Corporate governance reform, and ownership, and control: perspective from Japan

Abstract

ABSTRACT The direction and extent of corporate governance reforms in any country are determined by its ownership and corporate control structure. Three forms of markets in corporate control could be distinguished. The first is the external market for corporate control, closely associated with the dispersed, outsider-dominated ownership systems of the UK and the US. The second form is the insider market for the purchase and sale of blocks of shares in family-owned firms in Continental Europe and Asia. The third form, which is observed in Japan, is the internal markets in which managers reorganize their ownership structure. Under this framework, this study examines the relationship between corporate governance reforms, and ownership and control in twenty-first century Japan.