Japanese Corporations Research Articles

日本型企業システムの変容と雇用 : 収斂か拡散か,それともハイブリッド化か( 日本資本主義は変わったか)

日本型企業システムの変容と雇用 : 収斂か拡散か,それともハイブリッド化か( 日本資本主義は変わったか)

What determines the Japanese corporate credit spread? A new evidence

This paper investigates the determinants of the corporate credit spreads changes in the Japanese bond markets. We show that the business cycle risk and market skewness risk affect changes in the credit spread in Japan even after controlling for the frequently used variables. We also find that the magnitude of market skewness risk is relatively higher for low-rated bonds. Our results are robust to changes in credit ratings, different maturity groups and time periods around the recent global financial crisis.

Post-merger Integration - Management of Intercultural Differences between a Japanese Corporation and a German Hidden Champion

The purpose of this paper is to indicate obvious aspects with regard to differences in national and organisational cultures in co-operations between two international companies and to give suggestions how to resolve them. Based on a series of qualitative and quantitative interviews, the following research presents an acquisition from a Bavarian, countryside medium-sized German automation company (PLC company with roughly EUR 30 million Sales and 250 employees) by an international Japanese machinery building corporation (acting in same field of business with a stronger focus on the machinery building, stock listed co-operation with roughly EUR 3 billion sales and 14.000 employees). The article outlines cultural and management integration strategies to ensure successful collaboration for the future to secure the strength of the German medium-sized company. The findings show that the personal readiness to understand, adapt and tolerate the cultural differences helps to facilitate negotiations and though, the process of cultural integration is a soft topic and takes several years, it can and should be planned systematically and precisely integrated by the top management to achieve effective change for the realisation of synergies. The elaborated suggestions are helpful for managers in general, because the often underestimated topic of cultural integration, is at least as important for the valuable outcome of the co-operation as strategic and organisational changes.

Constructing Communication : Intercultural Training in Japanese Corporations

Constructing Communication : Intercultural Training in Japanese Corporations

‘Growth oriented’ corporate governance reform – can it solve Japan's performance puzzle?

Recent governance reforms in Japan aim at promoting ‘the establishment of an environment that supports appropriate risk-taking by the senior management.’ The article evaluates the reforms on the basis of two questions: do the reforms tackle the right issues? And will they be effective? The Japanese economy faces indeed a performance puzzle. Despite Japan's strong efforts in the field of research and development, its excellent work force and abundant financial capital, the economy is performing poorly in terms of productivity. The performance puzzle seems to be closely related to the way large Japanese companies are governed, namely by boards filled with internally promoted lifetime employees. However, the correlation between board composition and performance is spurious. Both are influenced by a third factor, which manifests itself in the predominance of in-house careers. In-house careers determine the composition of boards and have, over the last twenty years, had a negative impact on economic performance. The governance reforms do not address the root of Japan's performance puzzle. They may nevertheless provide an important stimulus for redesigning the way Japanese corporations recruit, train and promote future leaders.

Change and continuity in Japanese corporate reform

Confronted with critical business situations in the late 1990s, Japanese firms began to tackle reforms in both corporate governance and human-resource management. These reforms advocated that Japanese firms shift from being organization-based to market-based corporations, similar to their US counterparts. However, the actual reform did not produce such an overall change but occurred with incremental and cumulative changes within the existing institutional framework. This article examines continuing changes in Japanese firms, and demonstrates that they are diversified into different directions as a result of gradual institutional change.

International Influences on Japanese Supply Chains

This paper investigates the transmission mechanism of Chinese productivity shocks through industry-level and firm-level networks in the Japanese manufacturing sector using an instrumental variable approach. We find that increased Chinese productivity in a particular industry negatively affects Japanese suppliers of Japanese firms in that industry (upstream propagation) and positively affects their Japanese corporate customers (downstream propagation). This is different from the recently studied case of the United States, which did not lead to evidence for downstream propagation of such shocks.

Stock market listing and corporate policy: Evidence from reforms to Japanese corporate law

We study how the tradeoff between stock liquidity and stock market scrutiny affects various aspects of corporate policy, using data that cover public and private companies in Japan. We exploit legal reforms as the source of exogenous variation in stock market listing. The sample used in our main analysis consists of firms whose ownership is concentrated. This sample construction helps us mitigates the agency problems that come from the separation of ownership and control. We find that listing reduces debt financing, especially dependence on long-term debt. In addition, we determine that listing improves profitability. These findings support the importance of stock liquidity. However, we also provide evidence that is not consistent with theories on stock liquidity, by reporting that stock market listing does not reduce cash holdings. We discover that it increases capital expenditures and decreases R&D expenses. The two contrasting effects demonstrate the relevance of short-termism pressure from the stock market. We also observe that listing reduces tax aggressiveness, in line with theories that emphasize the role of stock market scrutiny. Our findings suggest that the liquidity-scrutiny tradeoff of stock market listing has heterogeneous effects on firm policy, depending on its nature.

