Suggestions on how to implement supply chain management: from the perspective of Japanese business relations

Recent advancement in information technology has caused an increasing interest in introducing supply chain management to Japanese enterprises. While several successful cases of the introduction of supply chain management have been reported, there are some companies which face difficulties which are mostly attributed to Japanese trade practices. All of these may critically hinder cooperative agreements between firms, without which sharing information is not possible. Therefore, the key to success is cooperation between entire companies involved in the supply chain, and thus there may be a need for this kind of innovation in Japanese businesses.