Global Competition & State Intervention. The Genesis of Japan's Motorcycle Global Leaders: Honda, Suzuki, Kawasaki & Yamaha

ABSTRACT

Across Europe, businesses and policy makers are now worried about the future of industries dominated by U.S. and Chinese companies. Since the financial and economic global crisis in 2007, Western industrialized countries have experienced a return to stronger state interventions in the business. States, which had previously been reluctant to intervene, implemented interventions to support individual companies or adopted industrial measures for whole sectors. Moreover, the pandemic has driven Asian countries to double down on the tradition of state intervention. The specific causes of the coronavirus global recession, however, impose a radical and targeted solution. Governments should enter key-sectors and cover directly wages and maintenance costs for critical businesses facing shutdown. In this context of Government s direct involvement in global business, it is very useful to remember the lesson from the genesis of Japans motorcycle global leaders Honda, Suzuki, Kawasaki and Yamaha.