Japanese Marketing System: Adaptation and Innovation Book

Many of Japan's marketing problems are not unique to that country but may well extend to other markets in similar environments. This book provides an extremely useful analysis of the Japanese business system, focusing on the dynamics of its adaptive response to environmental changes. The book covers a number of issues and areas in depth: (1) The Setting (a historical perspective, overview of the distribution system in contemporary Japan, forces of change); (2) Emergence of a Mass Consumption Society (measures of growth, emergence of a viable middle class, changes in consumption patterns, changes in relevant values); (3) Marketing Behavior of Large Manufacturing Firms (forces for change, adaptive behavior, control over channels of distributionâ??with examples from industries); (4) Innovations in the Distribution Sector (new retailing institutions, implications); (5) Adaptive Behavior of Traditional Elements in the Marketing Systems (small retail firms, wholesalers, department stores, trading companies); (6) Development of Consumer Financing in Postwar Japan (installment credit, credit cards); (7) Government Policies Toward the Distribution Sector; (8) Some Tentative Observations. The author skillfully analyzes the forces that are bringing about changes in Japanese marketing. In doing so he raises and answers some important questions: What impact has Japan's recent entry into a highly industrialized and mass consumption oriented society had on her marketing system, and how is the marketing system seeking to adapt to these developments? Is the emerging system taking on characteristics commonly associated with marketing systems in other mass consumption societies? What impact have changes in the marketing system had on the rest of Japanese society? The answer to this last question contains the basic premise that marketing is an important mechanism in providing for social change, and Professor Yoshino describes the role of the Japanese government in trying to resolve such problems as the threatened disappearance of the family retail establishment. He also provides statistical data relating to changes in basic value orientation of the Japanese consumerâ??for instance, the number of families buying Western-style furniture. Data for the book have been drawn from both primary and secondary sources, which include personal interviews with marketing executives of large manufacturing firms, a score of experts on the Japanese marketing system, and owners and managers of various types of marketing intermediaries.Read More