Can Japan Compete? [Hardcover]

Can Japan Compete?, business guru Michael Porter's first book for almost a decade, could scarcely be timelier, arriving on the shelves at a moment in Japanese corporate history when many an awkward chicken is coming home to roost, causing collapse and consolidation on a previously unimaginable scale. It addresses at some length a very Japanese enigma. How could an economy with so many apparently fiercely competitive industries have a hidden, darkly uncompetitive side to it?

Porter and his co-authors set out to challenge the conventional wisdom on the driving forces behind national competitiveness in Japan, and show that Japan is not a special case. "Its industries succeed not when the government manages competition but when it allows competition to flourish. For various political and cultural reasons, it has been appealing to believe that Japan had invented a new and intrinsically superior form of capitalism, one more controlled and egalitarian than the Western vision," say the authors. What they claim to have found instead is that none of the conventional wisdom is true. Japan's much-celebrated bureaucratic capitalism is not the cause of the country's success. In fact, it is most closely associated with the nation's failures.

Can Japan Compete? sets off at a brisk pace that quickly proves difficult for the authors to sustain. Sharp prose gives way to hard data and plentiful charts. Stick with it, though. In among the thickets of facts and figures there still lurks an array of interesting propositions, leading up to a simple and pretty incontestable final statement. If mindsets in Japan change, the nation has the capacity to move rapidly. --Brian Bollen

'Michael Porter is one of the world's most influential authorities on corporate strategy.' - Independent on Sunday

'Porter is the single most important strategist working today, and maybe of all time.' - Kevin Coyne, McKinsey & Co, Fortune

'Takeuchi...ranks among the intellectual leaders of the younger, globally minded generation that is coming to power in Japan.' - Fortune

'This excellent book is definitely a must read. Business people will have a clear idea of what specific problems need to be resolved if they apply the analysis results and future directions suggested in the book to their own company situation.' - Yomiuri Weekly, of Japanese language edition

'The unique feature of this book is the meticulous examination into the activities of individual firms in our country.This is one book that every business person should read.' - JMA Management Review, of Japanese language edition
'America's top business guru...Professor Michael Porter of Harvard Business School is...consultant to the world on what makes economies hum. His status as an international authority on the right way to manage rests on a quarter of a century of mining data from the corporate coalface.' - The Times

'He's one of the two or three so-called gurus on competitiveness who've had more impact over the past 50 years than anyone else.' - Leo Murray, Director, Cranfield School of Management

'...an important contribution to policy thinking - not only in Japan.' - Tom Hardiman, Intermedia

'Michael Porter has summarised in a masterly fashion the key factors that lie behind Japan's economic and corporate success and present problems.' - Strategy

'Based on extensive research the book carries sound analysis and a clarion call to action. The current situation can be turned around and this book shows clearly the way ahead for Japan. For those with an interest in the future of one of the world's largest economies, this is a must read.' - Marketing Business

'Porter (is) the world's foremost authority on corporate strategy.' - South China Morning Post

'A master class on the performance of the post war 'Japanese economic miracle'...one of the best written, clearly presented, well referenced and easily read volumes that one is ever likely to find on this complex subject...A first class read.' - Engineering Management Journal

'A clearly substantiated and well-researched contribution to a clearer understanding of the Japanese economy and culture.' - Business Age

'The detailed research that has gone into this book gives it a more solid foundation than others in the field...the proposals for corporations bear close scrutiny as they aren't just a wholesale selling of Anglo-Saxon practices. The authors...offer a more balanced prescription that gives value to the long-term approach Japanese business has always had.' - World Link

'Michael Porter is a guru. In the overcrowded parking lot of management gurus he is the flaming red one with a turbo charged, 32 valve, three litre engine, a GURU1 number plate and a CD changer in the boot. Porter, a professor at Harvard Business School, has not only taught generations of ambitious executives how to run business better, but his CV reads more like Henry Kissinger's diary than the life of an average academic.' - Neil Bennett, Sunday Telegraph

'Can Japan Compete?...took almost eight years to complete and represents a major contribution to the understanding of Japan. It also offers a set of ideas that can guide economic policy and corporate practice in any country.' - Euro Business

'Porter is the undisputed global authority on strategic management thinking and national competitive advantage and his views on the future of the Japanese economy should be worth reading.' Carol Kennedy, Business Highlights, Booksellers' Buyers Guide 2000

'This is good stuff! Not only is it a timely - and critical - reminder that choosing, occupying and staying in a unique position is an essential part of competitive strategy, but it is also a classic part of the continuing academic debate on strategy...Michael Porter must have enjoyed writing this book and...you should enjoy reading it.' - The Antidote

'Michael E. Porter is an undoubted Business guru.' - The Good Book Guide

Can Japan Compete? is a major new development of Michael Porter's theory of competitive positioning, in which he examines the 'two Japans' - one highly competitive and one highly uncompetitive. Porter draws upon previously unseen research to set the record straight on what did and did not happen during the 'Japanese Miracle'. This book represents a major contribution to the understanding of Japan and a major new strategic analysis from the world's leading thinker on strategy.

Review, synopsis and table of contents
'Michael E. Porter is an undoubted business guru.' - The Good Book Guide

CONTENTS: The Japanese Model of Competitiveness - Challenging Conventional Wisdom: The Japanese Government Model - Rethinking Japanese Management - What does Explain Japanese Competitiveness? - How Japan Can Move Forward: the Agenda for Government - How Japan Can Move Forward: the Corporate Agenda - Can Japan Compete?

MICHAEL E. PORTER is the C.Roland Christensen Professor of Business Administration at Harvard Business School and a leading authority on competitive strategy and international competitiveness. He is the best-selling author of several books on corporate strategy including, The Competitive Advantage of Nations.

MICHAEL E. PORTER is the C.Roland Christensen Professor of Business Administration at Harvard Business School and a leading authority on competitive strategy and international competitiveness. He is the best-selling author of several books on corporate strategy including, The Competitive Advantage of Nations.

HIROTAKA TAKEUCHI is Dean of the Graduate School of International Corporate Strategy, Hitotsubashi University, Japan.

MARIKO SAKAKIBARA is Assistant Professor at the John E. Anderson Graduate School of Management, University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA).