Review of Selected Books on Japanese Business History Published in 2018

growth of the community on the one hand and the structural constraints that curbed regional development on the other. By examining the history of labor relations and other facets of corporate management within an analytical framework that positions the “total picture” (macrohistory) relative to the “regional picture,” Ishii also presents an eye-opening window on the unique economic development that has characterized modern Japan. This new empirical study from Yokoi Katsunori probes the evolution of the global production networks at Honda Motor Company, particularly within its motorcycle business, looking specifically at how the mechanisms for coordinating resource allocation within the company took shape. The first half of the book, which examines the changes in Honda’s arrangements for its international production setup from the late 1990s to the mid-2010s, analyzes the transformation in three basic phases. In the initial form of the system, individual sites supplied each other with products developed for local markets. Over time, however, the framework gradually took on a leaner, more efficient composition in which selected production sites cater to foreign markets. Honda clarified the roles for the different production sites, as well; in the process, the company assigned certain locations—like the location in Thailand—higher-level functions. As Yokoi shows, Honda’s in-house global production setup developed in a co-evolutionary fashion: instead of progressing according to a predetermined plan, the framework took shape through a series of revisions and tweaks in response to constant market fluctuation and development of resources at individual production sites. In the second half of the work, Yokoi focuses on the coordination mechanisms that governed the development of Honda’s international production system. First, the author investigates Honda’s processes for formulating its product lineups, developing individual models, and executing production. Then Yokoi discusses how the company confronted daunting challenges in optimizing its international production system amid market changes and tapped into the development of capabilities at each production site—all the while staying in line with the company’s long-term business strategy. From there, the analysis turns to Honda’s production-planning division. Yokoi investigates how the production-planning division evaluates and selects production sites and argues that, within that system, domestic Japanese production facilities represent crucial cogs in the coordination mechanism for Honda’s global strategy.