Japanese Service Industries and their Overseas Potential

Abstract

Service industries in Japan are surveyed and their competitiveness internationally assessed. Even though service levels in Japan might be the highest anywhere, export potential is limited. The low level of automation and mechanisation has made personal attention still the most common mode of providing service. In many services dependence on imported technology and reliance on special regulatory conditions in Japan combine to make strengths country-specific and with low potential abroad. Japan's language and cultural differences from the rest of the world - including the view that 'service should be free' -make inter-personal skills very difficult to transfer overseas. The overseas expansion, where it occurs, is most likely to come through strategic alliances with, or acquisitions of, Western firms.