Abstract: Prepared as an introductory chapter to a forthcoming book on the distribution sector in Japan, this essay introduces the basic structure of the industry. We note the way competition drives consumers, sellers, and manufacturers to select distributional arrangements that minimize total costs, and the way that this distributional equilibrium will depend both on patterns of consumer demand and on production technology. To illustrate the way that cross-national distributional practices vary less than often thought, we compare automobile distribution in Japan and the U.S.