This article explores Japanese research on Arch Wilkinson Shaw’s marketing thought. First, to understand the work by Japanese scholars, three features of the Japanese discussion of U.S. marketing history are examined: the micro-macro dichotomy in the explanations of U.S. marketing thought, a narrow definition of marketing, and the influence of Morishita’s paradigm. Second, three issues that have interested Japanese scholars regarding Shaw’s thought are considered: political economy in Shaw’s time, the functional approach, and the relation to F. W. Taylor’s scientific management. The author shows that the Japanese interpretation of Shaw’s thought has been produced in Japanese contexts, not in a North American one.