造船業再編成下における構造変化と生産システムの動向

抄録

The oil crisis in 1973 was the turning point in the Japanese economy. It caused the end of rapid economical growth and resulted in considerable changes in the industrial construction.
Leading industries during the period of high economic growth, especially the shipbuilding industry and the nonferrous metals industry, fell into the worst business slump and were forced to change the construction.
In this situation the shipbuilding industry was protected by the means the Government took, while the shipbuilding enterprises rationalized their operations.
In the eighties the international situations related to the shipbuilding industry became critical. With regard to it there are mainly two reasons. As the value of yen continued to rise, the international competition within the shipbuilding industry was intensified. In addition, Korea achieved rapid economic growth and began developing the export shipbuilding markets.
By reducing the international markets, and Korea's gaining power rapidly in the industry, the Japanese shipbuilding industry was badly hit. It was very important and necessary to reorganize and develop the industry.
In order to accomplish the task the industry took the measures as follows: a restructure program, the establishment of better production system, a new system of business management, and so on. The industry has striven to effect economic stabilization by uniting small or medium capital into larger monopolistic capital and dividing it into groups in harmony with the Ministry of Transportation.
The task of large enterprises has been that of recovering a stronger international competitiveness by investing in plant and equipment. They also have made efforts to develop another field of industries. Besides developing industrial robots and automating facilities, they entered even the field of electronics industry. In this way considerable changes have taken place in the Japanese shipbuilding industry.
In this paper I would like to treat the following points fully: first how the Japanese shipbuilding industry has been changing especially since the eighties; secondly, how the shipbuilding industry established the production system, and then I will mention the long-range problems in the shipbuilding industry.