For much of the late 20th century, Japanese business historians were core contributors to the global field. They published, collaborated, and shaped debates. But something shifted after 2000. Their international visibility - and participation in emerging theoretical conversations - declined.
In Japan and the Great Divergence in Business History (Donzé & Umemura, 2025), the authors argue that this shift wasn’t due to a lack of scholarship, but a misalignment of frameworks. While business history globally began integrating concepts from management studies, economic sociology, political economy, and comparative capitalism, Japanese scholarship largely remained anchored in the Chandlerian paradigm: rich, rigorous firm-level histories focused on organizational growth, strategies, and industrial evolution.
The consequences of this growing distance are not trivial:
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Fewer Japanese scholars in international research networks
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Reduced presence in global journals and conferences
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Limited cross-pollination with adjacent disciplines
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Underrepresentation in key theoretical debates reshaping business history
Donzé, P.-Y., & Umemura, M. (2025). Japan and the Great Divergence in Business History. Journal of Evolutionary Studies in Business. Link here
Hosted by Paula de la Cruz-Fernández, on behalf of the Journal of Evolutionary Studies in Business.
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