ABSTRACT

Japanese general trading houses, or so called sogo shosha, are a typical Japanese phenomenon. Of course there are general trading companies in other countries as well, but none is of the same scale as the Japanese. The six big trading houses 1 are all ranked among the top ten of the world's largest corporations. 2 They are global companies that trade all over the world. How do they look at the markets in their closest neighbourhood, that is Asia? What importance do they place on Asia in their business strategies? What kind of influence do they generate there and what kind of consequences does this have for the Asian countries?