Every industry is faced with high uncertainty of the social and economic environment. Companies in the social infrastructure industry also adequately deal with such uncertainty. In these surroundings, “Forecast” approach is necessary but no longer sufficient for the new business development, subject creation of research and development and medium and/or long term strategy formulation. This paper indicates that it is important that the companies fully utilize “Foresight” approach for the companies to deal with the uncertainty.
Forecast approach adopts the following methods that using the definite elements and the quantitative datasets. One set of prior conditions draws one certain conclusion on this approach. This is suitable under the stable-growth period or in the stable industries.
“Foresight” approach focuses, meanwhile, on the uncertain materials and qualitative elements for developing businesses and strategies. Such materials and elements list users’ sense of values, societal changes and some other impacts in the future.
This paper provides two examples in order to show the efficacy of “Foresight” approach. First example is the current situation and new business model of the water industry in India. Second one is the actual practices of the approach from some Japanese infrastructure companies. A telecom company, a power company and some governmental organizations have adopted the “Foresight” approach. In addition, other many private companies plan to adopt the approach.
The high uncertainty of the social and economic environment requires companies in the social infrastructure industry to develop the new businesses and business models with the assistance of “Foresight” approach in order to know the changes of consumers’ and customers’behaviors.

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Privatisation and Deregulation become popular as policy reform in the developed countries in 1980’s. In addition, those policies are implemented in the marketization for the East European countries and PFI of infrastructure industries of the developing countries. It is effective to eliminate inefficiencies of nationalized companies and allow new entrants into former regulated markets. It is possible to decrease public deficits and stimulate R&D, and also to realize an economic growth.
Now the Unbundling of vertical integrated company is regards as an important device to promote competition in traditional natural monopoly industries. However, as there remains still the concept of Universal Service, we should be careful to introduce it. Even if shares of state-owned enterprises are sold off, there is a risk that supply volume could be reduced. Perfect competition in the textbook cannot be functioned completely in the network industries or public utilities. It is a better solution to strengthen relationship between private companies and government.
In this paper, we focus on the reform of the UK electricity, water and rail industries as pioneer cases, watch how to change the existing structure in order to foster competition and find out the current problems to which regulators and customers are facing with globalization. Finally we make clear about the future implication to ensure the stable supply condition in longer perspectives.

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This article discusses the 2010-2013 supply restrictions on rare earths called the “rare-earths crisis,” and examines the strategies of sogo shosha, or Japanese general trading companies. In particular, we focus on three companies—Sojitz, Mitsubishi Corporation, and Toyota Tsusho—as study cases.
China has dominated the world’s rare-earths supply, accounting for more than 90% of global production since the early twenty-first century. The Chinese government began restricting exports of rare earths by the late 2000s, introducing an export surcharge and export quota in 2006. Furthermore, following the 2010 Senkaku incident, it halted exports of. This caused a severe supply shock and a 10-times rise in international prices. In response, the Japanese government planned urgent countermeasures via such means as innovation for the development of substitutes, reduction in the use of rare earths, recycling from used products, and diversification of sources via development of alternative mines. However, no measure other than source diversification was likely to yield immediate results.
Sogo shosha historically took a significant role in investing in overseas natural resources and importing the same to Japan, and have redefined natural resources as one of their core businesses based on the returns on risky assets. Several sogo shosha reacted to this crisis. However, the rate earth business is small as compared to other major resources such as iron ore, coal, and oil and gas, and accordingly, sogo shosha merged their rare-earths and rare-metals field units, and instead divided their operations into two units, one for commodity trading and another for customer-oriented activities, particularly for long-term procurement for the Japanese automobile industry. Sojitz committed to a huge production project for an Australian supplier with financial assistance from the Japanese government, while Mitsubishi Corporation was not willing to invest in green-field rare-earths mines. Toyota Tsusho moved to secure alternative sources for the Toyota Group.

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How do firms adapt to technological change? The ability of firms to sense and implement new technologies and configure new processes that match new requirements is central to competitive advantage (Teece, 2014). But how do firms perform these steps? We look at the development of electric motor technologies in Japanese and German firms to explore these issues. We find substantial variety in how firms approach this change: Some firms have outsourced their electric motor production to Tier1 specialists. Other firms have kept the knowledge completely in-house. Yet other firms cooperate or outsource selectively to avoid these extremes. We offer some propositions on how the individual firm p osition and general features of the German and Japanese supplier settings influence firm strategi es.

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The Chubu district produced military airplanes before World War II, and thus served as an area of agglomeration for the aircraft industry. For example, Mitsubishi Heavy Industry and Kawasaki Heavy Industry operated in this district. After World War II, the factories were re-tooled to produce both civil and military aircraft, thus maintaining this industrial agglomeration in the Chubu district. After 1990s, civil aircraft production gradually increased and eventually surpassed that of Japanese military aircraft. Moreover, all aircraft companies emphasized cost reduction in the production of civil airplanes during this time, and thus it was necessary to shorten lead times by reorganizing the supply chain. In addition, the main materials for civil aircraft changed from metal to carbon fiber reinforced plastic. Consequently, the agglomerated aircraft industry in the Chubu district was reorganized because of the change in production methods and materials used for civil aircraft. In particular, Boeing 787 production led to a substantial reorganization of the supply chain, which also brought with it a new factory located in the Chubu district. The Japanese government supported this change by establishing a special deregulated zone. In other words, the aircraft industry in the Chubu district became an industrial cluster through changes in industrial transactions, national and regional industrial policy, and the existence of support organizations.

