This chapter introduces long running debates about Japanese firms, both as developers of distinctive models of production and employment relations in Japan, and as the potential disseminators of these models internationally through transplantation, transfer, and work transformation within their overseas subsidiaries. It develops a distinctive contribution to these debates, which draws on labour process theory and institutionalist analyses to address the ways in which enterprise managers respond to the cross-cutting constraints of system, societal, and dominance effects. Finally, it situates the research reported elsewhere in the book in relation to these debates, outlines the structure of the book, and summarizes the contributions of each chapter to the overall analysis.