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Abstract
How did incumbents in Japanese publishing maintain resale price maintenance (RPM)? This article sheds light on the inter- and intra-industrial structure that enabled the protection of RPM, or the fixed price system, amid the country-wide liberalisation in the 1990s. By analysing textual data including governmental reports, trade papers in publishing and leaflets adopted for lobbying, the critical decade was reconstructed. It addresses a scarcity of business history literature about the link between RPM and business organisations, particularly concerning lobbying.
Acknowledgement
I’d like to thank Andrea Colli and anonymous reviewers for their patient guidance. Also, I’d like to give thanks to Rick Delbridge, Tim Edwards, Jon Morris, Masayoshi Noguchi, Ikuya Sato, Robin Klimecki, Jingqi Zhu, Rhiannon Lloyd, Minoru Shimamoto, Hisanaga Amikura and Yuki Yamauchi (Yamasan) for their helpful comments and encouragement on previous versions of this paper.
Notes
1. Fear, Cartels; Kikkawa, Functions.
2. Mercer, Retailer–supplier relationships; Morelli, Constructing a balance; Tennent, A distribution revolution.
3. Fellman and Shanahan, Introduction.
4. Ohta and Kurosawa, Policy transfer; Parc, Cartelisation.
5. Fear, Cartels.
6. Mercer, Retailer–supplier relationships.
7. Tennent, A distribution revolution.
8. Morelli, Constructing a balance.
9. Pineda, Manufacturing Profits.
10. Walker, Voluntary Export Restraints.
11. Decker, Corporate political activity.
12. Planas, The Emergence.
13. Schenk, Parasitic Invasions.
14. Strang and Meyer, Institutional Conditions, 492.
15. Misangyi et al., Ending Corruption.
16. Suddaby and Greenwood, Rhetorical Strategy of Legitimacy, 41.
17. Rao et al., Institutional Change, 816.
18. Zajac and Westphal, The Social Construction.
19. Sauder, Interlopers.
20. Stockmann, Free or Fixed Prices, 50.
21. Rønning et al., Books at What Price, 29–31.
22. Thompson, Books.
23. The Japanese trade agreement has not been applied to e-books, while it has to online bookstores.
24. Rønning et al., Books at What Price.
25. Løyland and Ringstad, Fixed or Free; Van der Ploeg, Beyond the Dogma.
26. Utton, Books Are Not Different, 116.
27. Ibid, 119.
28. Altbach and Hoshino, International Book Publishing, 565.
29. Altbach and Hoshino, International Book Publishing, 565; Thompson, Books in the Digital Age, Chapter 3.
30. The influence of technological change was not prominent in Japanese publishing in the 1990s. The American online bookstore giant, Amazon has operated in the Japanese publishing field as Amazon.co.jp since November 2000. While Amazon.com in the US directly forms contracts with publishers and leverages discount, Amazon.co.jp, as well as other online bookstores, had to utilise wholesalers. Consequently, Amazon.co.jp started their operation same as the other ‘offline' bookstores, namely without discount.
31. Fear, Cartels; Fellman and Shanahan, Introduction.
32. Chujo, Kisei Hakai [Disrupting Regulation]; Noguchi, 1940 Nen Taisei [System Established in 1940].
33. Takenaka, Nichibei Masatsu no Keizaigaku [Economics of Japan-US Economic Friction], Chapter 1.
34. Accessed 24 November 2014. http://tcc.export.gov/Trade_Agreements/All_Trade_Agreements/exp_005583.asp
35. Grier, Japan’s Regulation of Large Retail Stores.
36. The Japan Society of Publishing Studies, Hakusho Shuppan Sangyo [White Paper on Publishing], p. 55.
37. Ando et al. Shuppan Kurasshu [Crush in Publishing]. 141.
38. Shuppan Kagaku Kenkyūjo, Shuppan Shihyo Nenpo [Annual Data of Publishing].
39. Ando et al. Shuppan Kurasshu [Crush in Publishing]. 141–2.
40. Kinoshita, Shuppan Saihan [RPM for Publications], Chapter 1.
41. Ibid.
42. Kinoshita, Shuppan Saihan [RPM for Publications], Chapter 1; Sano, Dare ga Hon wo [Who Kills Books?], Chapter 1–3.
43. Ibid.
44. Ando et al., Shuppan Kurasshu [Crush in Publishing], 30–2.
45. The Japan Society of Publishing Studies, Hakusho Shuppan Sangyo [White Paper on Publishing], Chapter 1.
46. Ando et al. Shuppan Kurasshu [Crush in Publishing], 55–9.
47. Kinoshita, Shuppan Saihan [RPM for Publications], Chapter 2, 3; Oda, Shuppan Hukyo Kuronikuru [Chronicle of Publishing Downturn], 23–9.
48. Japan Editor School, Nihon no Shoseki Shuppansha [Japanese Book Publishers], 40–1; Kinoshita, Shuppan Saihan [RPM for Publications], 45–51.
