From the commercial and industrial transformation of Osaka in the late 19th century to the role and status of Japanese multinationals in Europe: these two themes represent both the time-span and the breadth of this volume.

Sarah Metzger-Court Teaching Fellow and Director of Japanese Studies at Aston University. Werner Pascha Studied economics at Freiburg University, at the London School of Economics and Political Science, and at Nagoya University. Professor of East Asian Economic Studies and Deputy Director of the Centre for East Asian Studies at Duisburg University, Germany.

1 Rules, Goals, Information - A Key to the Question of Continuity and Change in Japan 2 On the Analysis of Change and Continuity in Japan's Socio-Economy Tradition and Change in the Early Marketing of Japanese Silkworm Eggs: The First Large-scale Japanese Inroad into Western Markets (1863-1875)4 From Kitchen to Workshop: the Commercial and Industrial Transformation of Osaka in the Late Nineteenth Century 5 Continuity and Change in the Japanese Labour Market: Rural Impoverishment and the Geographical Origins of Female Textile Workers 6 Institutional Continuity and Functional Change: the Development of the System of Minsei-iin in the History of Social Welfare in Japan 7 Scottish Political Economy in Meiji Japan (1868-1912) - Fukuzawa Yukichi and Liberal Economic Thought 8 The Dimension of Dreams: Discussion of the Pacific Age in Japan 1890-1994 9 Evolutionary Socio-Economic Aspects of the Japanese 'Era of Localities' Discourse 10 Development Versus Growth? Aspects of Quality Gaining Ground in Japan 11 The Changing Role of Competition Policy in Japan 12 Economic Guidance and the Antimonopoly Law: Traditions Versus Legal Changes 13 The Change and Continuity of Amakudari in the Private Banking Industry 14 Heritage, Discontinuity and Creation: Business Activities that Achieved Post-war Economic Growth: Japanese Management' Reconsidered 15 Beyond the Japanese Perimeter: Continuity and Change in Japanese Foreign Direct Investment from the 1870s to the Year 2000 16 Future of 'Toyotism': Preliminary Reflections on the Critical Points of a Japanese Model of Production 17 Japanese Business Practice, Overseas Joint Business of Venture Finns, a Case Study, and International Collaboration Council