Japan’s high corporate savings might be holding back growth. We focus on the causes and consequences of the current corporate behavior and suggest options for reform. In particular, Japan’s weak corporate governance—as measured by available indexes—might be contributing to high cash holdings. Our empirical analysis on a panel of Japanese firms confirms that improving corporate governance would help unlock corporate savings. The main policy implication of our analysis is that comprehensive corporate governance reform should be a key component of Japan’s growth strategy.
Japanese corporate governance and managerial practice is at a critical juncture. At the start of the decade pressures mounted for Japan to move to a shareholder-value driven, 'Anglo-American' system of corporate governance. Subsequent changes, however, may be seen as an adjustment and renewal of the post-war model of the Japanese firm. In adapting to global corporate governance standards, Japanese managers have also been reshaping them according to their own agenda of reform and restructuring of decision-making processes. The board's role is seen in terms of strategic planning rather than monitoring, and external directors are viewed as advisers, not as representatives of the shareholders. Managers have adopted a variety of defences against hostile takeovers, including poison pills in some cases. Although shareholder influence is more extensive than it was, central aspects of the Japanese 'community firm' remain in place. The commitment to stable or 'lifetime' employment for a core of employees, although coming under severe pressure, is still an important point of reference for Japanese management. Corporate Governance and Managerial Reform in Japan is based on detailed and intensive field work in large Japanese companies and interviews with investors, civil servants, and policy makers in the period following the adoption of significant corporate law reforms in the early 2000s up to the months just before the global financial crisis of 2008. The Japanese experience suggests that there are limits to the global convergence of company law systems, and that the widespread association of Anglo-American practices with the 'modernization' of corporate governance has been misplaced. This conclusion is unlikely to be altered - it may be reinforced - by reactions to the financial crisis.
We investigate whether Japan's much touted governance reforms improve its firms' management of cash, economic performance, and valuation. Consistent with an improvement in governance since 2000, Japanese firms hold less cash and increase payouts to shareholders. Improvements in performance are associated with reductions in (excess) cash, reductions in the influence of the banks that traditionally sit at the center of horizontal keiretsu, and increases in the holdings of management and foreign investors. The market valuation of Japanese firms' cash holdings was lower than for US firms during the 1990s but increases to levels closer to those of US firms in the 2000s. Collectively, the evidence suggests that performance improves in those Japanese companies that reform their governance practices. These findings have implications for other Asian economies, such as China, India, and Korea, where there are ongoing discussions of whether improved governance can increase firm performance and valuation.
Debates regarding corporate governance have become increasingly important in Japan as the post-war model of bank-based, stakeholder-oriented corporate governance faces the new pressures associated with globalization and growing investor demands for shareholder value. Bringing together a group of leading scholars from economics, law, sociology and management studies, this book looks at how the Japanese approach to corporate governance and the firm have changed in the post-bubble era.The contributions offer a unique empirical exploration of why and how Japanese firms are reshaping their corporate governance arrangements, leading to greater diversity among firms and new 'hybrid' forms of corporate governance. The book concludes by looking at what effect these incremental buttransformative changes may have on Japan's distinctive variety of capitalism.
The most accessible and user-friendly introduction to corporate governance, providing broad coverage of international issues and clear examples of theory in a business context.
Structural reforms in the liquidity trap need not be deflationary. This paper develops a simple framework to study the role that key characteristics of Japan’s labor and product markets—labor-market duality and weak corporate governance—play in generating unfavorable wage-price dynamics. The model allows a discussion of whether and in what form structural reforms may contribute to Japan’s short-run goal of reflating the economy. It finds that boosting inflation with structural reforms implies an unusual trade-off with employment, that is an inverted Phillips curve. Simultaneous implementation of labor-market and product-market reforms is most effective in terms of reflating the economy.
This is the first book to furnish a root cause of the low valuation of Japanese listed companies by using, as qualitative evidence, unique global investor surveys, which are rarely available for Japanese companies. Also contained in this book as quantitative evidence is empirical research with regression analysis implying a positive correlation between corporate governance and value creation in Japan. The author explains the rationale underlying the suggestion of the Ito Review on return on equity (ROE) 8% guidance, an almost 50% discounted valuation of the cash held by Japanese companies, corporate value and ROE, equity spread as a key performance indicator for value creation, an optimal dividend policy based on optimal capital structure, risk-adjusted hurdle rates for value-creative investment criteria, and the synchronization of environmental, social, and governance with equity spread. Illustrated with relevant statistics, evidence of shareholders’ voices, case studies, and empirical research, the book is highly recommended for readers who seek qualitative and quantitative evidence of Japan’s problems and potential prescriptions in connection with value creation. “This book empirically proves the relationship between non-financial capitals defined by IIRC and corporate value, and provides a convincing method to unlock corporate value in Japan via Abenomics corporate governance reforms. A must read!” Richard S. Howitt, Chief Executive Officer, International Integrated Reporting Council (IIRC) “This book addresses emerging issues such as the "Power of Intangibles" in addition to IMA-defined "Equity Spread" as a gauge for value creation from the viewpoint of management accounting. It is highly recommended for finance and accounting professionals.” Jeffrey C. Thomson, CMA, CAE. President and CEO, Institute of Management Accountants (IMA)
The rise of the independent director in Asia is an issue of global consequence that has been largely overlooked until recently. Less than two decades ago, independent directors were oddities in Asia's boardrooms. Today, they are ubiquitous. Independent Directors in Asia undertakes the first detailed analysis of this phenomenon. It provides in-depth historical, contextual and comparative perspectives on the law and practice of independent directors in seven core Asian jurisdictions (China, Hong Kong, India, Japan, Singapore, South Korea, Taiwan) and Australia. These case studies reveal the varieties of independent directors in Asia, none of which conform to its original American concept. The authors develop a taxonomy of these varieties, which provides a powerful analytical tool for more accurately understanding and effectively researching independent directors in Asia. This new approach challenges foundational aspects of comparative corporate governance practice and suggests a new path for comparative corporate governance scholarship and reform.
This book offers a collaborative investigation of the policies and practices which have redeveloped local and national economies in the aftermath of the global economic crisis which erupted in 2008. It explores 'localised' models of economic development, including problems of diversity and balance and the role of firms, industries and clusters, alongside comparative studies of policy responses to the crisis at local, regional and national levels Global Economic Crisis and Local Economic Development seeks routes for economic development in a post-crisis world. The roles of innovation, entrepreneurship, knowledge infrastructures, public policies, business strategies and responses, as well as global contexts and positioning are explored as investigative themes which run throughout the collection as a whole. This text brings together a range of international disciplinary experts from economics, geography, history, business and management, politics and sociology. Its coverage is comparative and global, with contributions focusing on the U.S., Japan, China, and India, as well as European contexts and cases. This book is of value both for the intrinsic quality of its individual studies and for the contrasts and comparisons enabled by the collection when viewed as a whole. It has an accessible but rigorous style, making it ideal for a range of users including academics, researchers and students who study economic development and regional development.
Over the last two decades, cash holdings in nonfinancial firms around the world have increased. This phenomenon is particularly concerning in Japan, where the success of Abenomics depends on a transition from stimulus-driven to self-sustaining growth based on private consumption and investment. This paper finds that Japanese nonfinancial firms have accumulated cash at the expense of investment and dividends, hampering this transition. The evidence suggests that cash accumulation is due to financial imperfections combined with rising corporate profitability and uncertainty, while corporate governance plays only a limited role. These firms have cash holdings available for investment of about 5 percent of GDP. Policy options for encouraging the use of these cash holdings include improving firms’ access to market-based financing and discouraging CEO duality.
