Skip to Main Content
HBS Home
  • About
  • Academic Programs
  • Alumni
  • Faculty & Research
  • Baker Library
  • Giving
  • Harvard Business Review
  • Initiatives
  • News
  • Recruit
  • Map / Directions
Faculty & Research
  • Faculty
  • Research
  • Featured Topics
  • Academic Units
  • …→
  • Harvard Business School→
  • Faculty & Research→
Publications
Publications
  • April 2006 (Revised October 2006)
  • Case
  • HBS Case Collection

Chrysanthemum and Dragon: JAFCO Asia in China

By: Rawi E. Abdelal and David Lane
  • Format:Print
  • | Pages:31
ShareBar

Abstract

In the autumn of 2002, JAFCO Asia, a subsidiary of JAFCO Co., Ltd., became the first foreign private equity firm to open an office in Beijing's Haidian Science Park. JAFCO was the only Japanese private equity firm operating in China. As such, Managing Director Vincent Chan observed, "JAFCO is the bridge between Japan and China." Yet, under that bridge the waters appeared increasingly choppy. While the economic relationship between Japan and China had grown increasingly close, their political relations had not and some Japanese firms had begun to reassess their commitment to China. Would capital-rich Japan and capital-poor China find a way to transcend their troubled history? Could JAFCO Asia be a catalyst for cooperation, or would its managers find their own operations affected by rivalry between Asia's two most important countries? The mix of formal rules and informal practices that governed foreign private equity firms in China was complex. Opening an office in Beijing signified a renewal of JAFCO Asia's efforts to master these challenges and coincided with an acceleration of the firm's investments. But JAFCO's first years of engagement with China had not been notably successful, and without some fundamental changes, there was little reason to believe that the addition of a physical presence there would yield better results now.

Keywords

History; International Relations; Business and Shareholder Relations; Business and Government Relations; Expansion; Market Entry and Exit; Performance Effectiveness; Foreign Direct Investment; Business Strategy; Financial Services Industry; China; Beijing; Japan

Citation

Abdelal, Rawi E., and David Lane. "Chrysanthemum and Dragon: JAFCO Asia in China." Harvard Business School Case 706-012, April 2006. (Revised October 2006.)
  • Educators
  • Purchase

About The Author

Rawi E. Abdelal

Business, Government and the International Economy
→More Publications

More from the Authors

    • 2022
    • Faculty Research

    On the Origins of Our Discontent

    By: Rawi Abdelal and Thomas J. DeLong
    • May 2022
    • Faculty Research

    TikTok and National Security: Investment in an Age of Data Sovereignty?

    By: Jeremy Friedman, Sarah Bauerle Danzman and David Lane
    • 2022
    • Faculty Research

    Of Learning and Forgetting: Centrism, Populism, and the Legitimacy Crisis of Globalization

    By: Rawi Abdelal
More from the Authors
  • On the Origins of Our Discontent By: Rawi Abdelal and Thomas J. DeLong
  • TikTok and National Security: Investment in an Age of Data Sovereignty? By: Jeremy Friedman, Sarah Bauerle Danzman and David Lane
  • Of Learning and Forgetting: Centrism, Populism, and the Legitimacy Crisis of Globalization By: Rawi Abdelal
ǁ
Campus Map
Harvard Business School
Soldiers Field
Boston, MA 02163
→Map & Directions
→More Contact Information
  • Make a Gift
  • Site Map
  • Jobs
  • Harvard University
  • Trademarks
  • Policies
  • Accessibility
  • Digital Accessibility
Copyright © President & Fellows of Harvard College