戦後日本における専門部品メーカーの発展
-一九四五～六〇年、電子部品産業の事例-
1998 年 33 巻 3 号 p. 1-27
詳細
1998 年 33 巻 3 号 p. 1-27
This paper focuses on Electronic Components makers (of mainly capacitors, resistors, transformers, speakers) from 1945 to 1960. Though most of them were small and medium firms, they established a high volume of production with many new components that large scale firms were unable to make. They also achieved a high growth in their scale of operations from less than 10 workers to more than 300, sometimes 1000 workers within only a 15 year time period. These firms will be referred to as Specialty Components Makers. Here I study how they achieved such progress. In doing so, this period will be divided into two eras of Reconstruction (1945-52) and Growth (1953-60).
During the Reconstruction era, many electronic components makers were founded. The founders didn't require expensive capital equipment because electronic components were labor intensive. They sold their products through merchants mainly located in Tokyo and Osaka. The merchants established a wide marketing network and components makers could increase their sales through these networks. To increase production without much investment they formed many cooperative associations. Furthermore, they needed to acquire much electronic technology and founders pursued various cooperative investigation by the support of public research institutes.
During the growth era, the radio and television industries began developing quickly. Main customers of component makers switched to radio and television assembling makers. To catch up with increasing demand, components makers had to expand their product line. Much of investment was put into building factories and firm scale expanded. They also needed to produce high quality components. However such a huge investment created a lack of funds for research. So they were still strongly dependent on cooperative investigations. As a result, many components makers became specialized components makers, accumulated high technology within the firm, and achieved high volume production by the end of 1950s.
