However, these kinds of methods were inherently limited. That is, these methods lacked the perspective of the managers of wholesalers, who outnumbered the manufacturers and played an important role in the distribution. Their independent and active approach to business administration had been ignored. For this reason, the overall picture of distribution in Japan could not be seen. Also hidden from sight as a result were the process of formation and transformation of the often-indicated multi-staged nature of Japan’s distribution structure, choai kankei and other transaction relationships, as well as the flow of changes to the trading system.
Formerly, distribution in Japan was called the “dark continent” and remained closed inside darkness for the general public, both overseas and in Japan. However, the people involved in the work of distribution and the industry insiders naturally act after learning a variety of facts, so distribution was a “dark continent” for people other than the industry insiders. Moreover, there was no progress in the elucidation of the facts about distribution, so we can conclude that distribution remained a “dark continent” for economic history and business history researchers.
In November 2007, I published Business History of Japanese Distribution System (publisher: Yuhikaku) [Meiji University Institute of Social Sciences Series] as the interim report from a study to elucidate the facts about this “dark continent.” This report examines historical changes in business relationships and terms of transactions between manufacturers and wholesale stores, their subsidiary wholesale stores and retail stores in the soap, detergent, toothpaste, and cosmetics industries in Japan from the Meiji period to the 1960s.
Since the 1960s—the period covered by the report, however, the strategies of manufacturers have changed to an even greater extent and most management in the wholesale industry has also undergone a further transfiguration, due to the large-scale development of supermarkets in Japan. Managers of wholesalers who were in financial difficulty discontinued business, while wholesalers who created new prospects cooperated with the policies of the manufacturers, and got involved with the wide-range cooperation among wholesalers. Currently, due to the rise of the drugstore industry and the growth of Internet sales, both manufacturers and wholesale businesses are going through further major changes.
Along with these changes, it is becoming increasingly difficult to conduct surveys and research into the historical facts. Most of the wholesale companies which disappeared were not the major wholesalers of timber, textiles, and food products that often appeared in the economic history and business history of Japan; they were the emerging small- and medium-sized wholesalers that rose to prominence from the Meiji period to the Showa period. Even though they took the form of stock companies, they limited the distribution of reports about their management, so it is not easy to obtain their basic management information. Furthermore, influential business managers and their insiders are getting old or have died. As a result, interview surveys have become difficult, and so has gaining access to the documents about business history retained by individual business managers.
Nonetheless, as a person who studies the business history of Japan, I think it is important to challenge ourselves to overcome these difficulties to record the history of distribution in Japan as meticulously as possible. Fortunately, valuable information about distribution business history still exists at manufacturers who did business with wholesale companies and at wholesale companies throughout Japan that still bear an important function today. Many of the business managers of wholesale companies across Japan are still in robust health even though they are old. There is relevant information in libraries in Tokyo and in the regional university libraries and public libraries as well, although this information is scattered about in many places.
I intend to depict one aspect of the history of distribution business in modern and contemporary Japan by using the empirical methods of searching for and examining these historical documents as well as conducting interview surveys on business managers.
Profile
Professor Satoshi Sasaki, School of Business Administration, specializing in business history in Japan and the history of entrepreneurs in JapanBorn in Aomori City in 1957. Graduated from the Gakushuin University Faculty of Economics and completed Doctoral Course of the Department of Business Administration, Meiji University Graduate School. Worked as an assistant professor in the School of Administration and Informatics, University of Shizuoka before taking up current position. Doctorate (business administration)
