AAS panel on Japanese Business of Interwar
Good, Hiro
**Apology for cross posting
Dear all,
Shashi Interest Group is pleased to make an announcement of a panel sponsored by the Group at AAS Chicago as follows. Please join us to attend this interesting panel, although the panel is scheduled on Sunday morning, last day of the conference.
Please go to this AAS online program page http://tinyurl.com/l8a77xh for full panel information.
The Business of Interwar: Japanese Companies and the Construction of Transnational Markets
Sponsored by Shashi Interest Group
Sun, March 29, 8:00 to 10:00am,
Chicago Sheraton Hotel & Towers, Level 4, Chicago Ballroom VIII
Abstract
This panel explores how Japanese companies shaped regional and global markets during the interwar period. WWI marked a turning point for Japanese commerce as Japan increasingly became an important regional and global exporter. Amidst increasing global trade during the 1920s, Japanese firms nevertheless continued to operate in an environment of inter-imperial competition. In this panel, we examine how Japanese firms carved out a niche for commodities to distinguish their products from domestic and European competitors. Japanese businesses interacted with state authorities in a wide range of areas from regulating the quality of exports to overturning overseas patent rights. Through three case-studies of Japanese companies, we explore how domestic, regional, and global markets were re-defined through attempts at product differentiation. The activities of Japanese firms and government not only reveal Japan's imperial interests but also the process of how markets are constructed during the interwar period.
Kjell Ericson examines how the pearl cultivator Mikimoto Kokichi sought to regulate the quality of pearls leaving Japan, even as European countries attempted to track Japanese pearls in European markets through distinctions between "cultured" and "natural" pearls. Timothy Yang uses the case of Hoshi Pharmaceuticals to demonstrate how the interwar drug industry often depended upon state authorities for legal protection, subsidies, overseas markets and resources, and even innovation. Ti Ngo focuses on how state support helped a monopolistic Micronesian sugar company to overcome Javanese competitors by distinguishing the quality of its sugar to match the changing taste of Asian consumers.
Best regards,
Hiro Good
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Hiroyuki N. Good,
Chair, Japanese Company History Interest Group (Shashi Group)
Japanese Studies Librarian
University of Pittsburgh
207J Hillman Library
3960 Forbes Ave., Pittsburgh, PA 15260
Tel: 412-648-8187
Email: hn...@pitt.edu
Shashi Wiki: Database of Japanese Company Histories Books in North America:
http://library.osu.edu/wikis/shashidb/index.php/Main_Page
Editor, Shashi: The Journal of Japanese Business and Company History
http://shashi.pitt.edu/ojs/index.php/shashi