ABSTRACT
The three sectors considered in Part II (resources, manufacturing, and finance) comprise only a part of total Japanese direct foreign investment in this country. For a more complete assessment of Japanese investment in Australia, there is a need to examine a wider databank of Japanese business activities. The task of this chapter is to define clearly the general distribution and characteristics of Japanese business activities in this country during the study period. These patterns will be compared wherever possible with activities of firms whose parent companies are based in the UK and USA, as well as with indicators of national economic activity (e.g. the composition and location of total Australian manufacturing employment and corporate headquarters). This comparison will also indicate the extent to which unique Japanese characteristics, and/or the local physical and economic environment and government controls, have had a particular impact on their investment decisions here. Taken a stage further a geographic analysis and comparison will indicate how far Japanese firms have been able to forge their own special imprint on the Australian landscape, or whether they have in fact been constrained by limits set by the domestic system of cities.
