The Japanologist
Updates and insights on Japanese business, society, and political economy.
by Ulrike Schaede
Browse here for news, opinions, analysis and interpretation of current Japanese business, politics and society. This website features blogs from guests and myself, links to Japan activities at JFIT at UC San Diego, and offers suggestions of further readings and exchange and discourse.
News: Ulrike Schaede’s 2020 book “The Business Reinvention of Japan” was awarded the 37th Masayoshi Ohira Memorial Prize, for its contributions to our understanding of the Pacific Rim.
And, it has also won the Silver Award, Economics, in the 2021 Axiom Business Book Awards.
How Japanese Companies have Reacted to the Rise of China
To escape the growing price competition for consumer end products in Asia, over the past two decades Japan’s leading companies have pivoted away from those markets and into advanced upstream input materials and components. While there is no “Japan Inside” label on the final products, this has made Japan a critical technology anchor of many global supply chains. The leading Japanese companies have adopted an “aggregate niche strategy” that allows them to occupy large market shares in a series of deep-tech niches. And, to switch to these new positions on the technology frontier, they have also begun to change their internal management processes and HR practices. At a time of decoupling, shifting trade regimes and the digital transformation, Japan continues to be a global manufacturing force to be reckoned with.
For a conversation with Stephan Haggard on this book, see:
Stephan Haggard and Ulrike Schaede on The Business Reinvention of Japan
News announcer on March 12, 2011, reporting on the aftershocks
It has been 10 years since that horrible day of 3/11 2011. To revisit what we have learned the Tohoku Earthquake and Fukushima Disaster” see here for a collection of comments by the National Bureau of Research in Asia
New Book Publication 2022
How the DX is changing what we used to know about Japanese business, society, and government (click the image for a link)
Fresh from the Press, June 9, 2022! The book argues that the concurrent arrival of the DX and demographic change (aka shrinking/ageing society) may be a “lucky moment” for Japan, as one may well fix the problems caused by other (think: automation v. labor shortage). We look at industry 4.0, digital manufacturing, agrotech, retail, the changing employment system, and new roles for politicians and bureaucrats in industrial policy.
Now also available in Japanese (click image for link)
My interview with the “Asia Experts Forum” at Claremont Kenna College, on innovation, startups, and my recent book, is now online
“Japan's fractured polity exposed by COVID-19 crisis” . On August 8, 2021, Nikkei Asia, ran an op-ed by Brad Glosserman and myself. Click on image for link.
May/June issue of the JEF journal features my piece on the dangers of “financialization” for Japan, given ongoing changes in corporate governance. Click image for link.
My 7th Nikkei Business column is on what I call “総合職の兼業”(dual jobs for lifetime employees). I argue that it helps large companies to attract talent, lubricates the job market without increasing risk, and allows Japan to build its own style of innovation ecosystem.
Click the image for my World Financial Review on “The Business Reinvention of Japan”
New link: Ulrike’s op-ed series in Nikkei Business 再興 ザ・KAISHA (click image for link)
再興 ザ・KAISHA : a 10-piece series on Japan’s ongoing business transformation。
Click image for link. Also, follow-up article in WSJ
The Myth about Japan’s Lacking Productivity Growth
Japan’s Staying Power in the Fortune Global 500
Abenomics: How well did he do?
Japanese Energy Policy – Is the Criticism Unfair?
Japan-China Business Relations: Symbiotic Pragmatism for the Asian Century?
COVID-19: Why is Japan’s Fatality Rate so low? The Effectiveness of Self-Restraint in a Tight Culture Setting
Interesting News Links
2/1: FT Video on Softbank and Masayoshi Son
10/20: The Underappreciated Power: Japan after Abe, by Mireya Solis
8/28: How to spur innovation after COVID-19: The answer may lie in bringing people around a virtual water cooler
6/25: Rapacious U.S. vultures feeding on Japanese companies in the name of “progress” - even under the pretext of being on their best behaviour
6/17: Ambidextrous glassmaker AGC an example of a successful New Japan company
6/21: Why Japan’s Jobless Rate is Just 2.6%
6/13: Japan fires up plans to scout Hong Kong talent for financial hub
6/3: Why are there so few gun crimes in Japan?
Interested in our San Diego-Japan Newsflash? Go visit our JFIT website to sign up.
The Japan Zoominar is taking a summer break in 2022. Until we return in September, please visit the “JZ Gallery” (click picture for a link) to review our past recordings.
Recent Japan Zoominars
Note: Click date for link to recorded session. For earlier editions, please visit our JZ Gallery:
5/31: Media and Crisis Communications in Japan
5/17: Girl Culture is No Joke!
5/3: Japa'n’s Education System: What needs to change?
4/19: Is Japan Ready for War?
4/5: Employment System Changes and Women in the Workforce
3/22: Shibusawa Eiichi and Japan’s New Capitalism
3/8: U.S.-Japan in a VUCA World
2/24: Health Sciences and Innovation
2/8: Cybersecurity
1/25: Japan’s economic statecraft
1/11: Japan in 2022
For earlier recordings, please visit the “JZ Gallery”
