Japanese firms are in the midst of the most protracted economic crisis in their post-war history. The end of the "bubble economy" has led to a long era of low growth. This change in the general business environment
has profound consequences for the management and the organization of corporate Japan, as well as for the theory of the Japanese firm. The contributions to this book cover a broad range of subjects, from the strategies and
organizational structures to the management of human resources and innovation processes in the 1990s. These changes are systematically commented on by field specialists from abroad, especially Europe, relating the situation in
Japan to comparable developments in other countries.