Published in English as Japanese Firms in Europe. A Global Perspective (ed.), Luxembourg, Harwood Academic Publishers, 1995.

The large number of Japanese investment throughout the past decade has given rise to increasing concerns on both sides of the Atlantic. Should Europe fear the 'Japanese challenge' just as much as it feared the 'American challenge' of the 1960s? This book analyzes the strategies of Japanese firms and the characteristics of their setting up abroad in order to better understand the nature of this challenge.

This book argues that the expansion of Japanese investment is embedded in a global context of a high increase in foreign direct investment throughout the world. Although protectionism and prospects of a single market have been decisive in the fields of electronics and automobile, Japanese investment in the chemical industry, where Europe is very competitive, results from more diverse motivations. This book examines the efforts undertaken by these Japanese firms to adapt to their relatively recent status of multinationals, especially in three particular fields: management of human resources, relations with suppliers and the management of R&D activities. It puts forward the probable consequences of such activity on host countries and highlights that the increase in competitiveness resulting from Japanese implantation should not, however, make us neglect the transfer of knowledge that such implantation could generate.