• Japan
• Corporate Governance
• Keiretsu

The aim of this study is to analyze what happens when different systems of Corporate Governance (CG) come into direct contact. The focus will be on the Japanese and US models. In particular taking into account that Japanese and US companies have had high performances doing business in a different way, I consider it relevant to evaluate if the use of the US Corporate Governance model can jeopardize the success of Japanese companies, which have obtained high results in the past by a unique business and economy, certainly influenced also by the traditional Japanese CG system.

I presume that the use of the same model could reduce the differences between companies from different countries. The standardization of Governance models could impact on the definition of the strategic design of companies, therefore on their performances and communication system. Furthermore if American CG can work in Japan, which is a country with a strong culture and particular business, it can be the starting point for other researchers to analyze the hypothesis of a globalized CG system. Japan is the world’s second largest economy that succeeded with an original way of doing business. The JIT, kaizen, total quality management, long term prospective, are some of the reasons of Japanese companies’ success. The introduction of regulations of another country, which is characterized by a different way of doing business, and emphasizing a short-term prospective strongly influenced from the stock market, is interesting to analyze. In particular, Japan has always been considered a country where the Government, especially in the past, participated actively in the economic life while in the US there has always been a strong belief in the market and in the theory of the invisible hand of Adam Smith.

In the first part of this research I will focus on the issue of Corporate Governance, considering the advantages and disadvantages of using similar rules of Corporate Governance in different countries. In particular I will concentrate on the ownership, its characteristics in Japan and in the US, and on the trend of Japanese workforce. To analyse the future Japanese labour force I have presented a questionnaire to twenty –eight students of Yokohama National University. Then I will describe the evolution of Japanese Corporate Governance and the impact of the introduction of the US-style board model on Japanese companies, considering the results of my interviews. As the managers I met are from Mitsui I will describe the company and the evolution of a Keiretsu. Following that I will analyze Japanese companies that adopted the US-style board CG model, and companies that retuned to the traditional Japanese model, after experiencing the “American” model.

The reason why I have decided to consider Japan is motivated by the fact that in Japan there are a large number of companies operating all over the world, the particularity of Japanese culture and the fact that Japan is the world’s second largest economy.