ABSTRACT
For France as well as for Japan the private sector is a driving force in their economic relations. While governments direct and influence economic exchange, the French and Japanese companies conduct the actual day-to-day business in ways that differ from the interests of their governments. The motivations of companies to do business in Vietnam also differ from the national interests followed by their governments. Before World War II, Vietnam was known in Japan as the richest and most developed country in Southeast Asia. Although France and Japan had trade relations with Vietnam before 1986, the communist doctrine of economic autarchy and the concentration on trade within the CMEA limited trade opportunities. Most of the general trading houses were founded in the last century, when Japan opened to the outside world after hundreds of years of self-imposed isolation.
