전후 일본의 아시아시장 재진출에 관한 연구― 일본공영(日本工營)을 중심으로 ―

Abstract

The purposes of this paper are to discuss that Nippon Kouei, Japan's first and largest engineer consulting company, has a historical continuity on its business between before and after the Second World War and to discuss that Nippon Kouei's progress were brought by its participation in so-called ‘reparation business in Asia.’ In order to understand the process of Japan's reentry into the Asian market after the Second War, analyzing the case of Nippon Kouei will be beneficial, since it is one of the largest beneficiaries of the reparation business. Reasons why Nippon Kouei could involve in most of the reparation business in 1950s and 1960s are summarized as follows. Firstly, the company's human resources were consisted by a number of electrical, river control and civil engineers. Their knowledge was demanded by both Japanese and Asian recipient nations because bureaucrats and politicians mostly do not have such knowledge. Secondly, many of Nippon Kouei's engineers had already had experiences in directing large-scaled infrastructure projects in Korea and Japan's occupying territories before 1945. Thirdly, Nippon Kouei's technical background gave it bargaining powers not only in negotiations in business contracts on respective projects but also in governmental negotiations between Japan and the recipient nations. Besides these reasons, the Cold War system gave Japanese government advantageous effects on its postwar reparations. Japan was exempted from giving cash to the recipient nations, and so-called service reparation was introduced, instead. This allowed Japanese companies to be free from competitions with foreign competitors. Furthermore, payments for participating Japanese companies were implemented directly by the Japanese government. This method was the most secured condition for the participants.