The Challenges and Benefits of Employing Persons with Disabilities: The Japanese Multinational Corporations’ Perspective

The Challenges and Benefits of Employing Persons with Disabilities: The Japanese Multinational Corporations’ Perspective

PECULIARITIES OF INVESTMENT STRATEGIES OF JAPAN AND THE PROSPECTS OF COOPERATION WITH RUSSIA

Topic. Japan has excess financial resources and since the late 2000s is the second largest direct foreign investor in the world after the United States (except in 2014 and 2016, when Japan was down to 4 th place). At the same time, Japan is not included in the 20 largest recipients of foreign direct investment (FDI). This imbalance is due to a combination of the expansion of Japanese multinational corporations (MNCs) in foreign markets with the traditional protection of domestic market from foreign competition, what differentiates Japan from other major players in Asia, primarily China, Hong Kong and Singapore. Such a synthesis of openness to the outside and closing from the inside largely allowed Japan to create and save your own unique self-contained culture of management and to introduce Western institutions without fear of the loss of a special national character. Purpose. Analysis of modern tendencies of economic development and investment processes of Japan with special emphasis on reviewing problems and prospects for Russian-Japanese investment cooperation. Methodology. There were used methods of scientific abstraction, statistical analysis, and logical generalization. Results. Large-scale stimulation of domestic demand through monetary, credit, and budgetary policies have not led to the expected recovery of the Japanese economy. The reason for the stagnation lies in a conservative approach to innovation while maintaining adherence to traditional production methods. The experience of Japan is of interest to Russia. Pursuing a strategy of advanced development of foreign trade sector in conditions of financial globalization, Japan attaches high priority to boosting domestic demand, to the development of the national financial market, and to the establishment of regional production networks. As the largest net investor in the world, Japan constantly diversifies sphere of foreign investments. Conclusions . The direction of Russian-Japanese cooperation in the sphere of joint implementation of significant innovative projects can have a long-term multiplier effect for the return of both economies to a trajectory of sustainable growth.

Consideration of the Unit Space and Itemized Diagnoses in Studies of Japanese Corporate Performance

Consideration of the Unit Space and Itemized Diagnoses in Studies of Japanese Corporate Performance

Effect analysis of foreign direct investment in the software industry: evidence from Japanese corporate financial data

Effect analysis of foreign direct investment in the software industry: evidence from Japanese corporate financial data

Corporate Governance Reforms in Japan: Instilling the New Regime

AbstractThis paper analyzes recent transformations in Japanese corporate governance within the context of the 2002 reform of the Japanese Commercial Code and the ensuing legislations. It is widely recognized that ongoing changes in Japanese corporate governance are aimed at incorporating key principles of Anglo-Saxon corporate law. However, this alone does not explain why, under the minimal role of market for corporate control and with predominantly insider-oriented boards, directors of Japanese stock-listed enterprises have become increasingly sensitive to indices reflecting their companies’ share value. The paper argues that this shift is caused by the newly emerging regime of veridiction. The latter, as the study indicates, is the normative discourse constituted on the basis of Japanese corporate governance enactments over the last two decades.

中国「義烏」における卸市場発展と日本企業進出について

中国「義烏」における卸市場発展と日本企業進出について

Stock Market Listing and Corporate Policy: Evidence from Reforms to Japanese Corporate Law

We study how the tradeoff between stock liquidity and stock market scrutiny affects various aspects of corporate policy, using data that cover public and private companies in Japan. We exploit legal reforms as the source of exogenous variation in stock market listing. The sample used in our main analysis consists of firms whose ownership is concentrated. This sample construction helps us mitigates the agency problems that come from the separation of ownership and control. We find that listing reduces debt financing, especially dependence on long-term debt. In addition, we determine that listing improves profitability. These findings support the importance of stock liquidity. However, we also provide evidence that is not consistent with theories on stock liquidity, by reporting that stock market listing does not reduce cash holdings. We discover that it increases capital expenditures and decreases R&D expenses. The two contrasting effects demonstrate the relevance of short-termism pressure from the stock market. We also observe that listing reduces tax aggressiveness, in line with theories that emphasize the role of stock market scrutiny. Our findings suggest that the liquidity-scrutiny tradeoff of stock market listing has heterogeneous effects on firm policy, depending on its nature.

