Entrepreneurship in Meiji Japan IN THE KNOWLEDGE-BASED computer software industry in the United States,entrepreneurial activities in which risky and inno See,for example,George G.Daly,•gEntrepreneurship and Business Culture in Japan and the U.S.•h Japan and the World Economy10/4(1998). 2Hiroyuki Itami et al .,eds.,Kesubukku Nihon kigyo no keiei kodo 2:Kigyoka seishin to senryaku[A casebook of managerial behavior in Japanese enterprise2:Entrepreneurial bridge:Harvard University Press,1964).

La Porta et al. see common law as most favorable to corporate development and economic growth, but Japanese legislators explicitly based their system on German civil law. However, Japan’s commercial code of 1899 omitted the GmbH (private company) form, which Guinnane et al. see as the jewel in the crown of Germany’s organizational menu. Neither apparent “mistake” retarded Japan’s adoption of the corporate form, because its commercial code offered flexible governance and liability options, implemented liberally. It was this liberal flexibility, not choice of legal family or hybrid corporate forms emphasized by previous writers, that drove corporatization forward in Japan and more widely. Surprisingly (given that Germany’s superficially fuller organizational menu predated Japan’s by many decades and the country was wealthier), by the 1930s Japan already had not only more corporations than Germany, but also morecommanditepartnerships (with some corporate characteristics). After the introduction of theyugen kaisha(private company) in 1940, corporate forms became nearly as widely used in Japan as in the United States, United Kingdom, or Switzerland.

Lifetime employment is one of the most conspicuous features of contemporary large Japanese corporations. The employment practices of merchant houses in the Edo period (1603–1868) are sometimes proposed as one origin of such lifetime commitment. Little attention has been paid, however, to the connections between long-term employment in the Edo period and its practice in the twentieth century. This article examines how Edo employment practices were adapted to the environment of the early twentieth century within a new context of modern educational institutions and the need for professional managers.

B ECAUSE GENERAL trading companies dealing in all manner of com modities with all manner of places throughout the world are something special to Japan,their origin and their development have been the subject of a great deal of research.Alleviation of trans action risks,the realization of economies of scale,and other factors have been pointed out as the reasons why general trading companies were considered necessary in Japan,and importance has been attrib uted to the training of personnel and the formation of a management structure and a risk management structure as factors within the gen eral trading companies that have brought about that necessity.1 1 See,for example,Keiichiro Nakagawa,•gNihon no kogyoka katei ni okeru'soshiki ka sareta kigyosha katsudo'•h[The•gactivities of organized entrepreneurs•hin Japan's indus trialization process],Keieishigaku[Japan Business History Review]vol.2 no.3(1967);

The Automobile Industry in Japan APPRECIATION OF THE yen has become a fixture,newly industri alized economies have gained in strength,and the domestic recession of the1990s has continued unabated.As a result, many Japanese enterprises have lost their international competitive ness.The automobile industry,however,still manages to keep a grip on its international competitiveness.Toyota Motor Corporation produced more automobiles in2003than Ford Motor Company, thus becoming the second largest automaker in the world.In mar ket capitalization on the Tokyo Stock Exchange at present(January 2004),Toyota ranks first,Nissan Motor Co.ranks fourth,and Honda Motor Corporation ranks sixth.And yet in the1920s auto mobile production by domestic manufacturers was practically nonexistent.Demand for automobiles rose in the1920s,but it was the automobiles of American automakers already dedicated to mass