MARKETING TO A KEIRETSU Available to Purchase

As the Japanese economy has become increasingly international, the issue of keiretsu relations has become a focus of attention. Keiretsu is an indigenous feature of Japan's production and distribution systems that some say leads to unfair competitive practices, triggering intense discussions from the United States government. American businesses realize that a major reason for their failures in the Japanese market lies in the nature of Japanese business practices, as exemplified by exclusive keiretsu relations. However, like it or not, keiretsu related firms dominate Japanese economic life. If U.S. firms are to penetrate the market in the “land of the rising sun,” they must learn to successfully market to keiretsu‐member Japanese firms. This paper shows how the present keiretsu system can be traced back to the culture of ancient Japan and is itself a revival of the modern zaibatsu system of business organizations which, for all practical purposes, it replaced after World War II and, paradoxically, while the occupation and restructuring of the country incumbed to its victorious foe, the United States.