Exploring the Impact of Ownership Structure on Earnings Predictability: Insights from Japan

Using a very recent data over the period from 2007 to 2012 (sample period 2001–2012), this study estimates the relationship between ownership structure and earnings predictability in Japanese listed companies. In particular, this study investigates how three important categories of ownership (i.e., domestic institutional, foreign and insider ownership) are associated with earnings predictability in Japanese listed firms. The results show that higher domestic institutional (financial) ownership is associated with greater earnings predictability. The findings support the argument that institutional shareholders especially financial institutions ensure effective monitoring over corporate reporting practices which lead to better earnings quality. In sharp contrast, this study finds that incremental foreign institutional ownership in Japanese listed firms is associated with lower earnings predictability. Such finding is contrary to the oversimplifying assumption that increasing cross-border shareholdings is always associated with better earnings quality. This study demonstrates interesting insights regarding the impact of ownership structure on earnings predictability which surely carry significance for Japanese corporate policymakers and future researchers.

The prevalence of co-morbid depression among employees with type 2 diabetes in a Japanese corporation: a descriptive study using an integrated health database.

To determine the prevalence of comorbid depression among people with type 2 diabetes using the integrated health database. A total of 6543 people aged 18-65 years were selected from the employees of a Japanese corporation. Using the corporation's integrated health database, which consisted of medical claims data and a self-reported questionnaire from the fiscal year 2000, this study was undertaken to identify the prevalence, the odds ratio and some related factors. The prevalence of co-morbid depression among people with type 2 diabetes was 2.6%. The crude odds ratio of co-morbid depression among those with type 2 diabetes was 2.20 (95% CI 0.88-5.50). After adjustment for covariates (gender, age, alcohol drinking, smoking, exercise, and dietary restriction), the odds ratio of co-morbid depression among those with type 2 diabetes was 2.33 (0.86-6.33). Using the integrated health database, it was suggested that patients with type 2 diabetes were more likely to suffer from depression and there was a relationship between depression and dietary restriction of portion control.

How do managerial incentives affect the maturity structure of corporate public debt?

I examine the relation between managerial ownership and the maturity structure of corporate public debt by using a sample of newly issued Japanese corporate bonds. Firms with higher managerial ownership issue shorter maturity bonds. In addition, firms with higher managerial ownership have lower credit ratings and experience higher yield spreads. Finally, firms with higher managerial ownership exhibit higher firm performance and show a preference for risk-taking activities. Overall, my findings support the view that bondholders are concerned about wealth transfers from bondholders to shareholders through risk-taking activities and require firms with higher managerial ownership to issue shorter maturity bonds.

Organizational Capital of the Enterprise

В статье рассматриваются основные теоретические вопросы организационного капитала предприятия. Вводится понятие «организационный капитал предприятия» в качестве системы, состоящей из трех подсистем организация производства, организация труда, организация управления. Показывается, что организационный капитал формирует систему трудовых отношений персонала предприятия, состоящую из кооперационных, технологических, экономических, нравственных трудовых отношений и отношений ответственности работников. Раскрывается модель цикличного развития кризиса на предприятии, вызванного недостатками организационного капитала. Показывается, что организационный капитал является основой реализации человеческого капитала, создающего добавленную стоимость. Значительное внимание уделяется опыту создания и функционирования организационного капитала на предприятиях японской корпорации «Тойота». Российская экономическая литература по антикризисному управлению нередко рассматривает исключительно финансовые аспекты диагностики, предлагая оптимизацию денежных потоков, устранение избыточных запасов, переход к среднесрочному бюджетированию и так далее. Однако глубинные причины кризиса необходимо искать не только в финансовых потоках, но и в системе трудовых отношений. Недостатки в развитии технологических, кооперационных, экономических, нравственных трудовых отношений и отношений ответственности напрямую свидетельствуют о недостатках в развитии элементов организационного капитала, поскольку «настраиваются» именно этими элементами. В свою очередь, организационные проблемы сказываются на качестве продукта, приводя к оттоку покупателей и снижению финансовых показателей предприятия. Недостаток финансовых ресурсов приводит к необходимости экономить на издержках (в первую очередь, на персонале, что ярко показал экономический кризис в 2009 г.), что еще более ослабляет организацию и систему трудовых отношений. В конечном итоге предприятие теряет основной ресурс персонал, обладающий необходимым уровнем знаний и навыков.

Kyosei: A Co-Living Approach in Japanese Culture and Design Practice

The concept of kyosei (‘co-living’) has long been known for its role in sustaining society and the environment in the East and it has had a significant impact on many aspects of Japanese life. Theoretically, some key notions of Shinto, animism, and Japanese Buddhism have increased awareness, and promoted the co-living concept to the Japanese people. Using an interpretive and ethnographic approach this paper explores how some prominent 20th century Japanese Buddhist thinkers developed a ‘co-living’ approach in order to vitalize the position of Japanese Buddhism in a fast changing Japan. Since the 1960s, many Japanese corporations have used kyosei to promote their brand consciousness. Kyosei has also been used as an inspirational source by several Japanese design practitioners to enrich their design solutions and stimulate social awareness. In examining the concept of kyosei from the Eastern philosophical standpoints and in a design context this research describes a holistic and co-living approach, which has the potential to enhance progress toward a more sustainable world.