ABSTRACT

The concluding remarks review each chapter to provide discussions by the editors on the three historical questions set forth in the introduction: How did Japanese public relations develop? What were the political, social, and economic conditions that supported or inhibited its development? Why didn’t it develop a large public relations industry despite rapid economic development? Through the discussion, “generalist PR” is presented as an overarching concept that characterizes Japanese public relations. Managers of generalist PR are familiar with internal situations, have multi-layer internal networks, understand corporate management goals, and tend to have a stronger motivation to contribute to corporate outcomes. However, in the globalization that became evident since the 1990s, there is a sign of change in the generalist-centered public relations of Japanese organizations.