Determinants of Comparative Advantages and Disadvantages in the IT Industries in Japan

该项目的目的是调查日本IT产业的比较优势和劣势的决定因素，即描述所谓的日本型企业的特征。主要重点是考虑日本型公司用于治理和决策的信息媒体。我们特别检验了以下假设：“一方面，日本IT企业在生产小型集成产品（例如计算机和其他电子产品的零部件和设备）方面具有比较优势。”日本企业展现出深度协同的能力，这在小型化、集成化产品的生产中非常有用。另一方面，日本企业在开放和广泛的协调方面不太擅长；因此，日本企业在生产计算机软件和电信网络服务等所谓网络型产品方面处于相对劣势。其主要原因之一在于，在日本企业中，文件化信息的使用水平远远低于西方企业；据了解，使用文件化信息对于进行广泛和公开的协调是必要的。 在本项目中，收集证据以肯定地证明上述假设。收集的证据虽然仍处于碎片化信息水平，但由日本和美国政府“用于公共监管的文件”，特别是电信领域的文件组成，“代表美国和日本公司治理基本内容的教科书材料”。研究发现，在这两个案例中，美国文件的构成和内容都更加系统和广泛，这被认为是美国政府和企业广泛协调的基础。

The objective of this project was to investigate the determinants of comparative advantages and disadvantages in the IT industries in Japan, that is to say, to characterize what is called Japan-type corporations. The main focus was to consider information media used for the governance and decision making in Japan-type corporations. In particular, we tested the following hypothesis : "Japanese IT corporations, on the one hand, have comparative advantages in producing small and integrated products such as parts and equipment for computers and other electronic products." Japanese corporations exhibit the capability of deep coordination, which is useful in the production of small and integrated products. On the other hand, Japanese corporations are not so good in open and wide coordination ; as a consequence, Japanese corporations have comparative disadvantages in producing what is called network-type products such as computer softwares and telecommunications-network services. One of the major reasons of this lies in that, in Japanese corporations, the use of documented information is limited at a level far lower than in western corporations ; it is understood that the use of documented information is necessary for conducting wide and open coordination.In this project, evidences are collected to prove the hypothesis stated above affirmatively. The evidences collected, although still at the level of fragmented information, are composed of 'documents used for public regulation', particularly in telecommunications, by the Japanese and U.S.government, "text-book materials representing the essential contents of corporate governance in U.S. and Japan". It is found that, for both of the two cases, U.S.documents exhibit more systematic and extensive compositions and contents, which are considered to be the basis of wide coordination in U.S.governments and corporations.