The geography of Japanese direct investment in the U.S. automotive sector: A review of the state of knowledge and some ideas for future research

Reid, Neil

doi:0016-7282

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The geography of Japanese direct investment in the U.S. automotive sector: A review of the state of knowledge and some ideas for future research Reid, Neil

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The geography of Japanese direct investment in the U.S. automotive sector: A review of the state of knowledge and some ideas for future research

Geographia Polonica Vol. 87 No. 3 (2014)

Japan direct investment ; automotive sector ; spatial dynamics ; agglomeration economies ; labour

Beginning in the mid-1980s Japanese manufacturing companies began to invest heavily in U.S. production capacity. This was partly a response to a weakening U.S. dollar and trade protectionist measures imposed by the U.S. government. Japanese investment in U.S. production capacity continues unabated today. As more and more Japanese manufacturers started manufacturing their products in the United States there was an interest among geographers to understand the spatial dynamics of this investment. Much of this investment was directed towards the automotive sector. Given the large amount of investment that flowed into the automotive sector the purpose of this is to summarize three decades of scholarly research on Japanese direct investment in this sector.

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