日本紡績業における寡占体制の確立と後発紡績企業の成長戦略

-内外綿会社の事例-

抄録

The Naigaiwata Co. began the construction of a cotton spinning mill in Shanghai, China, in 1909. Operations began in 1911 as the first mill overseas of the Japanese cotton spinning industry.
Naigaiwata entered into the Japanese spinning industry on a full scale in 1905, when it was in the final stage of forming oligopolistic structure. While Naigaiwata sold only a limited volume of cotton yarns in the oligopolistic domestic market, it relied heavily on export. This market strategy was successful during the booming era after the Russo-Japanese War.
In 1908 the Chinese cotton yarn market tempoalily shrank under the depression and the devaluation of silver currency. Then Naigaiwata had to shift the main outlets from China to domestic markets. But this move resulted only in a poor financial situation.
Facing this crisis Naigaiwata reconfirmed that it could not grow based on a domestic market alone. It was only overseas markets that Naigaiwata was given opportunities to penetrateintre.
But the export strategy was not effective enough to establish a reliable status there. Naigaiwata then planned local production in China. It had a good position to accomplish this project as it not only had had business experiences in China but owned strong leadership in executing it. The local mill was so efficiently equipped to be competitive vis-à-vis the imported yarns from India and Japan.
The overseas strategy of Naigaiwata was formulated as a creative response to the various constraints to the growth of those late comers under oligopolistic structure of the cotton spinning industry in Japan.