Many researchers say that global marketing is a worldwide standardized marketing or a uniform marketing. In contradistinction to global marketing, they say that international marketing is a local adapted marketing. Those are definitely misunderstanding. Global marketing is a modern form of international marketing. Global marketing is a marketing where enterprises regard their domestic market as one of world market, and they must simultaneously make a decision across national borders. Therefor, there is no big difference between global marketing and international marketing. Both of them treat a worldwide standardized marketing, a local adapted marketing, and a duplicated marketing which utilizes merits of both a standardized and a localized marketing. This treatise removes the mistaken stamp affixed to global marketing.

　The overseas expansion of distribution industries (retail, food service, and service sectors) has been limited in scale compared to that of manufacturing industries, with a notable lack of statistical data and disclosed information. This scarcity has been identified as a hindrance to research in this field. The traditional approach to addressing this issue has been to conduct interview surveys with individual companies. While interviews provide valuable insights, they also present significant limitations. Moreover, the actual conditions under which such surveys are conducted have rarely been clarified. Accordingly, this paper examines the factors contributing to the lack of information on the overseas expansion of distribution industries while systematically analyzing the effectiveness and limitations of commonly used interview surveys, particularly based on the author's own experiences.

　This paper aims to systematically examine the concept of the “value chain strategy,” which has become a key term in discussing today's general trading companies (sōgō shōsha) . The value chain strategy serves as a practical guideline for the business model of 21st-century general trading companies, now evolving into integrated business enterprises. Its core idea lies in engaging not with individual business units in isolation, but with business flows that encompass upstream and downstream industrial linkages to a certain extent. This approach highlights the essential nature of business investment by general trading companies, distinguishing them from ordinary investment funds. While specific implementations may vary across companies-or even among cases within the same company-these differences should be seen as variations in form rather than in substance.

　This paper discusses the Carrefour 2026 strategic plan announced on September 8, 2022, and examines Carrefour's current status and the management reform, focusing on its response to the hypermarket (HM) format and changes in its global strategy.

　Carrefour is currently engaged in a structural reform centering on HM.In the current economic changes, Carrefour is expanding PB products, promoting an information strategy, reducing overhead costs, reforming transactions with suppliers, and establishing a new large-scale purchasing center.

　In addition, the development and expansion of discount formats such as Atacadão are being pursued both France and other countries. Carrefour is increasingly limiting its foreign store openings and sales activities to markets where it can maintain its competitive advantage. The international business activities of large retailers such as Carrefour have reached a turning point.

　The purpose of this paper is to clarify the business conditions of Shirokiya Kimono Store from 1905 to 1908, a blank period in the company's history, based on commercial registrations in the official gazette, company directories, and articles in specialized journals for banks and insurance companies. Shirokiya Kimono Store was on the verge of bankruptcy in 1908. The cause of this was the bankruptcy of Kiryu Fabric Company, in which Shirokiya Kimono Store was a major shareholder, which had a major impact on Shirokiya Kimono Store's cash flow, and the excess inventory of goods inside Shirokiya Kimono Store. Omura Hikotaro (Gizen), the 10th head of Shirokiya Kimono Store, requested support from the Mitsuis and the Konoikes, who were related by marriage, to avoid bankruptcy, and Shirokiya Kimono Store's bankruptcy was averted thanks to a disposal scheme prepared by the Mitsui Bank. It also clarified that the other factor that brought the company to the brink of bankruptcy, the turn of its products into non-performing loans, and the circumstances and causes behind the failure of the organizational reforms that were implemented in parallel with the measures to avoid bankruptcy, were due to the activities of Takatani Takejiro, who was in charge of sales at Shirokiya Kimono Store.

　This document is a transcription of an interview conducted by Professor Kazuo Usui and Professor John Dawson with Mr. Seiji Tsutsumi on November 26, 2009, in Mr. Tsutsumi's office at the former Hotel Seiyo Ginza (1-11 Ginza, Chuo-ku, Tokyo 104-0061).

　Professor Usui developed a longstanding academic relationship with Mr. Tsutsumi, initially inviting him as a guest lecturer in the early 1990s and later hosting him at the “International Seminar on Marketing and Development,” organized by Saitama University in 1995. Furthermore, in March 1998, both Tsutsumi (Doctor of Economics) and Usui (Doctor of Commerce) received doctoral degrees from Chuo University―a coincidence that placed their names side by side on the official degree conferral list.

　Mr. Tsutsumi subsequently published his dissertation in 1996 as A Critique of the Consumer Society (Iwanami Shoten). In this work, he reflected on the “negative impacts of industrial society―namely, the destruction of the natural environment, distortions in human mental and sensory structures, the consequent collapse of families, and the disappearance of social norms under the atomization of society,” arguing that “new marketing philosophies based on self-reflection have emerged; macro-marketing is one such approach” (p. 193). In this context, he referred to the aforementioned international seminar, citing the arguments of Professor Nikhilesh Dholakia (then at the University of Rhode Island) and Professor A. Fuat Firat (then President of the International Society of Marketing and Development and Professor at Arizona State University). Mr. Tsutsumi praised macro-marketing as “a clue to restoring the proper form of consumer society” and positioned it as heralding a new era for marketing scholarship in Japan. The influence of macro-marketing―a framework central to Professor Usui's own research―can also be discerned throughout this interview. Moreover, the sections in which Mr. Tsutsumi asks about Professor Dholakia's recent activities provide evidence of the continuing scholarly exchanges fostered through the international seminar.

　Professors Dawson and Usui have long collaborated on research projects, conducting interviews with numerous retail firms in Japan and Europe. Professor Dawson has focused on the structural transformation of Japanese retailing from the 1980s through the 2000s, paying particular attention to innovations in areas such as format development, brand strategy, and logistics. During his visits to Japan, he conducted interviews with retail executives alongside Professor Usui, during which he encountered executives from Seiyu and developed a strong interest in MUJI's novel concept aimed at meeting consumer aspirations. Professor Usui's established relationship with Mr. Tsutsumi ultimately made this interview possible.

　At the time of the interview in 2009, the world was in the midst of a severe economic crisis following the Lehman Brothers collapse. Retail firms were compelled to explore new models of consumption and to reassess the scope of their international strategies. Against this backdrop, the interview addresses not only MUJI's marketing strategies but also broader themes, including the nature of consumer society and consumer culture, the internationalization of retail enterprises, and their social responsibilities.