Grass-roots industry in the town of Sakaki: an alternative perspective of the Japanese post-war "miracle"
Copyright (C) 1992, 2004 by Christopher Romig Keener
- Department of Anthropology
- University of California, Berkeley
- Doctoral Dissertation, May 1992
- committee members:
- Professor Laura Nader, chair
- Professor George A. DeVos
- Professor Michael Gerlach
Table of Contents
- Japan in the spotlight
- Stereotypes of Japan, Inc.
- Beyond "Japan, Inc."
- The basis of our understanding of Japan's industrial economy: a review of social science research
- Early inter-firm studies: traditional vs. modern
- Shift to organizational and institutional focus
- Government leadership and strong government-industry coordination
- Keiretsu: the importance of strategic inter-firm relationships
- Studies on the small firm
- Interest in regional industry
- Enriching an understanding of post-war industrial development through a long-term, holistic viewpoint
- Sakaki
- Sakaki as a mecca of industry
- Reasons given for Sakaki's "miracle"
- Other aspects of the Sakaki "miracle"
- Small independents and subcontractors
- Merchant vs. samurai mentality
- Flexible specialization
- Unplanned grassroots movement
- Changing circumstances in Japan and Sakaki
- The high valuation of the yen
- Anxiety about the future of small business
- Changing aspirations of youth
- Geographical setting
- Nagano Prefecture
- The town of Sakaki
- Sakaki's geographical condition and its relationship to history from pre-feudal eras
- The origin of the importance of rice in pre-feudal Japan
- Life in Sakaki during pre-feudal history
- The origins of local social organization
- Sakaki during Japan's feudal history
- Strict central control and its effects on Sakaki
- The growth of sericulture
- Sakaki in the modern state
- The effect of the world depression
- War years: the first seeds of industry
- The second flowering of industry in the 1960s
- The 1970s: the oil crisis and painful lessons
- The 1980s: heyday of industry in face of en-daka
- Sakaki history as an adaptation to geographical circumstances
- Initial preconceptions
- A portrait of the town today
- Local government
- Industry
- Agriculture
- Land usage
- Sakaki and the surrounding towns and cities
- Characterization of towns in a regional economy
- My arrival and the circumstances of my study
- My arrival in Sakaki
- My living arrangements
- The Chamber of Commerce
- Complex social organization arising from feudal agrarian history
- Differentiation of elite groups
- Bureaucratic elite
- Entrepreneurs and directors of industry
- Town government and relations between elite groups
- Elected officials
- The Chamber of Commerce
- Conflict between bureaucrats and industrialists
- Other strata of class
- New farmers
- The owners of small shops
- Landless workers
- Outcasts and marginals
- Preservation of status and social mobility
- Small companies are strongly tied to the founder's family
- The importance of family labor in startups
- The relationship between family and firm headship
- Apprenticeship for male heirs
- Delineation between workers and family members
- A mercantile tradition vs. bureaucratic traditions of large urban corporations
- As firms become larger, they tend toward the bureaucratic tradition
- Independent firms
- Independents have their own "brand-name" product line
- Products of the independents compete directly with those of keiretsu
- It is increasingly difficult for independents to remain competitive
- Subcontractors
- Increasing dependence on large industrial groups
- New breed of small-run specialized manufacturers
- Automation has been effected as much as economically possible
- Small enterprises buffeted by cycles of the national economy
- Current trends spell significant future change
- Change and the response of organizations
- Pressed by both sides: need to reduce costs coupled with shortage of labor
- Strategies of the independents: outgrowing Sakaki
- The growing trend of relocation of physical plants out of town
- Relocation and the growing rift between local government and independent firms
- Emphasis on providing a better work environment for workers
- Strategies of subcontractors: increasing reliance on external industrial groups
- Docility of subcontractors vs. independents
- The labor squeeze and increasing reliance on industrial groups
- Foreign labor 144
- Changing aspirations of young people: an outward orientation
- Generational differences and motivation patterns
- Schooling: the basis for geographical and vocational mobility
- Education takes an outward orientation from high school
- Higher levels of matriculation form the basis for permanent departure
- The circumstances of young people who do return
- Motives of those who choose to return: balancing family obligations and personal ambition
- Returning to the area but not to the town
- The Nagano 1998 Winter Olympics
- Grass-roots industry in Sakaki
- Historical and geographical bases for industrialization
- Sakaki today: the mecca vs. the reality
- The town social structure and the struggle between industry and agriculture
- Sakaki's merchant-based companies
- Change in the contemporary setting
- Sakaki and the "miracle": a cultural analysis
- A broader notion of culture
- Issues of freedom and covert control
- Culture and controlling processes in Sakaki
- Questioning the miraculousness of the "miracle"