Aronson, Bruce --- "Japanese corporate law and corporate governance in historical perspective" [2018] ELECD 80; in Wells, Harwell (ed), "Research Handbook on the History of Corporate and Company Law" (Edward Elgar Publishing, 2018) 401

Book Title: Research Handbook on the History of Corporate and Company Law

Editor(s): Wells, Harwell

Publisher: Edward Elgar Publishing

ISBN: 9781784717650

Section: Chapter 15

Section Title: Japanese corporate law and corporate governance in historical perspective

Author(s): Aronson, Bruce

Number of pages: 22

Abstract/Description:

Chapter 15, on the evolution of Japanese corporation law, challenges views relying on a stereotyped vision of Japan in which informal relationships between businesses and the State, and a cultural disposition to avoid disputes, have produced a system in which formal law does not matter. To the contrary, it argues that formal law has mattered a great deal in Japan, and provides an account of Japanese corporation law since 1868 marked by ‘constant, if gradual, change over time; significant experimentation with corporate law to meet businesses’ needs; flexibility and choice rather than rigidity; and practical efforts to adopt over time to changing political, economic, and social circumstances’. This chapter follows Japanese corporation law through two eras, each of which saw foreign models profoundly influencing Japanese legal development. The first began with the Meiji period, where European, and especially German, law shaped Japan’s first comprehensive corporation law, the Commercial Code of 1899; the second commenced after World War II when US law deeply influenced many areas of Japanese law. The chapter continues by following Japanese corporate law and corporate governance through the postwar periods of Japanese triumph and stagnation, and concludes in the twenty-first century, where it speculates that a third era of corporation law may have appeared, as Japan increasingly pursues a multipolar model focused on growth and the importance of ‘soft law’.