ABSTRACT
Three major themes have been put forward. The first theme was to stress the fact that the industrial content and geographical spread of Japanese FDI have both reflected, and been an integral part of, the historical development of the Japanese economy. To repeat Ozawa's pithy description, FDI has served as a house-cleaning-and-renovating vehicle for Japan as it has steadily upgraded its domestic production facilities.1 It is in this context that the investment by Japanese companies in the United Kingdom (and in the European Community) over the past twenty years should be considered, and it is also in this context that important lessons may be learned from the Japanese experience.
