japan has
faced over the past 30 years. Crucially, this book seeks to understand the
institutional and organisational changes that have characterised Japanese
capitalism since the 1980s, and to highlight in comparative perspective, with
reference to the ‘neo-liberal moment’, the nature of the transformation of
Japanese capitalism. Indeed, the arguments presented in this book go well
beyond Japan itself, and examine the diversity of capitalism, notably in con-
tinental Europe, which has experienced problems that in many ways are also
comparable to those of Japan.
The Great Transformation of Japanese Capitalism will appeal to students
and scholars of both Japanese politics and economics, as well as those
interested in comparative political economy.
Sébastien Lechevalier is Associate Professor at the EHESS in France.
The Nissan Institute/Routledge Japanese Studies Series
Series Editors:
RogerGoodman,NissanProfessorofModernJapaneseStudies,Universityof
Oxford, Fellow, St Antony’s College
J.A.A. Stockwin, formerly Nissan Professorof Modern Japanese Studies and
former Director of the Nissan Institute of Japanese Studies, University of
Oxford, Emeritus Fellow, St Antony’s College
Other titles in the series:
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Peter Dale The growth of protectionist
sentiment and the Japanese response
The Emperor’s Adviser Syed Javed Maswood
Saionji Kinmochi and pre-war
Japanese politics
The Soil, by Nagatsuka Takashi
Lesley Connors
A portrait of rural life in Meiji
Japan
A History of Japanese Economic
Translated and with an introduction
Thought
by Ann Waswo
Tessa Morris-Suzuki
The Establishment of the Japanese Biotechnology in Japan
Malcolm Brock
Constitutional System
Junji Banno, translated by
J.A.A. Stockwin Britain’s Educational Reform
A comparison with Japan
Industrial Relations in Japan Michael Howarth
The peripheral workforce
Norma Chalmers Language and the Modern State
The reform of written Japanese
Banking Policy in Japan Nanette Twine
American efforts at reform during
the Occupation
Industrial Harmony in Modern
William M. Tsutsui
Japan
The intervention of a tradition
Educational Reform in Japan
W. Dean Kinzley
Leonard Schoppa
How the Japanese Learn to Work Japanese Science Fiction
Second edition Aviewof a changing society
Ronald P. Dore and Mari Sako Robert Matthew
Japanese Economic Development The Japanese Numbers Game
Theory and practice The use and understanding of
Second edition numbers in modern Japan
Penelope Francks Thomas Crump
Ideology and Practice in Architecture and Authority in Japan
Modern Japan William H. Coaldrake
Edited by Roger Goodman and
Kirsten Refsing Women’s Gidayû and the Japanese
Theatre Tradition
Technology and Industrial A. Kimi Coaldrake
Development in Pre-war Japan
Mitsubishi Nagasaki Shipyard,
Democracy in Post-war Japan
1884–1934
Maruyama Masao and the search
Yukiko Fukasaku
for autonomy
Rikki Kersten
Japan’s Early Parliaments,
1890–1905
Treacherous Women of Imperial
Structure, issues and trends
Japan
Andrew Fraser, R.H.P. Mason and
Patriarchal fictions, patricidal
Philip Mitchell
fantasies
Japan’s Foreign Aid Challenge Hélène Bowen Raddeker
Policy reform and aid leadership
Alan Rix Japanese-German Business Relations
Co-operation and rivalry in the
Emperor Hirohito and Shôwa Japan inter-war period
A political biography Akira Kudô
Stephen S. Large
Japan, Race and Equality
Japan: Beyond the End of History
The Racial Equality Proposal
David Williams
of 1919
Naoko Shimazu
Ceremony and Ritual in Japan
Religious practices in an
Japan, Internationalism and the UN
industrialized society
Ronald Dore
Edited by Jan van Bremen and
D.P. Martinez
Life in a Japanese Women’s College
The Fantastic in Modern Japanese Learning to be ladylike
Literature Brian J. McVeigh
The subversion of modernity
Susan J. Napier On the Margins of Japanese Society
Volunteers and the welfare of the
Militarization and Demilitarization urbanunderclass
in Contemporary Japan Carolyn S. Stevens
Glenn D. Hook
The Dynamics of Japan’s Relations
Growing a Japanese Science City with Africa
Communication in scientific South Africa, Tanzania and
research Nigeria
James W. Dearing Kweku Ampiah
The Right to Life in Japan The Changing Face of Japanese
Noel Williams Retail
Working in a chain store
The Nature of the Japanese State Louella Matsunaga
Rationality and rituality
Brian J. McVeigh Japan and East Asian Regionalism
Edited by S. Javed Maswood
Society and the State in Inter-war
Globalizing Japan
Japan
Ethnographyof the Japanese
Edited by Elise K. Tipton
presence in America, Asia and
Europe
Japanese-Soviet/Russian Relations
Edited by Harumi Befu and
since 1945
A difficult peace Sylvie Guichard-Anguis
Kimie Hara
Japan at Play
The ludic and logic of power
Interpreting History in Sino-
Edited by Joy Hendry and
Japanese Relations
Massimo Raveri
A case study in political decision
making
The Making of Urban Japan
Caroline Rose
Cities and planning from Edo to the
twenty-first century
Endô Shûsaku
André Sorensen
A literature of reconciliation
Mark B. Williams Public Policy and Economic
Competition in Japan
Green Politics in Japan Change and continuity in
