The changing role of China in the transformation of corporate Japan

This conclusion to the special issue, 'Cross-cultural Management Practices in East Asia: Lessons for Japanese MNEs', examines how Japanese firms are responding to, and are affected by, increasing engagement with the Chinese economy. In addition to the three specific themes identified a priori to be of greatest concern to the transformation of corporate Japan (namely marketing and distribution, inter-corporate networks and human resources management), two additional themes can be discerned. These relate to institutional evolution and the challenges of localization. It is concluded that Japanese firms can be shown to demonstrate flexibility in their engagement with China within this analytical framework.