ABSTRACT
Fordist growth in most developed countries, including Japan, has been based on the consumption of goods and services by wage and salary earners. For proponents of régulation theory, the reproduction of social labour-power is a factor which lies at the heart of their analysis of modes of régulation and, in particular, of industrial relations. Patterns of consumption and forms of social organisation are two fundamental components of our subject. Indeed, the level of consumption is one of the key determinants of capital accumulation at the macro-economic level. This study hopes to provide the basis for further theoretical and empirical research, although it is limited to an examination of ‘company-ist’ régulation in Japan and of the situation and role of the Japanese company in this process.
