Yakuza tells the story of Japan's remarkable crime syndicates, from their feudal start as bands of medieval outlaws to their emergence as billion-dollar investors in real estate, big business, art, and more. This 25th Anniversary edition has an updated preface from the authors and remains the definitive study of Japan's crime syndicates.
Comprehensive and up-to-date, this important textbook analyzes the escalating crisis in corporate governance and the growing interest in its reform across the globe. Written by a leading name in the field of corporate governance from a genuinely international perspective, this excellent textbook provides a balanced analysis of the relative strengths and weaknesses of the Anglo-Saxon, European and Asian traditions of corporate governance; offering a prognosis of the future development, complexity and diversity of corporate governance forms and systems. It: investigates the reasons for the failure of Enron, WorldCom, Tyco, Parmalat and other major international corporations examines the role of international standards of corporate governance, with the intervention of the OECD, World Bank and IMF explores the continuing cultural diversity in corporate and institutional forms in the United States and UK, Europe and Asia Pacific. Illustrated with a wealth of up-to-the minute case studies and packed full of excellent illustrative material that guides student readers through this complex subject, International Corporate Governance is a must read for anyone studying corporate governance today.
This book delves into the nature of governance in Asia both at government and corporate level. It reviews the history and suggests potential solutions for years of underperformance due to the corrupt practices that have developed because of a poor understanding of corporate governance. The authors are experts in practices in Asia and their views are expressed in a sympathetic manner, at no time insisting that a western model of governance is correct. Instead the authors advise local models appropriate to the state of development and suggest that individual countries institute behavioural models that will mature as nations quickly develop in an increasingly global world.
Japan's effervescent economy, charging ahead in the late 1980s under the stimulation of a two and a half percent prime rate, shook American confidence ... until the bubble burst in 1989, leaving banks saddled with over $200 billion in bad loans. Iwamoto shows how and why the lenders racked up all this uncollectible debt, who took advantage of whom and how actions by business and government officials contributed to the crisis. Along the way, his illustrative examples share some of the flavor of business life in Japan including the academic cliques and mobster clans, the after-hours camaraderie and the legendary "entertainment" that was used to evade inspections by the Ministry of Finance. The author then describes Prime Minister Koizumi's initiatives that halved the bad loans by March 2005 and inspired foreign investors to bring back their cash. With strong exports, increasing capital investment and decreasing unemployment, Japan is truly on the upswing. Koizumi's party reaped the benefit with a landslide victory in the September 2005 general election, and he continues to push for further restructuring. The author goes on to identify and describe the 20 most successful companies in Japan this year, and gives clues as to what makes them thrive. Many aspects of Japan's economy are highlighted in tables and statistics, from "Differences in Pay Scale by Type of Industry" to "Results at Seven Mega Banking Groups and Forecast for March 31, 2006," plus balance sheets of companies like Toyota, Shiseido and McDonald's Japan
A leader of a global superpower is betrayed by his mistress, who makes public the sordid details of their secret affair. His wife stands by as he denies the charges. Debates over definitions of moral leadership ensue. Sound familiar? If you guessed Clinton and Lewinsky, try again. This incident involved former Japanese prime minister Sosuke Uno and a geisha. In Secrets, Sex, and Spectacle, Mark D. West organizes the seemingly random worlds of Japanese and American scandal—from corporate fraud to baseball cheaters, political corruption to celebrity sexcapades—to explore well-ingrained similarities and contrasts in law and society. In Japan and the United States, legal and organizational rules tell us what kind of behavior is considered scandalous. When Japanese and American scandal stories differ, those rules—rules that define what’s public and what’s private, rules that protect injuries to dignity and honor, and rules about sex, to name a few—often help explain the differences. In the cases of Clinton and Uno, the rules help explain why the media didn’t cover Uno’s affair, why Uno’s wife apologized on her husband’s behalf, and why Uno—and not Clinton—resigned. Secrets, Sex, and Spectacle offers a novel approach to viewing the phenomenon of scandal—one that will be applauded by anyone who has obsessed over (or ridiculed) these public episodes.
Sokaiya are extortionists who target Japanese corporations for payoffs. This study explores the curious but not unusual relationship that grows between executives and sokaiya, who often offer their services to protect the corporation from other sokaiya, thus becoming a necessary evil.
This book explores current thinking on corporate governance by way of a detailed study of the governance practices of fourteen Japanese companies. The author was granted extensive access to these Japanese companies, as well as to their partner companies, their shareholders, and their banks, and is therefore able to provide a detailed insight into the way that Japanese companies are actually governed on a day-to-day basis. The book suggests that current mainstream conceptualizations of corporate governance are inadequate, as they do not help to understand the way that these Japanese companies are directed and controlled in practice. In the majority of cases, governance operates through a system which draws on the reciprocal obligations, responsibilities, and trust generated in everyday interactions at the individual and organizational level. The conclusions of the research have important implications not only for our understanding of the Japanese system of corporate governance, but also for international corporate governance policy and research in general. In particular, the book commends greater recognition that alongside the currently dominant concern 'controlling' the behaviour of company managers, the governance of companies might equally be considered in terms of the responsibilities, reciprocal obligations, and trust inherent in everyday interactions. The book is equally accessible and relevant to both academics and to those involved with corporate governance issues on a day-to-day basis, including financial services providers, lawyers, policymakers, and company directors.