Choong Soon Kim

Japanese Industry in the American South

• Broschiertes Buch

Produktbeschreibung

In spite of Japanese investment in America and the debate on the competitive edge of Japanese enterprise, we know little about the actual people who are managing and working in Japanese plants. "Japanese Industry in the American South describes the industrial cultures found in three Japanese industrial plants in the American South. Choong Soon Kim discusses why Japanese industries are coming to the South, to what extent Japanese industrial management in the South replicates the industrial relations model used in the home plants in Japan, and examines the reactions of Americans toward the Japanese expatriates. The Japanese have had a profound effect on Southerners. Meeting the challenges of the Japanese has led Americans to rediscover their own strengths and weaknesses. "Japanese Industry in the American South offers a different perspective. Western scholars have emphasized the positive aspects of traditional values and practices for Japanese industry, and haveeven romanticized their effects. Utilizing his bicultural experience, Choong Soon Kim discusses how the American public tends to over-estimate Japanese knowledge about American culture and the Japanese ability to be competitive with their American counterparts. He also talks about the idea many Americans still have that Japanese industrialists are so knowledgeable about the South that they can exploit what are seen as southern characteristics: white, rural, polite and non-union--of people who are supposedly eager to work hard for low wages. Conversely, the numerous concessions, compromises, and accommodations required by the Japanese are exposed and analyzed here. "Japanese Industry in the "American South reveals a morebalanced view of Japan's success as well as struggles to remain competitive in an American setting.

Produktdetails

• Verlag: Taylor & Francis
• Seitenzahl: 206
• Erscheinungstermin: 12. September 1995
• Englisch
• Abmessung: 228mm x 153mm x 12mm
• Gewicht: 313g
• ISBN-13: 9780415914031
• ISBN-10: 0415914035
• Artikelnr.: 21465539

Autorenporträt

Choong Soon Kim is University Faculty Scholar and Professor of Anthropology at the University of Tennessee at Martin.

Inhaltsangabe

Introduction
Chapter 1 The South and Selling of the South
Chapter 2 Southern Incentives and Japanese Investment
Chapter 3 Myth and Reality of Japanese Industry in the South
Chapter 4 Industrial Relations of Japanese Industry
Chapter 5 Response of Southerners to the Japanese Challenges
Chapter 6 The Ethnographer's View of Japanese Industry in the South