ABSTRACT
Japanese transplant manufacturers have been credited with the creation of significant new employment opportunities in the UK. However, concentrations of highly productive Japanese manufacturing capital may have other significant impacts on the UK economy. The presence of Japanese manufacturing capital could represent one means of improving the competitiveness of domestic UK manufacturing – for example, through technological transfer or through increased competitive pressure. Much has been made of the potential for the ‘Japanisation’ of UK industry whereby UK firms adopt new’ production techniques and ‘hybrid’ forms of personnel management successfully transplanted to the UK industrial environment. However, the developmental potential of Japanese capital has been questioned by a number of commentators who suggest that Japanese subsidiaries in the UK are, in fact, characterised by comparatively poor performance, and that this poor performance is underlined by reference to the marginal nature of Japanese manufacturing operations in the UK periphery. These conclusions have been supported by recent evidence which reveals the relatively low profitability of Japanese subsidiaries in the UK. (see for example Munday and Peel 1997).
