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A logistic strategy, which is one of the operational strategies of enterprises, constitutes a composition of long-term and coordinated decisions and activities regarding location, transport, warehousing, inventory management and customer service aimed at attaining a competitive advantage. Strategic choices concerning the company logistics depend on many factors, both connected with its internal capacity and with external circumstances, including macroeconomic, regulatory, demographic, social, infrastructure and technological changes. Dynamic changes noted on the world markets, which are predominantly connected with economic slowdown, but also are, as in the case of Japan the effect of natural disasters, coerce the consideration of new operational conditions in the logistic strategies of Japanese companies. A particularly interesting area of research in this field is the impact analysis of the present and forecasted macroeconomic situation on strategic decisions and logistic activities of Japanese companies in European countries, which vary in development levels and exist in completely different to the Japanese socio-economic reality. The analyses of that type are useful not only from the managerial perspective in order to increase the competitiveness of companies but they are also important from the point of view of local authorities interested in forming good relations with Japanese investors. The aim of the article is to identify macroeconomic factors which might necessitate changes in strategic decisions concerning the location of Japanese companies in European countries. The discussion presented in the paper is a part of a research project entitled „Management methods in Japanese supply chains in Poland and Great Britain”, financed by the National Science Centre.

Keywords: logistic strategy, macroeconomic circumstances, location decisions, FDI.

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