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Drape is a characteristic behaviour of flexible cloth, so it is important in modelling cloth. The paper introduces a novel method to model drape using a few shape parameters, predicted according to the pattern structure and mechanical properties of cloth. The technique is used to visualize the 3‐D drapeability of cloth and is then extended to simulation of a skirt. The general shape of a flared skirt of large deformation is predicted based on several shape parameters. Moreover, the constructed skirt model is used as pre‐draped initial shape for the popular physically‐based model – particle system. Kawabata Evaluation System (KES) plots of cloth are applied for accurate mechanical calculation. The simulated results show good agreement with actual cloth materials.

This study examines the determinants of performance of foreign manufacturing subsidiaries in Japan. The study finds that a foreign parent’s size, the subsidiary’s age, and a complicated distribution system influence a subsidiary’s performance. There was little significant change in these determinants over a 20-year period. However, for subsidiaries that survived over the observation period of this study, some determinants changed. We also found that by forming joint ventures with Japanese firms, foreign firms can overcome the obstacle of distribution and circumvent the disadvantage of inexperience. Moreover, the mitigating effects of joint ventures vary, depending on the type of Japanese partner.

The purpose of this paper is to discuss the impact that Japanese culture has on the budgeting process, using insights gained from the literature and from a single company small‐sample pilot study. It provides a research agenda which links specific aspects of Japanese culture to predictions about Japanese groups' budgetary, performance evaluation and variance investigation practices.

The approach takes the form of a detailed literature review of the relevant literature in accounting, education and sociology, which considers how Japanese culture systematically differs from Western culture, and a small‐sample pilot study.

It was found that the Singaporean subsidiary of the Japanese MNC studied uses common Japanese budgeting practices, as previously documented by Ueno and Sekaran. Line managers are rewarded based on overall actual company‐wide profit, consistent with the Japanese collectivist group‐orientation which is itself a product of Confucianism. Although variances are used to rectify operational problems on a timely basis, line managers are not rewarded for outperforming the budget – the budget is a stick, but there is no offsetting carrot. An interviewed line manager (Chinese Singaporean, Purchasing) expressed mixed feelings about the current reward system and a preference for rewards based on outperforming his own budgetary target. This observation is consistent with some research in the educational literature suggesting that the Chinese tend to be less collectivist than the Japanese.

As a literature review the paper provides a synthesis of a diverse variety of sources. The literature review and pilot study findings add to the accounting literature by studying in greater detail than prior studies exactly how and why Japanese culture characteristics will and should affect budgetary practice. The paper should be of special value and interest to higher‐degree and early‐career researchers.

In this second part of the report on Printed Circuit World Convention IV held at the Tokyo Prince Hotel, Tokyo, from 3–5 June 1987, a general synopsis of the content of the papers presented in the eighteen technical sessions will be given. As three sessions were run in parallel throughout the 2½‐day conference, and therefore not all presentations were heard by those reporting on the technical programme, a number of them have been briefly summarised from the Convention Proceedings.

The Lockheed scandal was exposed during the 4 February 1976 hearings of the Sub-Committee on Multinational Corporations of the United States Senate Committee on Foreign Relations. These hearings revealed that Lockheed Aircraft Corporation paid illegal payments in several countries including Japan to promote the sale of its planes to prevent bankruptcy. The Securities Exchange Commission obtained documents showing that Lockheed paid more than US$10 million to Yoshio Kodama, a “fixer” and Lockheed's secret representative, and the Marubeni Corporation, which was Lockheed's agent in Japan since 1959. During the same hearings on 6 February, A. Carl Kotchian, vice president of Lockheed, informed the committee that a senior Japanese government official received US$2 million from Marubeni and that his company relied on Kenji Osano, a close associate of former Prime Minister Kakuei Tanaka, as an intermediary in its efforts to sell 21 Lockheed's L-1001 Tristar airbuses to All Nippon Airways (ANA) (Macdougall, 1988, pp. 193–195).