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About E. R. C.East Asian industry and Economy Research Center ( E. R. C. ) was established in 2002 when it was selected by Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports and Technology as one of research institutions which received the research grant of Special Assistance for Promoting the Advancement of the Education & Research of the Private University program. Since then, the center has conducted a lot of academic research which focuses upon (A) human resource management and technology transfer and (B) international specialization not only in Japanese companies but also in local companies located in the East Asian countries, particularly in Thailand and China from 2002 FY to 2006 FY. Based upon the performance of the accumulation of our research in that period, the center has been approved to continue its research activities for 3 more years with the grant of Special Assistance for Promoting the Advancement of the Education & Research of the Private University program by Ministry of Education, Culture , Sports and Technology. Since the way to manage and develop the human resources within companies which operate in our focused area, Thailand and China is, according to its research results, one of the most important factor which affects the situation of international specialization and business to business transaction by companies in those areas, in particular, Japanese companies operating in Thailand and China, then the center has integrated the former two research projects into one so that it has decided to concentrate financial and human research resources. Looking at a Japanese company that has set up factories and expanded her business in East Asian countries, the extent to which the activities within those foreign countries will raise the level of performance of whole company group surely will become more and more important. The center will be determined to achieve further research results through paying closer attention to how they develop human resources in foreign countries and how they acquire new knowledge and information on the process of B-to-B transaction. The most important part of our research activities is a field study where we visit companies and have interviews with managers and employees who are dedicating their work efforts, not only to their companies, but also, and very often, to the countries they belong to through working very hard on the workshop. Because we build both of research ideas and research results through conceptualizing the contents of what we hear from those people in the companies, their cooperation must be always highly appreciated as our precious research resources. Director,
Brief outlines of our research activities from 2007 FY to 2009 FYField of research Study of business to business transaction and human resource management in Thailand and China The contents of research Study of business to business transaction and human resource management in the East Asian countries Proposal The purpose of our research project is to reveal the present situation of B-to-B transaction and human resource management within and among Japanese companies operating in East Asian countries, particularly Thailand and China so that we would like to make policy proposals aimed at how business activities in overseas operating establishments help to raise competitiveness of whole company group. In order to achieve that goal, we will pay close and careful attention to how to manage and develop human resources in foreign establishments and how to construct B-to-B transaction relationship overseas. Our research results from various case studies in Thailand have made it clear that the level of what we call "absorption ability", which is an ability to learn by solving problems occurring on the spot, is definitely needed to be raised to further develop human resources working in overseas establishments. In order to raise such "absorption ability" in overseas establishments, quite a few top managers in those companies feel that they need the accumulation of more knowledge and more work experience of their expatriate managers and white collar employees working in overseas establishments as well as the change in the way of thinking by those managers and employees. "Absorption ability" has something to do with the employees' behaviors that they build closer relationship to client companies through, for instance, improving the quality of their products together with clients so that they themselves eventually improve their own skill and knowledge level. We would like to make policy proposals on how to manage human resources and how to control the relationship to client companies in Japanese-Thai and Japanese-Chinese establishments by revealing the contents of that ability and the process upon which they acquire the ability. Furthermore, based upon the research results of case studies in China, it is said to be the fact that a lot of Japanese top managers in their Chinese establishments feel that Chinese blue collar workers acquire their skills much faster than the Thai counterparts. It may be assumed that this fact can be explained by the differences of "absorption ability" level between Chinese blue collar workers and Thai blue collar workers. If this is true, we would like to reveal why and how such differences in "absorption ability" between the workers in those two countries have emerged. Expected effect of research As we do in the former projects conducted between 2002 FY and 2006 FY, we continue to provide information we will receive on the process of our research with Japanese-Thai and Japanese Chinese companies, in particular, medium and small sized companies that currently operate their establishments in Thailand and China. In addition to that, various information from our studies of international comparison upon the development of industrial clusters between Thailand and China is to be also provided.
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