Mari Sako is Professor of International Business at the Saïd Business School, University of Oxford. An international expert on Japanese business, she has published widely on the issues of global coroporate strategy, comparative business systems, and human resource management. Her recent books include Are Skills the Answer? The Political Economy of Skill Creation in Advanced Industrial Countries (with Colin Crouch and Donald Finegold, OUP, 1999) and Japanese Labour and Management in Transition: Diversity, Flexibilyt and Participation (edited with Hiroki Sato, Routledge, 1997).