ABSTRACT
This chapter begins by explaining a wider context of global cultural economy to which Japanese TNCs made a significant contribution in terms of how dominant corporate strategies and ideologies were shifted from global standardization/economic rationalism to local adaptation/cultural differentiation. The acceleration of interconnectivity and interdependency has altered, and is altering, people's sense of identity and belonging, they do not seem to guarantee the formation of a homogeneous global society or global culture. When Japanese corporations globalized their distribution of goods and services, they invariably faced difficulty in communicating their ideas and values to Western consumers. Glocalization was originally coined from a Japanese word, dochakuka or indigenization that referred to agricultural practice to domesticate food production and was later applied to business practice. A glocalization process grants relative autonomy to the local and generates reverse diffusion to the global. The chapter examines the pioneering role of Japanese TNCs in developing the commercial processes of glocalization and self-Orientalization.
