Nottage, Luke; Wolff, Leon; Anderson, Kent --- "Introduction: Japan’s Gradual Transformation in Corporate Governance" [2008] ELECD 381; in Nottage, Luke; Wolff, Leon; Anderson, Kent (eds), "Corporate Governance in the 21st Century" (Edward Elgar Publishing, 2008)

Book Title: Corporate Governance in the 21st Century

Editor(s): Nottage, Luke; Wolff, Leon; Anderson, Kent

Publisher: Edward Elgar Publishing

ISBN (hard cover): 9781847209238

Section: Chapter 1

Section Title: Introduction: Japan’s Gradual Transformation in Corporate Governance

Author(s): Nottage, Luke; Wolff, Leon; Anderson, Kent

Number of pages: 20

Extract:

1. Introduction: Japan's gradual
transformation in corporate governance
Luke Nottage, Leon Wolff and Kent Anderson
Like other major post-industrial democracies around the turn of the 21st
century, Japan is undergoing a `gradual transformation' in socio-economic
relations (Streeck and Thelen, 2005). Unlike the `great transformation' that
engendered the welfare state in the mid-20th century (Polanyi, 1944), the
current shift is back towards more market-driven governance. Yet entrenched
legal and social norms and institutions mitigate the pace and influence the
direction of this shift. Consequently, the ways in which it occurs and the over-
all extent of the transformation vary among countries, although some identifi-
able patterns are emerging from this transition worldwide.
One common but relatively low-key means of effecting a `gradual trans-
formation' is `layering'. This means adding new institutions to see whether
innovations will percolate through to other fields (Streeck and Thelen, 2005a).
In policy initiatives and practices in Japan, layering seems particularly popu-
lar. One recent example is the superimposition of new postgraduate `Law
School' (hoka daigakuin) programs on top of undergraduate legal education
since 2004. This reform is aimed at boosting the quality and quantity of law
graduates able to qualify as bengoshi lawyers, public prosecutors and judges
(Miyazawa, 2007). A second example of newly layered institutions is the
greater use of lay participation in legal arenas. For example, in 2009 Japan will
introduce a quasi-jury system (saibanin seido) for serious criminal trials. This
may, as promised by the reformers, ...