The Japanese “sogo shosha” – Japanese General Trading Companies – have played a major role in the phenomenal growth of the Japanese economy. Throughout the century, sogo shosha have secured raw material import inputs and have marketed and manufactured high value‐added exports of the...

As the Japanese have catapulted themselves to become a supereconomic power, many reasons have been given regarding their rapid progression – one of which is the claim that they are the world′s premier marketers. Certainly US marketers would argue this point. However, the unparalleled rise of...

In the last 30 years, Japan has come from a second‐rate status to the world′s economic giant, leading the world in electronics, automobiles, steel, shipbuilding and virtually anything else to which she has set her mind. The Japanese aim was and still is to be world‐class suppliers of the...

Japanese General Trading Companies or sogo shoshas have been instrumental in the phenomenal Japanese economic miracle of the last 40 years. In 1982, the USA passed the Export Trading Company Act to home grow its own sogo shoshas ; to date the Act has been ineffective ‐ yet the need remains....