This book provides a broad investigation of various issues in East Asia’s steel industry since the 1980s, including international specialization and trade relations, the sustainable use of resources, technological innovations, and environmental mitigation, alongside a consideration of the rapid growth in Chinese steel industry. Using macro and firm-level data, and case studies based on field research to discuss issues concerning the steel industry in East Asia. In search of an easy understanding, we try to simplify complicated economic models and statistical analyses, and concentrate on policy implications based as much as possible on the results of empirical analyses. We believe that this book will be of interest to policymakers, economists, practitioners and advocates of sustainability.

Jun Ma is an expert in the field of labor economics and industrial organization. He obtained his Ph.D. in economics from Kyoto University (Japan) in 1998. Since that year, he has been working at the University of Toyama, where he became a full professor in 2009.

Masashi Yamamoto earned his Ph.D. in economics from Keio University (Japan) in 2010. He is currently a professor of economics at Tokai University (Japan).  Before joining Tokai University, he was a faculty member at University of Toyama from October 2008 to March 2021.