NBER Working Papers by Denise Eby. Konan

This paper examines how inward and outward foreign direct investment (FDI) have influenced the restructuring of the Japanese economy and can be expected to continue to do so in the future. We find that outward investment has helped Japanese firms to sustain foreign market shares and contributed to the restructuring of the Japanese economy away from older industries. By shifting from exporting to affiliate production, there has been a geographical reallocation of the activities of Japanese firms, particularly those of multinational manufacturing firms. However, Japanese outward FDI is still not very large relative to the Japanese economy, despite the rapid growth since the mid-1980s, and there is still scope for significant increase when compared with the levels of most other OECD countries...