One of the most misunderstood countries when it comes to being a host of foreign direct investment is Japan. Countless foreign companies regard Japan to be inhospitable to foreign investments, both in government and individual business circles. In fact, governmental regulations on foreign capital are in the past. Many Japanese companies are eager to trade with foreign companies and a lot of foreign companies are successful in Japan. Japan is definitely a more inviting market for foreign capital than regularly assumed. There is not a proper definition of a “joint venture.” The phrase is best interpreted by the presence of specific attributes, understandings and preparations. An international joint venture is often interpreted as the joining of two or more business partners from different territories to barter resources, share risks and split the rewards that come from having a joint enterprise. One of the partners is usually physically based in the jurisdiction where the joint venture is located. A joint venture has similarities of a partnership, but is customarily formed for a specific reason or project. For this reason, joint ventures are mostly limited in duration and scope. The input of the joint venture partners are often different and are usually discussed prior to joining together. Despite the fact that legal arrangements are mandatory to establish and continue the operation of a joint venture, to be able to thrive, joint ventures have to be efficient, living and maturing relationships. Maintaining positive communication among the business decision-makers after the development of the joint venture is extremely important. At times, circumstances may change and management and the joint venture itself have to b... ... middle of paper ... ...won’t stop by tables unless they are requested to and they definitely won’t stay and chat about the weather. Religion is not directly involved in business relations except from yearly holidays. However, regarding some of the attitudes and personalities of the way business is done plays a major role. Japanese often hold more than one religion at a time. This is completely different form the approach taken by people of the U.S. The U.S. takes the approach toward religions as being absolute. For example, in the U.S. being Christian, Jewish, and Catholic all at the same time is not a normal thing. To a certain degree, this has helped establish the Japanese business trend of being at the least briefly complacent with numerous interpretations of a situation unlike American businesspeople who feel it is a requirement to resolve conflicting views as they occur.
Partnership – “A legal entity formed by two or more co-owners to operate a business for profit.” (Longenecker, Petty, Palich, Hoy, Pg. 202) In a partnership, the advantage for the owners is the capability to reduce the workload and the financial burden, especially if each partner has management skills that enhances the business. The disadvantages of a partnership such as personal conflicts and leadership expectations, therefore this organizational form should only be chosen once all other options have been considered.
...ad banned the foreign religion, and executed all the Japanese who followed it”. I learned from the book that Christianity was brought to Japan from Europe in 1542. The religion took over western Japan, and once they had a strong hold they decided to go to the capitol. When they arrived, the Emperor Toyotomi Hideyoshi was not pleased. He banned Christianity, and executed 26 Christians to prove his point. His main reason for banning the religion was because the government was trying to take full control of its people, and this new religion just complicated things. The emperors after Toyotomi Hideyoshi continued the law, but after about 1850 the number of Japanese Christians rose. Today there are about 2 million Japanese Christians, but that is only 1 percent of the population. Most of the Christians live in the west, where Christianity was originally founded in Japan.
Japan became one of the most industrialize countries in the world; it has grown rapidly in the economic arena, however, religious liberty in Japan is still in maturing. Different from the United States and other Western countries in where the principle of separation of church and state took place, Japanese tradition continues with the usual patter in where governments control religion. Most Japanese people do not identify themselves adherent to a single religion; instead they incorporate different elements from various religions. Japan enjoys religious freedom. Minority religious like Islam, Hinduism and Christianity are practiced as well. But census perform in Japan show that 70% of its population prefers not to affiliate with any religion, 65% do not believe in God, 55% do not believe in Buddha. This numbers create many question in whether Japan’s modern lifestyle and religion beliefs create conflict among the Japanese population. It’s this rapidly modernization of Japan leaving traditions outside Japanese culture?
... it is can at times be about co-operation and this is evident in the merger of BHP and Billiton in 2001. What BHP Billiton should have learnt from this analysis is that if they continue to diversify, look for new opportunities in emerging markets and maintain a good public image than maintaining success will not be as difficult as it is to build it up in todays times. It is also important to note as it has been evident in the past that the joint ventures and mergers are becoming increasingly more popular as it opens up many different avenues into conducting business in other parts of the world as well as giving more power and control to MNCs in controlling markets, in an increasingly more globalized world we must put at best foot forward to diversify and integrate business and cultures to remain globally competitive.
