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Foreign direct investment and economic ethnocentrism in Japan

This study has a twofold purpose. The first is to investigate
the background and development of Japan's policy on the
liberalization of international capital movements and the second
is to explore the characteristics of Japanese economic nationalism.
By the late 1960's Japan had succeeded in expanding her
economy to the level of the economies in the European countries.
Rapid increases in U.S. imports from Japan, which reflected Japanese
economic expansion made U.S. enterprises realize that Japanese
industry had become strong enough to decontrol foreign investment
in Japan to a further extent than she had until then.
But the Japanese thought that their industry was not developed
enough to compete with multinational corporations because of the
inherent vulnerability of Japanese enterprises and industries
arising from the financial incapability of firms and excessive
competition in major industries.
Thus Japan has maintained a restrictive policy on foreign inward
investment, with the principle that every Japanese industry
should be controlled by nationals. In the course of her economic
development, Japan proceeded with a five-year capital liberalization
program from 1967 to 1971. Nevertheless, Japan's economic policy
on foreign investment remains more restrictive than those of Western
developed countries. Japanese policy is significantly affected by
feelings of economic nationalism rather than considerations of economic
welfare.
In this paper a model of economic ethnocentrism is formulated
with the purpose of explaining the characteristics of economic
nationalism in Japan. Japan possesses unique social, cultural and
political conditions which have lasted for a long time. These unique
traditional traits of Japanese society remain influential enough that
Japan's industrial organization, formal and informal, is able to be
distinguished from that of Western countries. The basic attitudes
of the Japanese towards foreign investment are derived from complex
economic, socio-cultural and political conditions. This study
attempts to synthesize several major factors which affect the Japanese
attitudes which influence policies on foreign investment in Japan. / Business, Sauder School of / Graduate

Identiferoai:union.ndltd.org:UBC/oai:circle.library.ubc.ca:2429/41926
Date January 1972
CreatorsUchiyama, Hiroyuki
PublisherUniversity of British Columbia
Source SetsUniversity of British Columbia
LanguageEnglish
Detected LanguageEnglish
TypeText, Thesis/Dissertation
RightsFor non-commercial purposes only, such as research, private study and education. Additional conditions apply, see Terms of Use https://open.library.ubc.ca/terms_of_use.

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