[PDF] The Fable of the Keiretsu, - Harvard Law School

Abstract
Patronize any social science or business panel on Japan, and sooner or later the

experts will tell you whether (usually how) “Japan” is about to change fundamentally. 

Patronize any good book store, and sooner or later you will locate books like Japan’s 

Democracy: How Much Change? Economic Reform: Can the Japanese Change?

Japan’s Economic Structure: Should It Change?, or the 1998 Brookings study Is 

Japan Really Changing Its Ways?

Search for comparable panels or books on the U.S., Canada, or Germany, and you 

will come up dry. Brookings will not sponsor conferences on whether the U.S. is 

changing its ways. The University of Chicago Press will not likely accept a manuscript 

on Is Canada Really Changing Its Ways? Indeed, we doubt it would even take one on 

Economic Reform: Can the Germans Change? You come up dry for a good reason: 

we know all too well that there is no "essential" U.S., Canadian, or German nature to 

change. 

 But switch to Japan, and authors, publishers, and readers happily soldier on -- 

blithely writing, publishing, and buying books about whether "Japan" is changing. To be 

sure, they do not give the same answer. Rather, they are “uanimous” (as one 19thcentury Irish jury foreman famously put it), “in being unable to agree” (Minda, 1999: 27). 

But they do ask the same question.

The Fable of the Keiretsu, - Harvard Law School

Structure of Corporate Ownership in Japan

The enterprise ownership structure in Japan is quite different from their counterparts in the western countries, with the ownership has been highly concentrated in Japan. The Japanese Law allows institutional investors to exert more in control of companies and their management inducing them to seek a higher level of equity. In fact, there is a significant difference between Japan and US about the corporation ownership. Ownership by financial institutions (especially commercial banks) is greater in Japan than in the United States. Japanese commercial banks and insurance companies hold about two to three times the number of outstanding shares of listed company than their US counterparts do. On top of being a major shareholder, financial institutions play the roles of also being the largest creditors of the firms. While in the same time, they are playing as an important long-term commercial business partner. For example, it has been shown that out of 344 manufacturing corporations, financial institutions own 34.48% of the common equity and individuals own 29.53%. Therefore, many Japanese firms get more debt from those financial institutions that having highly concentrated in the ownership of the company.
Ownership concentration did not differ significantly between keiretsu and independent Japanese firms. With high ownership concentration and cross-share holding by banks, suppliers and customers, keiretsu firms are able to monitor decisions of firms’ internal activity and direct management s actions to benefit the whole and to act as a collective, but not just being contractual business partners.


Read more: http://www.ukessays.com/essays/economics/structure-of-corporate-ownership-in-japan-economics-essay.php#ixzz2ftdWodMI