（范例）外文翻译格式

With additional steps of wholesale trading described above, the wholesale margin can increase and consequently raise retail prices for Japanese consumers. As such, the multilayered wholesale channel in Japan is often harshly criticized by many Westerners. In fact, Batzer and Laumer implied that the Japanese wholesale channel could add as much as 60 per cent to the price of products and add up to 300 to 500 per cent to the landed price of imports. The multilayered wholesale channel, however, offers some important advantages for Japanese retailers. These are:

? Through the multilayered channel, downstream tertiary wholesalers can afford to make small deliveries of less than truckload quantities on a frequent basis via non-conventional transportation modes such as bicycles and motor scooters. Such delivery service would help small mom-and-pop retailers with limited space replenish inventories without carrying them.

? The multilayered wholesale channel links the wholesalers to atomistic retailers scattered all over the Japanese islands and, through quick negotiations and break-bulking, helps move the product rapidly from production to retail and consumption.

? The close linkage among the multilayered channel members encourages the sharing of information on product trends, innovations, competition,and overall market opportunities. Thus it will help the Japanese retailer provide more streamlined customer services.

Unusually large number of small retail stores

As of 1989, there were 132 retail stores for every 10,000 Japanese people and a total of approximately 1,620,000 retail stores in Japan, while the USA has 66 retail establishments per 10,000 residents and a total of about 1,542,000 retail stores. In Japan, small retail stores of less than 3,200 square feet account for 56 per cent of total retail sales as compared with 3 per cent for the USA. They also comprise 99.6 per cent of total retail stores. These statistics clearly suggest that the Japanese retail industry is highly fragmented and dominated by small retailers which are often undercapitalized, but conveniently located in the back of residential neighbourhoods. There are a number of reasons why the Japanese retail industry has so many small retail stores: A form of social welfare

As of 1985, 6,329,000 Japanese were employed on a full-time basis by the retail sector. In other words, a labour-force-participation ratio for the small retail stores is relatively high in Japan. Many retail stores were established and operated by ageing Japanese retirees. Therefore, regardless of economic inefficiency, many small retailers have been protected by the government because they provide secure jobs and income for a

large segment of Japanese society. Japanese shopping behaviour

Owing to notorious traffic congestion and preference for fresh products such as “sushi and sashimi”, Japanese consumers tend to shop in the immediate vicinity of their homes. They are also very choosy and have a penchant for a high level of services. Services that they normally expect to receive from retailers include freeof-charge delivery, less than six hours for delivery, delivery time designation, offhour handling, aid in product selection, unlimited warranty, and post-sale followup transactions. Since mom-and-pop stores usually provide such services beyond the act of simply offering goods for sale, the abundance of small-scale mom-and-pop stores is an inevitable phenomenon in Japan.

In addition, Koyama observes that Japanese consumers tend to possess many different items at home due in part to the extended family structure; for example, an average Japanese household keeps about 800 belongings, while a German or French counterpart has around 600 belongings. This suggests that Japanese consumers often require more diversified product lines. For example,the typical Japanese household may need to keep several different types of cups specially designed for coffee, ceremonial tea, and “sake”. As such, many small retailers altered their product lines to diversify and have begun to carry locally produced specialty items which are too uneconomic for large retail stores to include as part of their product lines. In fact, most of the small Japanese retailers are specialized and carry relatively deep assortments to satisfy local demand. In other words, Japanese demand for more diversified products may have led to the various establishments of small but specialized retail shops. Large Scale Retail Store Law

The most important regulation affecting Japanese retailing is the Large Scale Retail Store Law that regulates the opening and expansion of large-scale retail stores with their floor space exceeding 500 square metres (i.e. 5,400 square feet). This law is usually overseen by the Ministry of International Trade and Industry (MITI), but they also give authority to the local prefecture government which can further lower the requirement to 300 and 200 square metres. To make matters worse, MITI’s notification process for the formal approval of planned stores can take 14 months to 20 months or more. As a result, only 11 large retail stores were permitted to open in the whole of Japan during 1985 through 1988. Until recent years, this regulation has helped sustain a large number of small-scale retail stores in Japan by systematically restricting the establishment of large-scale retail stores, such as department stores (see Figure 2 for various forms of Japanese retailing). Such regulation may have originated from the government’s fear of a

retail price war spurred by large stores and the subsequent disruption of traditional Japanese distribution culture. The dominance of small stores in the Japanese retail sector often hampers the new market entrants, such as foreign firms, from selling their products to Japanese consumers, because small stores tend to keep only a limited selection of merchandise and consequently cannot afford to carry foreign products.