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The purpose of this paper is to elucidate factors underlying the long-term continuation of business relationships between auto manufacturers and auto dealers in the post-war Japanese auto industry. The paper focuses in particular on special service tools. A special service tool is a tool which cannot be purchased through distribution channels for ordinary tools, and whose use is recommended by auto manufacturers when it is difficult to carry our work with ordinary tools.
Special service tools were a relation-specific investment by auto dealers. That is, for auto dealers, investment in special service tools had no value for maintenance of automobiles from competing firms, but it did improve maintenance capabilities for automobiles from a specific auto manufacturer with which they had a business relationship. Toyota and Nissan in particular prepared special service tools for each model. Building a system for rapid maintenance by dealers likely contributed to the increase in vehicles sold by Toyota and Nissan. The fact that these special service tools were deployed by each manufacturer promoted the segregation of dealers, and was likely one factor which maintained distribution keiretsu in auto sales.
On the other hand, the different auto manufacturers created service documentation for their own automobiles, and distributed these to dealers with maintenance shops. Service documentation is material written by auto manufacturers to enable smooth maintenance. It provides detailed information on automobile structure, maintenance procedures, repair part distribution, and education/training on maintenance techniques. Apparently, Toyota distributed service documentation with top priority to dealers in its own keiretsu, and documentation was difficult to obtain for maintenance shops outside the keiretsu. This sort of relationship-specific investment in the maintenance of specific automobiles by manufac turers and dealers contributed to the high maintenance capabilities of keiretsu dealers.

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This thesis takes into consideration information based on research that I conducted at a plant for the intermediate disposal of mixed construction wastes.
In the second section of this thesis, the impacts of changes in the construction industry on the sorting process of construction wastes are reviewed. Construction companies reduce the generation of mixed construction wastes by actively segregating construction wastes. This leads to an increase in the trade that enterprises engaged in the disposal of mixed construction wastes do with enterprises that dismantle buildings, which also seek to improve the sorting accuracy of construction wastes.
In the third section, the sorting process of mixed construction wastes is analyzed. Specifically, it looks at the cost of the re-disposal of sorted construction wastes, which is lower than the cost of the final disposal of construction wastes. Intermediate disposal enterprises actively sort mixed construction wastes to reduce their final disposal volume.
In the fourth section, factors that contribute to the development of the recycling of construction wastes are discussed. Recycling has improved the business environment for the recycling of construction wastes through the promotion of recycling policies, specifically since the market for construction wastes recycling has become functional. Because the more the intermediate disposal enterprises themselves sort mixed construction wastes, the more profits they earn, they work very hard to efficiently sort the mixed construction wastes. Each of the intermediate disposal enterprises’ activities contributes to improvements in the recycling ratio of construction waste.

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Strategic management and decision-making for the brand portfolio are essential means of maintaining competitive advantage. Brand portfolio strategy is attracting attention as a method of managing multiple brands. This paper looks at the cosmetics industries of Japan and Korea, comparing the brand strategies of Shiseido and Amorepacific, leading companies in these countries, to examine the importance of brand positioning in strategy for competitive advantage. It also considers positioning in brand portfolio strategy, through consistency between companywide strategies and individual strategies from a competitive strategy perspective.
Previous studies have discussed the strategic importance of diversification of risk, synergy effects, and efficient operation through the composition of the brand portfolio. This study considers the differences between the brand portfolio and its constituents the corporate brand and individual brands, from a competitive strategy perspective. It also reviews the brand positioning of Shiseido and Amorepacific by comparing their brand deployment graphed in three dimensions along the axes of function, price range, and distinctiveness, based on product characteristics. The results showed that while Shiseido focuses on function and price range, Amorepacific focuses on distinctiveness and function, leading to some new discoveries regarding the strategies of both companies. While it had not been possible to describe consistency between positioning of the corporate brand strategy and individual brand strategy solely from a traditional competitive strategy perspective, the author was able to identify such consistency through depiction along three axes.

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The needs of the customer are often not clear at the time of product development. Indeed, customers themselves also do not recognize their exact needs, and discover them after purchasing the product. However, despite such imprecise circumstances, because of the need to have a presence in the market, companies are forced to proceed with product development and to make decisions at each stage of the development process. These decisions are made on the basis of a temporary definition of the customer’s expected needs. This paper examines the development of a rice-cooker. The development process involves making a series of decisions to define the subtle taste of cooked rice that is influenced by customer preferences. Specifically, we attempt to clarify the process of how the taste of rice cooked by the product is defined as delicious, how this is commercialized as a function of the product, and also the sustainability of the development process.
Our qualitative research showed that deliciousness cannot be evaluated quantitatively, and that it is necessary to evaluate taste by human senses. In these cases, evaluation by humans is an integral part of product development. Testing and evaluating the prototype product relies on creating a dialogue between the designers and testers. Because of the ambiguous nature of the sensory needs that the design process seeks to fulfil, a trial-and-error approach is necessary, which is prone to result in redundancies. From this aspect, successful communication between developers and testers becomes significant, and for mutual understanding, a common language and shared sense are required.
As more experience in product development is accumulated, trends of impressions in the market can be more easily recognized. The unspoken needs of the customer can be met through the recursive interplay between development experience and market reaction. Since experience in the market varies with each company, customer impressions of product benefit also tend to vary with each company.

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