The change of formal institutions and responses of local association in a modern industrial district

the case of a pharmaceutical trade association in Tokyo, Japan, 1713-1943

Abstract

This paper examines responses of trade associations, whose base were in an industrial district, to shifts of policies and institutional changes. To do so it uses the pharmaceutical industrial district in Nihonbashi-Honcho, Tokyo, during 1713 to 1943, as an example. Trade associations in Nihonbashi-Honcho have flexibly shifted its systems and organizations as governmental policies and lows changed and prospered for several hundred years. However, practices of trades in Nihonbashi-Honcho remained unperturbed even after the Meiji restoration of 1868.