Staying in Argentina through the coups (1977)

Not financial logic, but the will not to leave

The heart of this decision lay less in financial calculation than in the will itself to keep operating locally amid continuing political upheaval. As executives of American companies returned home one after another, the only Japanese company to have gone in stayed put, and its managers continued to lead from the front at personal risk. Behind that lay confidence in twenty years of labour practice built up since entering in 1956 — hiring screens that kept radicals out, wages never paid late, family-inclusive club activities. That unglamorous accumulation kept supporting the single point tested at every upheaval: the support of the employees.

That said, even when Nikkei Business ran this article in August 1977, its assessment of Argentina remained qualified — promising, if only the politics settled. The company’s operation there was still an unfinished story, and the primary sources for this piece do not follow it further. Even so, the article’s reading — that for Japanese companies facing a maturing domestic market, seeking an outlet for growth abroad was becoming unavoidable — is suggestive for thinking about how overseas expansion worked in the high-growth era.