ABSTRACT
The main purpose of this paper is to analyze the evolution of Japanese IT industries in comparison with the U.S. developments. We also try to answer the question why Japan’s computer and communications industries succeeded in the 80s and then failed in the 90s. Our analytical framework is based on the comparative institutional analysis (CIA) developed by M. Aoki and others. In Section 2 we first outline the technological developments in the IT industries. Section 3 presents information processing models which are the key tools to explain the performances of IT firms, and Section 4 develops the concept of business models which combine the information processing system with other complementary factors. In Section 5, the rise and decline of three major business models in the IT industries are analyzed.