49. Kawachi, Shinbunsha: Hatanshita Bijinesumoderu [Newspaper Companies: Failed Business-model], Chapter 2.
50. Sano, Dare ga Hon wo [Who Kills Books?], Chapter 1.
51. Ibid.
52. Yagi-shoten, ‘Hisaihanbon ni Tsuite [About non-RPM publications].’
53. Ibid.
54. Ibid.
55. (p. 4, translated by the author)
56. The JFTC, ‘(Chūkan Hōkoku) [Interim Report]’ 9.
57. Ibid., 13.
58. Ibid., 13.
59. Ibid., 16–18.
60. Ibid., 16–18.
61. Japanese Publishers’ Association. ‘Shuppan Saihanseido no Hitsuyosei [Necessity of RMP]’, 10–14; Japanese Wholesalers’ Association. ‘Nihon no Shuppan Ryūtsū [Japanese Distribution System]’, 4–7; Japanese Bookstores’ Association. ‘Sumitai Desuka [Do You Want to Live]’, 45–49.
62. Japanese Bookstores’ Association. ‘Sumitai Desuka [Do You Want to Live]’, 45; Japanese Publishers’ Association. ‘Shuppan Saihanseido no Hitsuyosei [Necessity of RMP]’, 13; Japanese Wholesalers’ Association. ‘Nihon no Shuppan Ryūtsū [Japanese Distribution System]’, 5.
63. Japanese Bookstores’ Association. ‘Sumitai Desuka [Do You Want to Live]’, 46; Japanese Publishers’ Association. ‘Shuppan Saihanseido no Hitsuyosei [Necessity of RMP]’, 13; Japanese Wholesalers’ Association. ‘Nihon no Shuppan Ryūtsū [Japanese Distribution System]’, 4.
64. Japanese Bookstores’ Association. ‘Sumitai Desuka [Do You Want to Live]’, 40; Japanese Publishers’ Association. ‘Shuppan Saihanseido no Hitsuyosei [Necessity of RMP]’, 15–16; Japanese Wholesalers’ Association. ‘Nihon no Shuppan Ryūtsū [Japanese Distribution System]’, 1–3.
65. Ibid.
66. Tsuruta, Chosakubutsu Saihanseido [RPM]; Kawachi, Shinbunsha: Hatanshita Bijinesumoderu [Newspaper companies: Failed Business-model].
67. Sato, History of contemporary media, p. 223.
68. (Yomiuri Shimbun newspaper, 20, April 1995).
69. (Yomiuri Shimbun newspaper, 1, August 1995).
70. Tsuruta, Chosakubutsu Saihanseido [RPM].
71. Japanese Publishers’ Association, ‘Saihanseido to Dokusha [RPM and Readears]’.
72. Ibid.
73. Kinoshita, Shoseki Saihan no Shinchihei [New Scope of RPM]; Tsuruta, Chosakubutsu Saihanseido [RPM].
74. Kawachi, Shinbunsha: Hatanshita Bijinesumoderu [Newspaper Companies: Failed Business-model], Chapter 5.
75. Tsuruta, Chosakubutsu Saihanseido [RPM].
76. The Japan Newspaper Publishers and Editors Association, Shinbun nenkan [Newspaper Yearbook].
77. Accessed 24, November 2014. http://www.stat.go.jp/english/index.htm
78. Tsuruta, Chosakubutsu Saihanseido [RPM]; Kinoshita, Shoseki Saihan no Shinchihei [New Scope of RPM].
79. Ibid., 27–30.
80. Ibid., 14–15.
81. Tsuruta, Chosakubutsu Saihanseido [RPM].
82. (Yomiuri Shimbun newspaper, 13 December 1996).
83. National Federation of Regional Women, Citation2003, 50 years, p. 92.
84. Ibid.
85. The JFTC, ‘Chosakubutsu Saihan Seido [RPM for Certain Copyrighted Products]’.
86. Ibid.
87. (Shinbunka weekly newspaper, 12 November 1998).
88. Ibid.
89. The Japan Society of Publishing Studies, Hakusho Shuppan Sangyo [White Paper on Publishing], Chapter 1, 3, 7.
90. Japanese Publishers’ Association et al. ‘Danryoku Unyō Repōto [Report on Flexible Operation]’.
91. Ibid.
92. Ibid.
93. Ibid.
94. The Japan Society of Publishing Studies, Hakusho Shuppan Sangyo [White Paper on Publishing], Chapters 1, 3, 7.
95. Japanese Publishers’ Association et al. ‘Danryoku Unyō Repōto [Report on Flexible Operation]’.
96. The Japan Society of Publishing Studies, Hakusho Shuppan Sangyo [White Paper on Publishing], Chapters 1, 3, 7.
97. Ibid.
98. Japanese Publishers’ Association et al. ‘Danryoku Unyō Repōto [Report on Flexible Operation]’.
99. Kinoshita, Shuppan Saihan [RPM for Publications], Chapter 2.
100. The Japan Society of Publishing Studies, Hakusho Shuppan Sangyo [White Paper on Publishing], Chapters 1, 3, 7.
101. Japanese Publishers’ Association et al. ‘Danryoku Unyō Repōto [Report on Flexible Operation]’.
102. Ibid.
103. Ibid.
104. Shuppan Kagaku Kenkyūjo, Shuppan Shihyo Nenpo [Annual Data of Publishing], 350–3.
105. The Japan Society of Publishing Studies, Hakusho Shuppan Sangyo [White Paper on Publishing], Chapters 1, 3, 7.
106. (Yomiuri Shimbun newspaper, 24 March 2001).
107. Tsuruta, Chosakubutsu Saihanseido [RPM].