ABSTRACT
The contributions to this volume reveal that copying within Japan, and between Japan and other countries, takes numerous forms and serves various purposes. However, in the Western mind, copying by the Japanese is usually associated with the apparent ease with which the Japanese copy Western technological products, and carries the implication that such copying is illicit. This chapter will examine such copying, or technology transfer, and will focus on the case of the Japanese firm Ishikawajima, which entered the motor vehicle industry in 1918 by producing cars and trucks under licence from a British firm, Wolseley Motors Limited. During the 1950s and early 1960s Isuzu Motors Limited, a descendant of the motor vehicle manufacturing division of Ishikawajima, again turned to a British company, Rootes Motors Limited, to upgrade its motor vehicle manufacturing capabilities under a second licensing agreement.