The Japanese government, however, has begun to relax the law regulating the growth of large-scale retail stores. In the wake of the Strategic Impediments Initiative (SII) talks between the USA and Japan, Japan’s MITI agreed to limit the approval process for large-store applications to under 18 months and allowed the retailers to extend their store hours; consequently, applications for the large stores soared by 50 per cent in the recent past. The continual relaxation of the large-scale retail store law would present an opportunity non-Japanese firms to increase their leverage in the Japanese retail sector, as evidenced by the growing presence of Toys “R” Us in the Japanese toy market. Good ol’ boys distribution network called keiretsu

Surprisingly, Onkvisit and Shaw recently observed that only 7 per cent of Japan’s manufactured goods were protected by the Japanese government, while 34 per cent of the products manufactured in the USA were protected by the US government. A number of US firms have reported their difficulty in cracking the Japanese market and their complaints focused on the strong local distribution network called “keiretsu” which is a significant market barrier. In general, keiretsu are referred to as a large group of related companies which share common interests, common banks, and typically, interlocking boards of directors and cross-equity participation. Depending on their formation and principles, keiretsu are commonly divided into two types: horizontal and vertical. The horizontal keiretsu are usually organized around a bank and consist of a variety of companies that perform different functions in diverse fields. Since the horizontal keiretsu resemble cartels in that they tend to restrict business interactions with non-keiretsu organizations, they have been sharply criticized by many US business and political leaders. Unlike the US government, the Japanese government loosely enforced its anti-trust laws, and consequently a number of Japanese firms such as Mitsubishi, Mitsui, Sumitomo, Sanwa, Dai-chi Kangyo, and Fuji, have successfully used the horizontal keiretsu system.

Unlike the horizontal keiretsu, the vertical keiretsu are usually composed of a major industrial corporation and its suppliers or distributors/retailers in a particular industry such as automobiles and electronics. The vertical keiretsu can be further subdivided into supply keiretsu and distribution keiretsu. Supply keiretsu are groups of companies integrated along a supply chain dominated by a major manufacturer such as Toyota, Nissan, Toshiba,

and Hitachi.

In contrast to the supply keiretsu which have interlocking interests in their upstream suppliers, the distribution keiretsu develop the web of relationships with their downstream distributors and retail outlets. Since the distribution keiretsu tend to exclude non-keiretsu companies (both foreign and domestic) from competition and tend to keep retail prices high for consumers through the retail price maintenance agreement, the distribution keiretsu may be the important cause of distribution inefficiency. Nevertheless, the Japanese traditional culture often values mutual trust and loyalty created by the distribution keiretsu (see Table I). Therefore, it is still an accepted form of business practice in Japan where a paternalistic business relationship developed by the distribution keiretsu precedes its economic inefficiency. Distribution keiretsu offer various managerial benefits for the participating members which include: Technology and information transfer

Without the foundation for a stable, long-term, and co-operative relationship among the manufacturer, the wholesaler, and the retailer, the distribution keiretsu are doomed to failure. Accordingly, a close partnership is the cornerstone of distribution keiretsu. Such a partnership can only be established by mutual information and technology sharing through open communication among the keiretsu members. For example, Japanese manufacturers often supply advanced retail support involving computerized online data processing systems that provide retailers point-of-sale (POS) information about consumer behaviour, per capital sales, and customer credit. Furthermore, some progressive Japanese firms have recently developed electronic ordering systems (EOS) with POS to supplement inventory, shorten delivery time, and reduce delivery errors. In fact, Milgrom and Roberts note that the keiretsu have proven to be extremely effective in responding to new market opportunities by transferring information and technology among the members. Financial risk sharing

Through mutual share holding, distribution keiretsu encourage their members to not worry about hostile takeovers and subsequently focus on their long-term interests such as new product marketing and distribution. Also, many manufacturers traditionally provide their keiretsu members with several forms of financial assistance, such as credit extension, acceptance of promissory notes with deferred payments, discretionary rebates, and return privileges of unsold products at no cost. Such assistance will help the keiretsu members survive through tough financial times. Stable supply of the needed merchandise

The keiretsu manufacturer can assure its downstream distributors and retailers a