In this important new book, the authors explore how production was organized in the context of the economic development of modern Japan. Production organizations are taken to mean the long-term relationships which economic agents create for production, based on employment contracts or long-term transactions. This includes hierarchical organizations such as factories and corporations, but also flexible arangements such as subcontracting. Modern Japanese economic development is characterized by the co-evolution of these two types of production organizations, while American economic development in the modern period is characterized by the development of a mass production system based on large hierarchical organizations. The question is raised as to why and how a certain type of organization proliferated in a certain industry in a certain period, and what the role of that organization was in coordinating production and giving incentives to the economic agents involved. The result is a comparative institutional analysis of the organizational foundations of Japanese economic development in the modern period.
Author(s): Tetsuji Okazaki
Publisher: Routledge
Year: 2007
Language: English
Pages: 272
Book Cover......Page 1
Half-Title......Page 2
Series-Title......Page 3
Title......Page 8
Copyright......Page 9
Contents......Page 10
Contributors......Page 12
1 Introduction: History of production organizations......Page 14
2 The rise of the power-loom factory in the traditional silk-weaving district: Change in demand and labour market......Page 27
3 The Registration System and the Grade Wage: From cooperation to a market for human capital? A lesson from the Japanese silk reeling industry......Page 52
4 Personnel management and the formation of modern business organisation: The railway industry in Japan before the First World War......Page 88
5 Determinants and effects of employing professional corporate executives: A case of cotton-spinning companies in pre-war Japan......Page 123
6 Flexibility and diversity: The putting-out system in the silk fabric industry of Kiryu, Japan......Page 140
7 The development of dispersed production organization in the interwar period: The case of the Japanese toy industry......Page 180
8 The evolution of organizational structure of the modern machinery industry in Japan......Page 222
Index......Page 258
