Japan as a Competitor and as a Consumer. Business Counter-Espionage Strategies in Interwar Czechoslovakia (1918-1938)
Abstrakt
The current state of knowledge indicates that industrial espionage constitutes an inherent threat towards the ongoing development of national and world economies. One rudimentary example are the international Czechoslovak-Japanese relations which show not only the dangers of industrial espionage, but also the risks of overestimating, rather than underestimating such a threat.
Caution is a virtue for as long as it is balanced by an ability to penetrate new markets in contrast to autarkic refusals of a potentially lucrative entry. During 1920s and 1930s, Japan has gained an international reputation of able imitator of foreign technologies, which applied both for heavy industry and consumer goods.
The more Japan has penetrated Asian, African and South American markets, the less willingness of European and North American exporters for Japanese domestic market. In this context, the paper aims to outline not only genuine strategies of Japanese industrial espionage in interwar Czechoslovakia but also the consequences of counter-espionage strategies of Czechoslovak business subjects leading to refusals of penetration of Japanese domestic market.
This case study promises to point out the dangers of both industrial espionage and counter-espionage to the development of national and world economies.