I found this article "Foreign direct investment: Companies rush in with the cash" on the financial times website (www.FT.com) published December 11, 2002 written by John Thornhill. The reason for choosing this article is my personal interest in the Chinese economy and its attractiveness to the foreign investors. Apart from the foreign direct investment this topic has also helped me in understanding the impact of Chinese economy on the global market.
At the turn of century, the total number of Christians living in Japan is estimated at about 1,075,000 that accounts to less than 1 % of the total residents. The Kondansha's Encyclopaedia describes that, “There were 436,000 Catholics with some 800 parishes in 16 dioceses, while Protestants numbered 639,000 with nearly 7,000 churches”.
. . . . although the amount of foreign capital invested directly in Japan from 1899 to 1931 was not large, the impact of this investment on Japan was very great indeed. It is clear that foreign direct investment: first, participated in and stimulated a broad range of business endeavor, often employing advanced methods; second, provided valuable knowledge about western technology and management practice; affected the internal economic geography. (p. 13)
Japan and the U.S. both have a structure in society. Japan has an order based on the principles of Confucius, an ancient Chinese philosopher (Anderson School UCLA, http, 1999). These principles give the Japanese resolute values on society. Since the teachings of Confucius stressed total respect and kindness throughout relationships, it is normal that the Japanese use them in most practices. The Japanese are very family oriented. Devotion to the crowd is first and foremost in their actions. Also, that brings a little discipline into the equation. Japanese people are more inclined to do well for the sake of family. Because if oversight occurs, the family is seen as responsible not the person who acted (Anderson School UCLA, http, 1999).
However, cooperative strategies are used to initiate funding and assets for all involved parties. Furthermore, companies work with strategic alliance to define a specific purpose or goal and to take full opportunity of financial prudence. For example, complementary strengths revolve around a company competitive advantage. The game changer in a joint venture is entering an untapped market. Nevertheless, strategic alliance allows companies access to new markets. Also, joints ventures allow each company the opportunity to market to existing customers or new customers. Joint ventures are vital, it allows each company the opportunity to growth, share profit, shares risk, maximizes project needs, and to rely on each other. Besides, cooperative strategies are a significant part of joint ventures due to it helps each company project an increase in
As I said earlier, in a matter of traditions, Americans are much more attached to them than the Japanese, and is likely due to factors such as those mentioned above, age of both cultures, naturalization traditions (in the case of Japan), and put in check of traditional values through multiple conflicts (in the US). The major religions in Japan are Shintoism, a religion based on the worship of ancestors and nature, with about 200 sects and denominations, and Buddhism, with 207 schools and trends. Just under 4% of the population profess Christianity, represented in Japan by Protestantism, Catholicism and the Greek Orthodox Church
The strategic alliance approached by selling Mazda’s 25% share to Ford motor company. So it was a strategic alliance and shared ownership type. Shared ownership alliance is actually one special form of joint venture.
...om the imagination that needs to combines those two experts from each areas to make the innovative product become true. Also I've learned that, even these companies are such a big companies worldwide and seems that they don't really conflict between each other but the problem in alliances can happen anywhere in the operation process such like the conflict between their designers team. In order to strengthen the performance of the company in specific task, sometime the company needs to get some help from the other company to fulfill the operation. The alliances has its own life cycle and will not stay long forever. From that reason, the company that consider whether to do the alliance or not might need to be careful and think more about the framework, plan, and financial split before doing any alliances because one day, our partner can become our competitor anytime.
Crossing national boundaries is essential for gaining competitiveness in the present era. So companies are expanding and for this purpose, joint ventures are increasingly becoming common these days. The concept is also called internationalization (Beamish and Lupton, 2009) which is the result of the shift to more customized demands, core competency focus and desire to achieve economies of scale. There are many underlying reasons and benefits for such joint ventures. In some countries, this is the only way to engross in foreign business, for example, Maxico has requirement that all foreign investments in the country must undergo joint venture with Maxican firms. Moreover governments now have more involvement and interest in private business
Japan’s form of government is parliamentarian democracy under the rule of a constitutional monarch. The dominant religion is Shinto, which is exclusive to Japan. However, the Japanese have no official religion.
Christianity is also present in Japan, but only about 1% of the total population is of the Christian faith. In spite of the low percentage of Japanese Christians, many people have Christian weddings in Japan now.