Lam Peng-Er antimonopoly policy, 1973–95
Michael L. Beeman
The Japanese High School
Silence and resistance Men and Masculinities in
Shoko Yoneyama Contemporary Japan
Dislocating the salaryman doxa
Engineers in Japan and Britain Edited by James E. Roberson and
Education, training and Nobue Suzuki
employment
Kevin McCormick The Voluntary and Non-Profit
Sector in Japan
The Politics of Agriculture in Japan The challenge of change
Aurelia George Mulgan Edited by Stephen P. Osborne
Opposition Politics in Japan Japan’s Security Relations
Strategies under a one-party with China
dominant regime From balancing to bandwagoning
Stephen Johnson Reinhard Drifte
Understanding Japanese Society Japan’s Agricultural Policy Regime
Third edition Aurelia George Mulgan
Joy Hendry
Cold War Frontiers in the
Japanese Electoral Politics Asia-Pacific
Creating a new party system Divided territories in the San
Edited by Steven R. Reed Francisco System
Kimie Hara
The Japanese-Soviet Neutrality Pact
A diplomatic history, 1941–45
Living Cities in Japan
Boris Slavinsky, translated by Citizens’ movements, Machizukuri
Geoffrey Jukes
and local environments
Andre Sorensen and Carolin Funck
Academic Nationalism in China and
Japan
Resolving the Russo-Japanese
Framed by concepts of nature,
Territorial Dispute
culture and the universal
Hokkaido-Sakhalin relations
Margaret Sleeboom
Brad Williams
The Race to Commercialize
Modern Japan
Biotechnology
A social and political history
Molecules, markets and the state in
Second edition
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Elise K. Tipton
Steve W. Collins
Institutions, Incentives and Electoral The Transformation of the Japanese
Participation in Japan Left
Cross-level and cross-national From old socialists to new
perspectives democrats
Yusaku Horiuchi Sarah Hyde
Japan’s Interventionist State Social Class in Contemporary Japan
The role of the MAFF Edited by Hiroshi Ishida and
Aurelia George Mulgan David H. Slater
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Euan Graham Edited by David Arase and
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System Party Politics and Decentralization
The Liberal Democratic Party and in Japan and France
the Ministry of Finance When the Opposition governs
Harumi Hori Koichi Nakano
The Buraku Issue and Modern Natural Disaster and Nuclear Crisis
Japan in Japan
The careerof Matsumoto Jiichiro Response and recovery after
Ian Neary Japan’s 3/11
Edited by Jeff Kingston
Labor Migration from China to
Urban Spaces in Japan
Japan
Edited by Christoph Brumann and
International students, transnational
Evelyn Schulz
migrants
Gracia Liu-Farrer
Understanding Japanese Society
Fourth edition
Policy Entrepreneurship and
Joy Hendry
Elections in Japan
A political biography of Ozawa Japan’s Emerging Youth Policy
-
Ichiro Getting young adults back to work
Takashi Oka
Tuukka Toivonen
Japan’s Postwar The Organisational Dynamics of
Edited by Michael Lucken, University Reform in Japan
Anne Bayard-Sakai and International inside out
Emmanuel Lozerand, translated by Jeremy Breaden
J.A.A. Stockwin
Schoolgirls, Money and Rebellion
in Japan
An Emerging Non-Regular Labour
Sharon Kinsella
Force in Japan
The dignity of dispatchedworkers
Social Inequality in Japan
Huiyan Fu
Sawako Shirahase
A Sociology of Japanese Youth The Great Transformation of
From returnees to NEETs Japanese Capitalism
Edited by Roger Goodman, Edited by Sébastien Lechevalier,
Yuki Imoto and Tuukka Toivonen translated by J.A.A. Stockwin
The Great Transformation of
Japanese Capitalism
Edited by
Sébastien Lechevalier
Translated by J.A.A Stockwin
FirstpublishedinFrenchin2011as
Lagrandetransformationducapitalismejaponais(1980-2010)
byPressesdeSciencesPo.
Published2014
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Lechevalier,Sébastien.
[Grandetransformationducapitalismejaponais(1980-2010).English]
ThegreattransformationofJapanesecapitalism/editedbySébastien
Lechevalier;translatedbyJ.A.A.Stockwin.
pagescm.–(NissanInstitute/RoutledgeJapanesestudies)
Includesbibliographicalreferencesandindex.
1.Capitalism–Japan.2.Japan–Economicconditions–20thcentury.
3.Japan–Economicconditions–21stcentury.I.Title.
HC462.95.L42132014
330.952–dc23
2013030250
ISBN:978-0-415-71766-3(hbk)
ISBN:978-1-315-87118-9(ebk)
TypesetinTimesNewRoman
byTaylor&FrancisBooks
Contents
List of illustrations xi
List of contributors xii
Foreword: From ‘Japanophilia’ to indifference? Three decades of
research on contemporary Japan xiii
ROBERTBOYER
Preface xxxvi
SÉBASTIENLECHEVALIER
Introduction: seven Japanese lessons on the diversity of capitalism
and its future 1
SÉBASTIENLECHEVALIER
1 Thirty years of neo-liberal reforms in Japan 26
YVESTIBERGHIEN
2 Is this the end of the J-model of the firm? 56
SÉBASTIENLECHEVALIER
3 Is Japanese capitalism still co-ordinated? 73
SÉBASTIENLECHEVALIER
4 What is the nature of the Japanese social compromise today? 86
SÉBASTIENLECHEVALIER
5 Which education system in a neo-liberal world? 106
SÉBASTIENLECHEVALIERANDARNAUDNANTA
6 Is convergence towards the Silicon Valley model the only way for
the Japanese innovation system? 119
SÉBASTIENLECHEVALIER