The Location of Japanese MNCs Affiliates: Agglomeration Spillovers and Firm Heterogeneity

This study examines the determinants of location choices of foreign affiliates by manufacturing Japanese firms, using a new data set that matches parents and their affiliates created over the years 1995-2003. The analysis is based on new economic geography theory and thus focuses on the effect of market and supplier access, as well as production and trade costs. Our interest is twofold. First, we investigate the importance of agglomeration and spillover effects on the firms' decision through the use of proxies relating to the presence of Japanese affiliates in the host countries as well as to that of Japanese multinational firms at home. Overall, our results confirm the economic importance of information sharing and network effects both at home and in the host country beside traditional determinants pertaining to production and transaction costs and access and supply access. Second, we explore whether the effects of key determinants of locational choice vary substantially depending on the characteristics of the investing firm and the plant. We find less productive and smaller parents to be more likely to create an affiliate in China rather than in Western Europe or an OECD country. Moreover less productive firms appear to be more sensitive to distance-related costs and low institutional quality while being more responsive to the presence of Japanese firms and JETRO presence in the host country.

What Causes Plant Closure within Multi-Plant Firms?

This paper investigates why plants belonging to multi-plant firms are more likely to exit. Using Japanese plant data linked to firm data we study the process of plant closure among domestic multi-plant firms as well as multi-plant multinationals. As elsewhere in the literature these organisational forms are found to raise the probability of plant exit despite the superior characteristics of the plants they own. We find that the domestic multi-plant ownership effect is attributable to these firms closing the weakest elements of the firm. We reject the idea of multinationals being ‘footloose’ but instead find a residual effect of multinational ownership which reduces the probability of plant death when we control for the process of closure within those firms.Exit, Multinational Firms, Multi-plant firms, International Trade

Employee representation in japanese family and non-family SMEs

This paper analyzes differences in the effects of employee representations between family firms and non-family firms. First, managers from non-family firms have a more favorable response towards unions as organizations than managers from family firms. Managers from family firms tend to regard unions as harmful to their management, because unions may bring in outsiders, to the detriment of the management. Second, voice-oriented employee associations tend to exist more in non-family firms than in family ones. Third, these associations have a voice effect suppressing turnover rates in non-family firms, though not in family ones

Employee representation in japanese family and non-family SMEs

This paper analyzes differences in the effects of employee representations between family firms and non-family firms. First, managers from non-family firms have a more favorable response towards unions as organizations than managers from family firms. Managers from family firms tend to regard unions as harmful to their management, because unions may bring in outsiders, to the detriment of the management. Second, voice-oriented employee associations tend to exist more in non-family firms than in family ones. Third, these associations have a voice effect suppressing turnover rates in non-family firms, though not in family ones

Globalization, Productivity and Plant Exit - Evidence from Japan -

During the 1980s and 1990s, Japanese manufacturers began to relocate production from sites in Japan to low-wage East Asian countries such as China, Malaysia and Thailand. Imports of manufacturing goods increased substantially over the same period. This rapid rise in imports, and proliferation of globalization, has led to concerns among policymakers that firms and plants may close. The media portray foreign multinationals as closing down productive Japanese plants and relocating them elsewhere in Asia. We find that this is not the case. Equally, the plants that are closed are below average productivity and the exit component contributes a very small fraction to productivity growth (using both the GR and FHK methods). In short, plant exit has not been the reason for Japan's low productivity growth in the 1990s. Instead a lack of productivity growth within plants is identified as being the main cause.

Characteristics of early-onset hematotoxicity of sunitinib in Japanese patients with renal cell carcinoma

BACKGROUND: A high incidence of severe hematological adverse events during sunitinib treatment complicates decision making on dose and treatment cycle. We identified the characteristics of early-onset hematotoxicity of sunitinib in Japanese patients with renal cell carcinoma (RCC). METHODS: Seventy-nine patients were treated with sunitinib as 6-week cycles of “4-week on 2-week off” schedule. To evaluate early-onset hematotoxicity, we compared patients with dose reduction during the first cycle (dose-reduced group, n = 57) and those who maintained the initial dose (dose-maintained group, n = 22). ABCG2 and FLT3 genotypes were analyzed for association between hematotoxicity and reported gene polymorphisms. RESULTS: Mean relative dose intensity (RDI) was similar in the two groups during the first 2 weeks of dosing in the first cycle, but was significantly lower in the dose-reduced group during the last 2 weeks. Lymphocytopenia and thrombocytopenia were observed in the dose-reduced group within the first 2 weeks. Genetic analysis indicated a significantly higher frequency of FLT3 738 T/C polymorphism in the dose-reduced group, but no significant difference in the ABCG2 421 C/A polymorphism. CONCLUSIONS: This study showed a high incidence of sunitinib-induced hematotoxicity in Japanese patients with RCC, many of whom need dose adjustment during the first cycle. Further studies should verify whether dose adjustment based on early-onset thrombocytopenia prolongs sunitinib treatment

PREDICTION SYSTEMS FOR BLADDER CANCER THERAPY

The present study established systems to predict the chemo‑sensitivity of muscle invasive bladder cancer (MIBC) for neoadjuvant chemotherapy (NAC) with methotrexate, vinblastine, doxorubicin plus cisplatin (M‑VAC) and carboplatin plus gemcitabine (CaG) by analyzing microarray data. The primary aim of the study was to investigate whether the clinical response would increase by combining these prediction systems. Treatment of each MIBC case was allocated into M‑VAC NAC, CaG NAC, surgery, or radiation therapy groups by their prediction score (PS), which was calculated using the designed chemo‑sensitivity prediction system. The therapeutic effect of the present study was compared with the results of historical controls (n=76 patients) whose treatments were not allocated using the chemo‑sensitivity prediction system. In addition, the overall survival between the predicted to be responder (positive PS) group and predicted to be non‑responder (negative PS) group was investigated in the present study. Of the 33 patients with MIBC, 25 cases were positive PS and 8 were negative PS. Among the 25 positive PS cases, 7 were allocated to receive M‑VAC NAC and 18 were allocated to receive CaG NAC according to the results of the prediction systems. Of the 8 negative PS cases, 3 received CaG NAC, 1 received surgery without NAC and 4 received radiation therapy. The total clinical response to NAC was 88.0% (22/25), which was significantly increased compared with the historical controls [56.6% (43/76) P=0.0041]. Overall survival of the positive PS group in the study was significantly increased compared with the negative PS group (P=0.027). In conclusion, the combination of the two prediction systems may increase the treatment efficacy for patients with MIBC by proposing the optimal NAC regimen. In addition, the positive PS group would have a better prognosis compared with the negative PS group. These results suggest that the two prediction systems may lead to the achievement of ‘precision medicine’

Plantar Fascia Rupture in a Professional Soccer Player

We report the case of a 29-year-old male professional soccer player who presented with symptoms of plantar fasciitis. His symptoms occurred with no remarkable triggers and gradually worsened despite conservative treatments including taping, use of insoles, and physical therapy. Local corticosteroid injection was given twice as a further intervention, but his plantar fascia partially ruptured 49 days after the second injection. He was treated conservatively with platelet-rich plasma, and magnetic resonance imaging showed regenerative change of the ruptured fascia. Five months after the rupture, he returned to his original level of training. If professional athletes find it difficult to refrain from athletic activity, as in the present case, the risk of rupture due to corticosteroid injection should not be overlooked