The Fable of the Keiretsu

“In this sparkling tour de force, Miwa and Ramseyer drive a final stake through the heart of that venerable vampire, the keiretsu. Fearlessly criticizing almost everyone who has previously written on this subject, they clear away the thicket of nonsense that has for so long obscured for so many the true workings of the Japanese economy.”--Gary Saxonhouse, University of Michigan

“Miwa and Ramseyer so systematically dismantle the conventional understanding of Japanese economic institutions that The Fable of the Keiretsu will no doubt be an instant classic. Their no-holds-barred account leaves the prior conception of the Japanese economy as a system of interrelated corporations and banks with little connection to a market economy in a shambles. There will surely be a strong reaction to their thesis that the keiretsu, main banks, and successful central government planning were figments of the imagination of academics on both sides of the Pacific. But Miwa and Ramseyer’s data are so compelling that I don’t see how the pieces could ever be put back together again.”--Roberta Romano, Yale Law School

“The Fable of the Keiretsu is so important and well written, it should become a classic in both the academic and popular literature on Japan. Urban legends about Japan view the country as following some kind of Confucian collectivism that does not follow behavior that would be consistent with economic rationality. Yoshiro Miwa and Mark Ramseyer instead argue that the facts about Japan conform closely with what would be both observed and expected in a market economy in which firms maximize profits.”--Daniel F. Spulber, Kellogg School of Management, Northwestern University