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This introductory chapter analyzes the transferability of the Japanese business model into an overseas economy such as the United States. Overseas Japanese firms have continued growing, highlighting their efficiency in transferring their system of management and production. The Japanese Style Management and Production System (JMPS) is referred to as the common model for this success functioning across differences in time periods, industries, and firms. The chapter also focuses on the “hybridization” dynamics in the JMPS during transfer of the Japanese firm to overseas location. It analyses the characteristics of the economic environment and local application conditions in North America. The Japanese apply a Hybrid Model when applying Japanese systems overseas in response to the interactions and constraints brought by the local conditions, systems, and institutions.

This chapter analyzes Japanese firms transplanted in the US, particularly in the automobile and electronics industries. It notes that the “transferability” of the automobile industry is lower than that of the electronics industry due to the more complex product architecture and manufacturing processes of the former. It also examines the composition of personnel in the various organizations, the wage structures, and plant locations. Japanese car manufacturers entered the US market homogenously and each one developed and fine-tuned its own strategy to compete, based on individual resources and capabilities. Their practices show close approximations to the Japanese Style Management and Production System (JMPS) model. Toyota, Honda, and Nissan adopted the expansion strategy while smaller companies used the status quo/withdrawal strategy.

This concluding chapter discusses the insufficient systematic local transfer of Japanese Style Management and Production System (JMPS), especially the “capability building” system in major assembly plants as well as in local suppliers. The results of 23 case studies show that individual elements or institutions of JMPS are generally realized in the Japanese local plants. The ways that are involved in transferring this Japanese style to offices and manufacturing plants overseas are the same across many countries and regions such as in Southeast Asia, Britain, Korean, Taiwan, and the USA. Individual elements of JMPS are successfully transferred and adapted, but the systematic, methodological and orderly transfer of the system, particularly capacity building, is not efficiently achieved. Such capacity building, if successfully transferred, will promote what the Japanese call “Kaizen” or a corrective set of activities.