Kozuka, Souichirou --- "Conclusions: Japan’s Largest Companies, Then and Now" [2008] ELECD 390; 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 10

Section Title: Conclusions: Japan’s Largest Companies, Then and Now

Author(s): Kozuka, Souichirou

Number of pages: 18

Extract:

10. Conclusions: Japan's largest
corporations, then and now
Souichirou Kozuka
It seems like only yesterday. At the end of the 1980s, Japan's economy was
booming and its companies were making huge profits. Commentators argued
for a `Japanese' model of capitalism, an alternative to the Anglo-American
model. Some academics tried to uncover the seemingly successful mecha-
nisms underpinning the Japanese economy. Others criticised the alleged
unfairness of Japanese socio-economic ordering that produced such prosper-
ity.
During the ensuing two decades, however, Japan experienced political and
economic turmoil. The world's attention has turned increasingly to the new
economic powers ­ including China, Japan's huge neighbour. The Japanese
are reportedly uneasy about their lives and future prosperity. The US is
regarded as the prototype for a successful market economy, while the Japanese
model appears to have lost much of its attractiveness to overseas researchers.
Yet the two decades since the bursting of the bubble economy have been an
era of extensive law reform in Japan. As detailed in this book's introductory
chapter, corporate law has gone through repeated reforms and amendments.
This culminated in the enactment of the new Company Law (No. 86 of 2005),
spun off from the century-old Commercial Code (No. 48 of 1896). Other busi-
ness law has also been subject to constant reform. Securities regulation, for
example, now centres on the Financial Instruments Exchange Law (No. 65 of
2006), renamed and enlarged in scope of application to regulate all types of
investment ...