Globalization of Japanese firms: Long-run Trends, Cross-sectional Variations, and Policy Implications
Japanese firms are increasingly involved in various global business operations - not only in traditional international trade in goods, but also in offshore production and the new mode of globalization: offshore outsourcing.
While it had been persistently low, the share of international trade in the Japanese national economy began to rise at the start of the 21st century. Cross-border relocations of production are likely to be at least partly related to shrinking trade surplus.
Japanese manufacturing firms produce more and more of their outputs abroad. The production networks of Japanese multinational firms are deeply integrated with intra-region international trade in East Asia.
Cross-border outsourcing between firms without ownership relations is of increasing importance in international trade, though only a limited number of productive large firms are actively offshoring. The range of offshorable tasks has been expanded from production of intermediates to wider varieties of service functions through the development of information technologies, but our firm-level analyses suggest that complex tasks such as R&D remain largely outsourced within the same country. The role of innovation in Japanese competitiveness should be emphasized in this context.
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Globalization of Japanese firms: Long-run Trends, Cross-sectional Variations, and Policy Implications
Center for Asian Studies
Asia is a nerve center for multiple global economic, political and security challenges. The Center for Asian Studies provides documented expertise and a platform for discussion on Asian issues to accompany decision makers and explain and contextualize developments in the region for the sake of a larger public dialogue.
The Center's research is organized along two major axes: relations between Asia's major powers and the rest of the world; and internal economic and social dynamics of Asian countries. The Center's research focuses primarily on China, Japan, India, Taiwan and the Indo-Pacific, but also covers Southeast Asia, the Korean peninsula and the Pacific Islands.
The Centre for Asian Studies maintains close institutional links with counterpart research institutes in Europe and Asia, and its researchers regularly carry out fieldwork in the region.
The Center organizes closed-door roundtables, expert-level seminars and a number of public events, including an Annual Conference, that welcome experts from Asia, Europe and the United States. The work of Center’s researchers, as well as that of their partners, is regularly published in the Center’s electronic journal Asie.Visions.
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