Marketing and Consumption in Modern Japan

Professor Kazuo Usui, Visiting Professor at the University of Edinburgh Business School and Dean, Faculty of Economics, Saitima University, Tokyo, Japan has published his second book in English, titled ‘Marketing and Consumption in Modern Japan’. The book, part of the Routledge Studies in the Growth Economies of Asia series, explores the emergence and development of key retail formats that have been central to the structural changes in the distribution sector in Japan. The book is divided into two major periods. The first part, from 1905-1937, looks at marketing at the start of the twentieth century and the role of keiretsu retail network. The second part, from the end of the Second World War to the present day, looks at marketing in the high economic growth phase considers how this unique Japanese approach to marketing might develop in response to the challenges of globalisation and international marketing.

The contribution of this text to our understanding of marketing in Japan is summed up by The University of Edinburgh Business School Professor Emeritus, John Dawson: "Professor Kazuo Usui has produced an original and insightful study of retail evolution and consumption in Japan. The use of a variety of sources to explain the changing distribution structures is an impressive template for studies of the retail and consumer history in other societies."