ABSTRACT

Recent decades have seen a rapid expansion in the numbers of Japanese working abroad. These expatriate migration flows are mainly a result of corporate location decisions enmeshed in the process of rapid globalisation. This process has required that the main players of the expanding world economy, the transnational corporations (TNCs), adapt their market strategies to the demands of the globalising economy with its three core regions (often known as the ‘triad’ – North America, Western Europe and the Pacific Rim focused on Japan). One consequence was the shift from export-based strategies of the early stage of internationalisation to strategies based on overseas direct investments. The aim of these new global location strategies was to create and maintain sustainable competitive advantages in global markets. Since the 1980s, the flow of foreign direct investment (FDI) has grown at a faster rate than the export flow of goods. This growth of FDI – with Japanese corporations being among the main contributors – led to a significant increase of Japanese expatriate migration to major urban centres. These are the nodal points of the global business network and control the globalisation process, and have been labelled by Sassen (1991, 1994) as ‘global cities’. Within this process of globalisation, and with the emergence of the triadic system, the markets of Western Europe became one of the main targets of Japanese economic activity.