I'm not sure what the point here is. I can go to a supermarket and buy detergent from P&G, Lever Brothers, Lion and Kao. I can also buy a very cheap detergent marketed by a trading company importing it from Indonesia. And one marketed by the JA co-op. And several that are supposed to be easy on the environment marketed by health food chains.
I think Americans used to call this 'competition'.
The same with pharmaceuticals.
Let's get a few things straight. Japanese don't self-medicate near as much because they have a little certificate that gets them into any clinic or hospital, and they'll go if they have a bad hangnail. The national health insurance is expensive if you make any money, but it works to cover everyone.
It's true that Japan lacks the really huge pharmaceutical companies. It's also true that many Japanese companies market and sell right alongside the major foreign ones (and there are also a lot of joint ventures and licensed products). And the Japanese worry that in so many sectors their companies lack the size of the Anglo-american and European companies like Glaxo and Pfizer. But it makes for a busy retail market place if you like a variety of products. Ditto with food marketing. The major internationals are here, competing against the Japanese companies.
I guess the Americans are going to say: Japan has had too much competition and didn't develop enough near-monopolists in food, detergent, and pharmaceuticals.
> The article definitely suggests that >what you call a "just-in-time"
retail
>infrastructure is actually a Mom->and-Pop retail infrastructure.
Mom and Pop retail is LOOOOONG gone. The just in time model works best for the convenience stores on every corner (these have been overbuilt and we'll soon see some consolidation). It also works for the new retailers like Uniqlo (sells clothing similar to the Gap).
Most Japanese buy almost all of their things at major retailers, chain stores, national and international mail order.
If this is the info. Bush is going to operate on, he'll be worse than Clinton. But I knew that already.
Charles Jannuzi