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This chapter first depicts an increasing diversity of Japanese corporations in which a non-traditional mode, characterized by market monitoring of relational employment, becomes emergent side-by-side with other modes as complements. This mode is interpreted as indicating the increasing essentiality of workers' cognitive assets in corporate cognitive systems, and it is argued that similar phenomena are evolving in other developed economies as well, modifying traditional national models. The chapter discusses the economic merits, social consequences, and political agendas associated with this emergent diversity in the global corporate landscape. Particularly it calls for the re-definition of the role of financial intermediaries and markets as infrastructures complementary to diverse corporate organizations as opposed to being their omnipotent principals.

“The Political Economy of Redemption: Middle-Class Dreams in the Dalian Special Economic Zone” looks into political economy of redemption, mode of generational transmission where moral economy of seeking redemption for unaccounted-for pasts is inexorably linked to formal economy of exports, consumption, and citywide pursuit of middle class dreams. Against backdrop of national mythology premised on anti-Japanese struggles, municipal government literally invited Japanese back in and turned the city into non-stop performance to lure Japanese capital, businessmen, and tourists to factories, office blocks, and beautifully restored colonial architecture. Significantly increased face-to-face interactions between Chinese and Japanese changed colonial inheritance into productive forces within rhythm of everyday. Analyses of “modern life”, especially in special economic zone, reveals how everyday pursuit of middle-class modern life, from factory floors to karaoke clubs, has become primary sites for incorporating and coming to terms with city’s colonial history. At sites of encounters between Chinese and Japanese, supposedly rational formal economy has become constant reminder of underlying moral economy and accompanying unpaid debts, propelling desires from both sides to reckon with what remains unaccounted for through day-to-day economic activities. Dalian’s new economy channels desires to redeem the past into new forms of production, consumption, and accumulation.

This chapter discusses enterprise groups of Japanese industrial organization. It outlines the general patterns of relationships common to business networks in market economies and investigates how these are reflected in specific alliance patterns. The analyses reveal show that ownership structures of Japanese corporations are far more likely than in the U.S.A. to be organized as table relationships which endure over decades, to be reciprocated among mutually positioned companies.

This chapter examines the question of whether Japanese corporations have overinvested, and hence are suffering from a glut of excess capacity. It shows that inconsistencies in valuations derived from different parts of the National Accounts can only be explained if, in fact, the corporate sector has built up a capital stock that is far larger than warranted by the profit-maximization motive. As a result, the rate of return on capital is extremely low. It is argued that efficient resource allocation will not occur until this pattern is broken by forcing the corporate sector to pay out more profits via dividends to the household sector. However, this is unlikely to occur any time soon.