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(★)(「総合商社」)(The ´sogo shosha´, Japan´s general trading companies, have been a key element in the country´s rapid economic growth and massive expansion in international trade since the Second World War. In the Japanese fiscal year ending in 1976, the ten largest ´sogo shosha´ grossed sales of $155 billion, accounting for 56 percent of Japan´s exports and imports, 18 percent of domestic wholesale trade, and a staggering 31 percent of GNP. On the international level, the transactions of these commercial giants in the same year amounted to over 5 percent of world export trade. ／Individually and collectively, the ´sogo shosha´ are complex and evolving parts of the free world´s second-most productive economic system and represents one of the most significant phenomena of contemporary world commerce. This book --the first comprehensive, English language work on the subject-- systematically describes and analyzes the many facets of these global trading companies. Beginning with an explanation of sogo shosha´s ´core business´, the author permits a ready understanding of their complex services, resources, strategies, operations, and organizational structure. The contents include discussion of their basic characteristics, business methods, sales and profit trends, national roles, global reach, strengths and weaknesses, and the future prospects of these huge overseas trading conglomerates. ／In examining both the national and global aspects of the sogo shosha, the author outlines the social and economic origins of the ten largest companies, showing how they differ from the pre-World War II ´zaibatsu´, and presenting a detailed comparison with Western multinational corporations. A wealth of statistical and tabular material supplements his account of sogo shosha as Japan´s chief importers of foodstuffs, raw materials, and equipment, adding precision to the discussion of their roles as the vanguard of Japanese exports, as the driving force in the rationalization of the domestic distribution system, and as investor-organizers of multinational overseas resource development programs. ／These huge general trading companies have been characterized as ´Japanese-type multinationals´, ´modern monsters with world-wide communication rivaling that of the Pentagon´, ´mammoth traders handling 10,000 commodities from instant noodles to missiles´, and ´action think tanks´. Yet these are only partial and misleading descriptions of sogo shosha´s business. To the outsider, and even to many on the inside of the companies, the sogo shosha present a complex puzzle consisting of thousands of apparently unrelated pieces ; yet in reality the basic business is surprisingly simply. This book proceeds from a clear explanation of this essential structure, developing with simple logic a full picture of the sogo shosha in all their subtle complexity. ◆Alexander K. Young is professor of international relations at the College of New Paltz, State University of New York. A graduate of the College of Law of the National Taiwan University, he received a Ph.D. from Columbia University, where he is currently an associate of the University Seminar on Modern Japan. ▼CONTENTS／ ●PART 1 : WHAT THEY ARE and WHAT THEY DO／ 1.The Sogo Shosha´s Core Business／ 2.The Ten Largest Sogo Shosha／ 3.Services and Resources for Conducting Business／ ●PART 2 : EVOLUTION and ROLES／ 4.Growth Trends and Business Strategies : 1960-1973／ 5.Roles in the Post-World War II Japanese Economy／ 6.Overseas Natural Resource Development Projects／ ●PART 3 : CHALLENGES and PROSPECTS／ 7.Strategic Changes Since 1973 : Management Efficiency and Global Reach／ 8.The Sogo Shosha in World Commerce／) |
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