Globalization and Regional Dynamics : East Asia and the European Union From the Japanese and the German Perspective

This book contains a collection of papers by Japanese and German authors dealing with the ongoing globalization process and notable fluctuations in the regional economic development in East Asia. The contributions discuss the stabilizing and destabilizing elements of the globalization process. The authors investigate the different options for economic policy to stabilize an ever more tightly interwoven world economy. In the center of the discussion are developments in East Asia and the European Union. Front Matter....Pages I-X International Competition, Globalization and Mechanisms of the Expanding Crisis. Is the Simultaneity of the Crises in Japan and Korea a Coincidence?....Pages 1-17 The Asian Crisis: Its Causes, Course and Spread, and Stabilizing Options, from a German Perspective....Pages 19-41 The Strategies of the Japanese Government and Trade Associations....Pages 43-49 The US Dollar, the Euro, and the Yen: An Evaluation of Their Present and Future Status as International Currencies....Pages 51-79 Effects of Globalization and Crisis upon Competitive and Cooperative Relationships in Asia: The Example of the Japanese and East Asian Electronics Industries....Pages 81-107 Globalization and Crisis and Their Effects upon Japan and China — Judged by Assessing Their Regional Positioning and Foreign Mergers and Acquisitions....Pages 109-125 Effects of Globalization and of Regional and Business Adaptation upon Employment....Pages 127-146 Effects of Globalization on Employment and Wealth....Pages 147-165 Some Features of Japanese Direct Investment after the Second World War from the Perspective of East Asia....Pages 167-197 Financing Industrialization in Emerging Economies by Capital Inflows: A Matter of Regulation or Deregulation? Experiences from Asian Countries....Pages 199-224 The Economic Trend of the Last Three Years in Japan....Pages 225-233 Effects of Globalization on National Financial Systems....Pages 235-248 Arisawa Lecture: The Life and Work of Professor Hiromi Arisawa, with Special Reference to his Relationship to Germany....Pages 249-253 The wntmgs by Japanese and Gennan economists presented here originated against the backdrop of ongoing globalization processes and notable fluctuations in regional economic dynamics observable at the same time, primarily in the East and South East Asian area. They provided the occasion for these writers to come to tenns with globalization processes, and in particular with the stabilizing and destabilizing elements at work in them. This is the basis for their investigation of the options provided by economics and economic policy for stabilizing an ever more tightly interwoven world economy. The regional focal points of the contributions are the East Asian realm and the European Union, and the points of view are in every case both from the Japanese and the Gennan side. Questions of international competition and mechanisms of the spread of the crisis in the wake of globalization processes lie at the centre of the analyses by Hisashi Watanabe and Willy Kraus. Hisashi Watanabe focusses on the relationship, an especially important one from the Japanese perspective, between Japan and South Korea and takes up the problem of South Korea's demand that Japan should energetically promote its own transition to a service-sector-oriented society and withdraw from certain areas of manufacturing. This, it is argued, will grant Japan's Asian neighbours better chances for development and make a positive contribution to the economic stabilization of the region.