Suppliers' Associations in the Japanese Automobile Industry: Collective Action for Technology Diffusion.

This paper analyses the structure and functions of suppliers' associations (kyory-okukai) in the automobile industry in Japan. The bilateral assembler-supplier relationship has received much attention recently as a source of Japanese industrial competitiveness. However, this paper argues that the hitherto neglected area of intersupplier coordination in technology diffusion is at least as important as the bilateral assembler-supplier relationship in accounting for the overall performance of the Japanese automotive industry. On the basis of company visits and a large-scale survey of first-tier suppliers conducted by the author, the paper analyses. the reasons why suppliers' associations were established and why they continue to exist today, and their effects on economic performance. (c) 1996 Academic Press Limited Copyright 1996 by Oxford University Press.