The Japanese and German Economies in the 20th and 21st Centuries: Business Relations in Historical Perspective

Supported by a number of high-profile case studies, this volume offers a comprehensive exploration of Japanese-German economic relations through the whole of the twentieth and beginning of the twenty-first centuries. It also offers clarification on the structure and processes of the world economy in the same period. Drawing on both unpublished discussion papers as well as previously published essays, the reader will find much of interest in the wide-ranging scholarship contained in this work, structured as follows: Part I, Japanese-German Business Relations; Part II, Trajectory of Japanese-German Business Relations; Part III, The Japanese and European Business and Economies. A Foreword by YUZAWA Takeshi, Professor Emeritus, Gakushuin University, Tokyo, evaluates the relevance and significance of Professor Kudo’s lifetime research and scholarship in the context of German-Japanese relations.

Kud? Akira is professor emeritus at the University of Tokyo. He was born in Tokyo in 1946 and graduated from the Graduate School of Economics, Faculty of Economics, the University of Tokyo. He was assistant professor at the School of Economics at Shinsu University and the College of General Education at the University of Tokyo before he became professor at the Institute of Social Science, the University of Tokyo, until he retired in 2010. His interest includes German business and economic history, as well as the history of international business relations. His major works are: Nichi-Doku kigyo kankei-shi (A History of Japanese-German Business Relations) (Tokyo: Yuhikaku, 1992), Ii Gee Faruben no tainichi senryaku (IG Farben’s Japan Strategy) (Tokyo: University of Tokyo Press, 1992), Japanese-German Business Relations (London: Routledge, 1998), 20-seiiki Doitsu shihonshugi (The 20th Century German Capitalism) (Tokyo: University of Tokyo Press, 1999), Gendai doitsu kagaku kigyoshi (A History of Modern German Chemical Enterprises) (Kyoto: Mineruva Shobo, 1999), and Nichi-Doku Keizai kankei-shi josetsu (An Introduction to the History of Japanese-German Economic Relations) (Tokyo: Sakurai Shoten, 2011). He also edited the following books written in English: International Cartels in Business History (Tokyo, University of Tokyo Press, 1992) (co-edited with Hara Terushi), German and Japanese business in the boom years (London: Routledge, 2004, paperback 2015) (co-edited with Matthias Kipping and Harm G. Schröter), Japan and Germany: Two Latecomers to the World Stage, 1890-1945, 3 volumes (Folkestone: Global Oriental, 2009) (co-edited with Tajima Nobuo and Erich Pauer), and Mutual perceptions and images in Japanese-German relations: 1860-2010 (Leiden: Brill, 2017) (co-edited with Sven Saaler and Tajima Nobuo). Kudo Akira, professor emeritus, University of Tokyo, born Tokyo 1946, graduated from the Graduate School of Economics, Faculty of Economics, University of Tokyo. He was assistant professor at the School of Economics at Shinsu University and the College of General Education at the University of Tokyo; became professor at the Institute of Social Science, University of Tokyo. He retired in 2010. Interests include German business and economic history, history of international business relations.