The friction between the United States and China is becoming a pressure to promote the transformation of supply chains in Asia in the form of economic security. Economic security is generally regarded as a phenomenon at the national and macro level, and Japanese companies are at a loss as to what steps should be taken to measure the impact at the management and corporate level. Therefore, this paper first focuses on high technology, a sensitive field where technological hegemony is occurring in the US-China friction. The fact that the United States is wary of China shows that it is related to Made in China 2025, based on trends in the US Congress. Next, in non-sensitive fields, it is not that there is no friction, but that “business and human rights” is weighing on. In order to grasp the signs in the relevant field, it is essential to grasp the signs from the reports of the US State Department and the United Nations. If changes in the supply chain are unavoidable, friend shoring advocated by the United States is effective, and IPEF is expected to function as a filter. It is necessary to recognize that we have entered an era in which the success or failure of a business depends on the skillfulness of its management.

In recent years, a number of Japanese drugstore companies have expanded their operations overseas. These firms are mainly targeting other Asian countries. Under this circumstance, global innovation has been attracting attention to build a competitive advantage in the Asian market. On the other hand, prior research on global innovation has focused mainly on manufacturing firms, and there have been few studies targeting service firms. Among them, few studies have focused on global innovation in the overseas subsidiaries of drugstores, which have been gaining importance in recent years.

Therefore, this study aims to reveal the process of the overseas subsidiaries of drugstores using the absorptive capacity（ACAP）theory, which has been widely used to explain the innovation process of companies.

The analysis reveals that the overseas subsidiaries of drugstores create new knowledge and innovations by acquiring knowledge from diverse sources including the parent company and the local environment, and by integrating these knowledge sources. In addition, this study confirmed the influence of social integration mechanisms and feedback loops among the factors that have been mentioned in previous studies such as Todorova & Durisin（2007）as factors that promote ACAP. Furthermore, autonomy of foreign subsidiaries from their home parent companies was newly added to the ACAP model as an influence factor specific to multinational firms.

By empirically analyzing the case of the drugstore’s overseas subsidiary and developing an ACAP model suitable for analyzing the overseas operations of service companies, this study contributes to the development of this field.

This study analyses two challenges on industrial relations in Brunei Darussalam, from the point of the promotion of the ILO declaration on fundamental principles and rights at work, implying human rights due diligence. Although previous research has shown the challenges for the promotion of the declaration in most ASEAN countries, there is not enough academic research focusing on Brunei. This study clarifies two challenges - the power of existing workers’ organizations is very weak, and some legal frameworks restrict setting up new workers’ organizations and their activities - for the promotion of the declaration, in particular freedom of association and the right of collective bargaining. This study mainly uses materials issued by Brunei’s government and information produced by international organizations such as the ILO.

Additionally, as an implication from the point of human rights due diligence, this study points out that Brunei is in experiencing a trade-off between economy and politics. On the one hand, economic diversification is an urgent issue in Brunei, and existing and new businesses need to conduct human rights due diligence. In particular they need to show the involvement of workers’ organization, in this process of the due diligence, as a part of the global supply chain. On the other hand, because of the two challenges which are related to Brunei’s political system, it is difficult to ensure the involvement of workers’ organizations.

By acquiring firms in developed countries, firms in emerging countries can gain access to necessary external resources and capabilities, such as technology, R&D capabilities, and brands. However, information asymmetries and technological gaps between emerging country firms and developed country firms, as well as gaps in internationalization and acquisition experience, significantly impact post-M&A integration and M&A outcomes. This study examines the development process and changes in motivations of cross-border M&A over time and the post-acquisition integration process. This longitudinal case study contributes to the literature on the interaction between a series of acquisitions and post-acquisition integration processes by understanding how multiple cross-border M&As and post-acquisition integration processes occur at different phases of firms’ growth.

The electrification of the global automotive industry has made significant progress in the past decade. We should therefore ask why, in the race to electrify the global automotive industry, the central market has shifted from the developed countries of Japan, the U.S., and Europe to the newly emerging country of China, and why the driving force behind this shift has been the newcomer, Chinese automakers, rather than the well-known multinational corporations. In this paper, we use the case of electrification competition as a case study, and attempt to extend the theory of National Systems of Innovation（NSI）by focusing on the government-market relations, especially the potential of government competitive strategies, in addition to existing government-firm relations and firm-industry relations in the market performance of each country.

We will briefly discuss the results of our work. The division of roles between government and market in economic development is not always confrontational but depends on the means of hedging against the uncertainties of innovation. What role should government play and to what extent should it intervene? In promoting the generation of innovation, co-evolution among firms through ‘repeated homogeneous and differentiated competition’ has the effect of promoting the formation of consumer purchase intentions, and ensuring that the government has the means to intervene to appropriately communicate and modify policy intentions in firms’ herding behavior is a reasonable government-market relationship in promoting NSI.

In this paper, we will discuss the recycling of waste electric vehicles and in-vehicle lithium-ion batteries（LiB）in Japan, during the transition to decarbonization, from a value chain perspective in a broad sense. According to the findings from interviews with related companies and industry organizations, there are several challenges for automotive LiB recycling companies in terms of the institutional environment, process innovation and stable procurement of inputs. To respond to the above issues in advance, the DOWA Eco-system is aiming for more economical and realistic recycling process development by promoting the current business and new process development in an integrated manner. On the other hand, JX Nippon Mining & Metals is moving away from the current business to develop more advanced recycling processes.

In the age of globalization multi-national companies（MNCs）conduct innovation in a global network. Japanese companies conduct innovation in a global network as well. For Japanese companies, ASEAN（Association of South East Asian Nations）countries are very important. Therefore, this paper discusses the innovation network patterns of Japanese companies in 10 ASEAN countries. In order to analyze this phenomenon, this paper used the international patent application data based on the Patent Cooperation Treaty（PCT）of World Intellectual Property Organization（WIPO）. Specifically, the paper retrieved the patent application whose applicant is a Japanese company with at least one inventor in a specific ASEAN country. The paper has found that Japanese companies conduct innovation between a host country and Japan most frequently for any ASEAN country. For Vietnam and Philippines, Japanese companies conduct innovation only in a host country as frequently as between a host country and Japan.

The purpose of this study was to clarify various characteristics of business ethics awareness in North Korea. As its research method, the study reviewed previous research to examine the approximate flow of the Socialist Corporate Responsibility Management System, from its introduction to its implementation, and the contents of the Enterprise Act in North Korea. The study then explored the characteristics of morals in North Korea by focusing on several videos from the “Let’s eliminate this kind of phenomenon” series on Korean Central Television（KCTV）.

The study revealed the following four characteristics of business ethics awareness in North Korea.（1）Executives must have responsibilities and morals in an organization; however, the opinions of subordinates are disregarded, while the excessive flattering of superiors is criticized implicitly.（2）The collectivist spirit of “one for all, all for one” is the basic principle of socialist ethics in life, which is related to communist morality in some way.（3）Various new programs appear to have raised public consciousness of environmental conservation and the Sustainable Development Goals（SDGs）, helping to strengthen awareness.（4）While the Chollima Movement, speed battles（Sokdochun）, and self-reliance（Jaryeokgaengsaeng）have persevered with granting greater autonomy to business, various indications persist of an unchanging and firm adherence to the socialist system.