Message from the Chairman of Japan Business History Society (JBHS)

　　In January 2005, I succeeded Professor Matao Miyamoto to become the new chair of Japan Business History Society. I believe that my obligations as chairman are to maintain the traditions of JBHS while further developing our activities with the assistance of our members.

　　During my term, I have three goals that I would especially like to focus on and tackle. The first goal is to promote our academic activities through annual and monthly branch meetings and publications including Japan Business History (in Japanese) and Japanese Research in Business History (JRBH, published in English), which should attract many scholars, especially younger ones. At one time, many researchers hotly debated such issues as strategy and structure, professional managers, zaibatsu, corporate groups and the Japanese management system. They discussed these topics from an historical perspective while keeping a sharp eye on contemporary political, economical and social developments. These intellectually stimulating discussions prompted JBHS to publish many books. Researchers worked in competition as well as in cooperation with one another to provide the best analyses of the historical background of the developments so as to elucidate the contemporary economic and business situations in Japan and the rest of the world. However, particularly since the collapse of Japanese economy in 1991, scholars have not been able to see the future direction of the Japanese economy and business. Furthermore, with the strong influence of the idea of the market economy, which suggests an end to the age of the ‘Visible Hand,’ and the rise of corporate governance theory as opposed to managerial capitalism, the Chandler schema has begun to fade. Under these new circumstances, we must construct a new framework for post-Chandlerian theory, especially now, in the midst of the third Industrial Revolution. I hope that JBHS will open the door to a new age of business history studies through vigorous academic debate and publications.

　　The second goal is to continue to promote the globalization of JBHS, which is proud of the tradition of organizing international meetings, particularly with European and American scholars. This includes the Fuji Conferences, inaugurated in 1974. The Taniguchi Foundation made it possible for JBHS to hold such annual international meetings and to publish the proceedings through their generous financial support. In the field of business history, this kind of international gathering was quite rare at that time, and for this reason, we can say that the idea of organizing the Fuji Conferences was truly pioneering. Currently, we can see new trends in the internationalization of business history: the creation of European Business History Association and the internationalization of American Business History Conference, which is expanding its conference venues to locations outside the United States. We welcome these new trends and also feel the responsibility to make a response from Asia. We would like to contribute as a scholarly organization that also promotes business history studies in Asia. Since the closing of the Taniguchi Foundation, however, we are now confronted with a new problem, fund raising for our international activities.

　　The third goal is to popularize business history among young researchers and to encourage them to read papers at business history conferences, including those in foreign countries. It would be useful for JBHS to organize a human network for them as well as to become a better information resource. Needless to say, the future of JBHS depends on the younger generation and whether or not they perceive business history to be the fascinating and promising field that it is.

　　In addition to the problems I have mentioned, there are certainly others that I will also need to tackle. I hope to solve all of them one by one and to contribute to the best of my ability to the development of JBHS with the support of our members.

Takeshi Yuzawa