ABSTRACT
Few words are used to describe the Japanese economy in general, or inter-firm relations in particular, as often as the term ‘keiretsu’. Associated on the one hand with long-term relations, mutual assistance and stable transactions, and on the other with trade restrictions and closed markets, keiretsu have been at the centre of attention for years. However, the reason that the implications of keiretsu are so different is that the term keiretsu captures a number of different phenomena. The common theme that brings all these connotations together is that the term keiretsu can be understood to stand for an industrial group and the linkages of the firms belonging to that group.1 We need, however, to distinguish between several kinds of keiretsu.
