抄録
A fundamental characteristic of the Japanese foundry industry is its diversity. The reason for the diversity is the presence of significant differences among Japanese foundries. This study aims to clarify the pattern of diversity and the internal structure of the Japanese foundry industry.
The results are summarized as follows. First, one can classify foundries in terms of the metal material that they use. Second, one can distinguish foundries from each other according to the relationship between the foundry and its customer, which results in two types-captive and jobbing foundries. Third, one can further subdivide jobbing and captive foundries by the character of the production system that they adopt according to the market demands. According to my investigation, metal casting production systems were specialized into four types, and the supply structure of the Japanese foundry industry was based on these four types of specialized production systems.
