This study aims to prove the Theory of the Oligopolistic Reaction（ ORT） in the comparative study in analyzing the trajectory of the overseas paint business for the housing and buildings of two Japanese oligopolistic paint companies – Nippon Paint and Kansai Paint over the past 60 years since 1960’s.

Knickerbocker （1973） introduced the ORT to explain why competing companies in the monopolistic industries tend to follow rival companies into the similar foreign markets in almost simultaneously. In contrast, Ietto-Gillies（ 2019） argues that the herding of foreign market entries in the ORT is taken place as a result of the risk-averse action by these companies. The ORT is proved effective in explaining the herding phenomenon by generalizing the incentives and results of the oligopolistic companies. This, however, counter-argues that Ietto-Gillies’s conclusion is simplistic in explaining the strategic action. Therefore, the ORT must be further explored by analyzing actual cases. Thus, the ORT is revisited by analyzing the historical case of two Japanese paint companies.

This study focuses on two factors, the mode of the foreign market entry decision – countries or areas, incentives, timing, and scheme, and the ex-ante conditions of two companies. Conclusion is drawn that the ex-ante conditions of the two companies had clearly affected each foreign strategy and their accomplishment. This contributes to add new decision factors to the ORT in the recent period of the competitive global business arena.

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 The purpose of this thesis is organizing the process of modernization of the port city into two steps, taking example of the international trading city of Yokohama, where the full-scale modernization project of harbor was executed for the first time in Japan (completed in 1896). The first step is development of private waterfront estates in the early part of Meiji period (the 1880s). The second one is the conflict in 1892 between the project of harbor construction and business in the waterfront area, where the forwarding agents, giant shipping company and a lot of laborers had concentrated in the first step.
 There were three private estates which were developed in the early part of Meiji period. First one was reclaimed as the yard for the entrepots under the jurisdiction of the custom house. It was purchased by Mitsui group in 1873. Eighteen entrepots were built by the coast of the estate of 25000 square meters. Mitsui group moved sixteen of them separating from the coast and created a vast waterfront space for land lease. The tenants of the estate were mainly foreign residents of Yokohama and Mitsubishi corporation, which was the fastest-growing shipping company in the modern era in Japan. Besides them, there were some tenants of Japanese exporters and importers. It seems that the tenants began to use the yard for loading and unloading around 1880 and we can find some instances of loading in the waterfront area in 1892. The fact that people can use the waterfront area for loading or unloading shows a very important change of the port regulation of Yokohama because unloading in the waterfront area excepting a limited place (hatoba) was strictly prohibited from the late Edo era to the earliest part of Meiji period (the 1870s).
 The second private estate was the one around Japanese hatoba, where was the limited place for loading and unloading Japanese goods adjoining the entrepots. In 1873, forwarding agents, who had been managing transportation since the late Edo era reclaimed the yard around Japanese Hatoba for their convenience. Before the project of harbor construction in the 1890s, they built a relationship with Mitsubishi corporation, who had purchased the estates of the former entrepots from Mitsui group. According to the data in 1892, the most part of the goods which the forwarding agents handled was the goods of Nihon yusen gaisha, succeeding company of Mitsubishi corporation. They cooperated with the company, or perhaps were affiliated by the company, meanwhile the waterfront area assumed a character of a wharf.
 The third private estate was the reclaimed land adjoining Japanese hatoba created by Horai-sha, which was the company of financial and manufacturing business. It seems that the reclamation was done to build warehouses coupled with a new company of inspection of silks, the biggest exports. This reclamation area was used as the harbor equipment for the circulation of Japanese goods along with the former entrepots yard and Japanese hatoba.
 The manager of Nihon yusen geisha and the forwarding agents and the owner of the reclaimed land presented a petition to the proposal of railway between the new pier and the existing station in 1892. Because of this petition, this railroad wasn't built and the new pier and waterfront warehouses and railway to the inland were disconnected until the second project of harbor construction, which was completed in 1917. Development of the waterfront private estates in Yokohama had an influence on the modernization project and convert it into the project of gradual renovation preserving existing systems in some degree.

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