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| Publications [#7133] of Simon C Partner
Books
- Assembled in Japan: Electrical Goods and the Making of the Japanese Consumer
(1999), Berkeley: University of California Press (292 pages.) [102-1008339-5256135]
(last updated on 2006/03/08)
Abstract:
This book investigates one of the great
success stories of the twentieth century:
the rise of the Japanese electronics
industry. The author concludes that behind
the meteoric rise of Sony, Matsushita,
Toshiba and other electrical goods
companies was neither the iron hand of MITI
nor a government-sponsored export-led
growth policy, but, rather, an explosion of
domestic consumer demand. This
efflorescence mirrored the massive consumer
boom underway in the United States; but the
author argues that widespread poverty and
miserable living conditions made Japan’s
experience qualitatively different.
Electrical goods companies recognized that
they must exert every effort to create new
markets for expensive products (such as
televisions, washing machines, and
refrigerators) which had no established
tradition in Japan, and about which people
had little knowledge. The book opens with
an account of the prewar development of
Japan’s electrical communications industry,
which was an essential prerequisite for the
postwar rise of Japanese electronics.
Chapter 2 describes the re-envisioning of
Japan that took place during the Allied
Occupation, including the quest by business
leaders visiting America to identify the
keys to American prosperity. Chapter 3
recounts the little-known story of the
launch of television in Japan, under the
stimulus of an American drive to create
anti-Communist propaganda outlets in Asia.
Chapter 4 describes the massive import of
both product and marketing technologies
during the 1950s: a process that had the
full support of US business and government.
Chapter 5 investigates the efforts by
Japanese companies to stimulate domestic
demand for their products. Focusing on
themes of “rationalization,” “scientific
living,” and the “bright life,” companies
endeavored to foster a culture of
consumption even as the government and
others preached a gospel of saving. Chapter
6 tells the story of the transistor radio,
Japan’s first export success in
electronics. The chapter argues that at the
heart of this success was not technological
prowess, but the “nimble fingers” of young
female workers who were paid as little as
$17 a month. In the conclusion, and
throughout the book, the author relates his
story to some of the key themes of the
twentieth-century experience: the role of
technology in promoting social change, the
rise of mass consumer societies, and the
construction of gender in advanced
industrial economies.
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