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Postwar Japanese Cotton Textile Investment in Brazil, 1955–1980

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  18 February 2015

Henri Delanghe
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Abstract

The literature suggests that cotton textiles should be unattractive for foreign direct investment (FDI). The product is largely undifferentiated; sellers need an intimate knowledge of local markets; and textiles use process technology, which multinational firms cannot monopolize. Indeed, since the 1970s, cotton textiles has been one of the few industries in Brazil in which local capital dominates, joint ventures prevail, and American firms are almost completely absent. Yet, between 1955 and the mid-1970s, Brazil saw significant foreign direct investment in textiles from Japanese firms. There were two successive waves of Japanese investment in the Brazilian cotton textile industry. The first ran from the mid-1950s to the early 1960s. The second took place from the late 1960s to the mid-1970s. Four Japanese textile firms participated in the first wave—Kanebo, Toyobo, Tsuzuki, and Unitika. Four more—Daiwa, Kurabo, Nisshinbo, and Omi—participated in the second wave.

Type
Articles
Information
Enterprise & Society , Volume 6 , Issue 1 , March 2005 , pp. 76 - 97
Copyright
Copyright © The Author(s) 2005. Published by Cambridge University Press on behalf of the Business History Conference. All rights reserved.

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