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The purpose of this article is to examine and analyze productivity and efficiency in Japan's distribution system, and compare the concepts of retail/wholesale (R/W) productivity and efficiency standards in Japan and the Western world. The study has complemented and extended the previous and ongoing research on the Japanese distribution system. Since 1980, the academic and practitioners' interest in this topic has increased because ofJapan's growing consumer market and its role as an emerging economic power. The current debate on Japan's world trade surplus, which in 1992 stood at $107.06 billion, invites further investigation of its R/W system (Financial Times, 1993a). 1 The Japanese channels of distribution impediments (tariff and nontariff barriers, distribution keiretsu, R/W business practices and multi-layered channel structure) constitute some of the areas which analysts believe contributed to massive …