Innovation and Dynamics in Japanese Retailing: From Techniques to Formats to Systems

Japanese retailing has long been regarded as traditional or even backwards, when in reality it has constantly demonstrated its innovativeness and dynamism. This book highlights these developments by looking at: innovations and underlying driving forces; responses of Japanese retailers to deregulation; increasing competition; changes in consumer behaviour; and internationalization during the 1990s. All of these factors are analyzed through a thorough investigation of innovative activity from the 1950s onwards.

HENDRIK MEYER-OHLE is Assistant Professor in the Department of Japanese Studies, National University of Singapore. Before joining the department in 1999 he worked for five years for the German Institute for Japanese studies in Tokyo. Besides his long-standing research interests in Japanese retailing he is also researching strategies of Japanese companies in Asia and was the editor (with Jochen Legewie) of Corporate Strategies for Southeast Asia after the Crisis: A Comparison of Multinational Firms from Japan and Europe.