ABSTRACT
This chapter shows how the observations of the rise of Japan as an industrial power and the dysfunction of its original development pattern have allowed the renewal of the analysis and the theory of capitalism, by showing how a hybridization process between imported productive modernity and resilience of domestic social relations has allowed the emergence of an original configuration. This hybridization process is not the only mechanism in action. The regulation theory will be a guideline for this analysis, as it is precisely a research strategy that identifies the factors shaping the transformation of each capitalism and the renewal of their diversity. The diffusion of production methods and organizational forms towards new territories becomes a factor of socioeconomic transformation. A multipolar world exists because of the catching up of Asia, the eroding of the US economic domination, the new status of both Latin America and Africa, which face the opportunity and limits associated to the supply of raw materials.
