Cooperation, technology, and Japanese development

by Donna L. Doane

Japan is an example of what is known as a "latecomer" in industrial development. Drawing on case studies of computer and telecommunications and related firms, Donna Doane investigates how intra- and inter-industry cooperation between public and private enterprises pushed rapid technological advancement in Japan. The book places such inter-linkage in the context of a historical evolution, starting with prewar industrial house groupings that helped link indigenous and external ideas and form an integrated technological base. Doane focuses mainly on the postwar, catch-up period from the 1960s through the 1980s in which three characteristics associated with late development are examined: multistructured industry, family-based industrial networks, and a distinct government-industry relationship. Implications of the cooperative structure are drawn for other advanced industrial as well as developing countries, where flexible technological networks could help individual enterprises overcome th