Managing investment liberalization : the political economy of Japanese foreign direct investment in the United States, 1985-1993

In this study, we will analyze the political economy of Japanese foreign direct investment (JFDI) in the United States during the period through 1985 to 1993 from the perspective of International Political Economy (IPE).Within the sphere of IPE, the relationship between political and economic forces is an important dimension which must be examined.The core question asked in this dissertation is why and how the United States managed the entry of Japanese FDI during the above period.Specifically, we attempt to center on U.S. investment policy change which was a result from the entry of JFDI.The period covered in this dissertation is the most important development stage in U.S. investment policy during the past four decades.In this case, the United States was the largest economy in that time, while the Japan was the second largest economy.To examine the impact of JFDI and U.S. policy adjustment, the unitary actor model in traditional International Relations is not sufficient to grasp the complex dynamics of the problem.Furthermore, U.S. investment policy adjustment is essentially a political process and therefore requires a political economy approach.To accomplish this objective, we construct a more detailed analytical framework help us specify the relationship between JFDI and U.S. policy adjustment.This framework was a slightly revised one provided by the second generation of IPE scholars in the new century.It emphasizes that interest and institution are two crucial variables to examine policy adjustment.In this framework, unitary actor assumption is only a special case.Based on rational choice institutionalism, the logic is that the incentives rooted in economic interest strongly compel individuals, societal groups and states act.At the same time, whether the policy demand that these actors asked would be realized partly depend on the policy supply framed by institution.As a result, what needs to be clarified is which kind of interest created by JFDI and under what institution circumstance?This dissertation argues that U.S. policy adjustment is partly due to the nature of JFDI, and partly depends on the institution background.At the national level, if the U.S. industries that JFDI entered would create national economic gap between the United States and Japan, U.S. government will strongly oppose isn't going to be imports; it's going to be the foreign invasion of the United States." 8In January 1989, an article in Harvard Business Review recalled that the debate in the United States on JFDI was similar to Canada's view on American multinationals nearly twenty years before.The author criticized the view that America was becoming a colony of Japan. 9Raymond Vernon, a pioneer of multinationals study, noted that "in 1989, after a century of supporting the principle of national treatment for foreign-owned business, the United States abruptly began to discriminate against Japanese-owned enterprises that were seeking to 2

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