Since the 1980s, small and medium sized firms in Japan have adjusted themselves remarkably to the market changes of the post-Fordism industry, and have significantly contributed to the country's economy. This paper emphasizes the interaction of the state and local producers in building a social...

Although the small and medium-sized firms have been an integral part of Japan's economic growth patterns, the way these firms are organized has mostly been studied only in relation to the more glamorous keiretsu organizational patterns. Japan's small and medium-sized firms did not develop only...