1st Edition

Institutional Change in Japan

Edited By Magnus Blomström, Sumner La Croix Copyright 2006
256 Pages
by Routledge

254 Pages
by Routledge

This is a new analysis of recent changes in important Japanese institutions. It addresses the origin, development, and recent adaptation of core institutions, including financial institutions, corporate governance, lifetime employment, and the amakudari system. After four decades of rapid economic growth in Japan, the 1990s saw the country enter a prolonged period of economic... Read more

Introduction Magnus Blomström and Sumner La Croix  Part 1: Institutional Change in Theory and Practice  1. Theories of Institutional Change: How Well Do They Apply to Japan? Akihiko Kawaura and Sumner La Croix  2. Institutional Revolution: The Case of Meiji Japan Janet Hunter  3. Institutional Reform in Japan and Korea: Why the Difference? Chung Lee  Part 2: Japanese Institutions: What Has Changed, What Has Not, and Why  4. A Lost Decade For Corporate Governance? What’s Changed, What Hasn’t, and Why Curtis Milhaupt  5. Japan’s Economic and Financial Stagnation in the 1990s and Reluctance to Change Thomas Cargill  6. Life-Time Employment: History and Response to Crisis Hiroshi Ono And Chiaki Moriguchi  7. The Japanese Labor Movement and Institutional Reform Lonny Carlile  8. Is Amakudari Changing? The Case of Regional Banks Kenji Suzuki  9. Divorce In Japan: Why It Happens, Why It Doesn’t Hiroshi Ono  Index

Biography

Magnus Blomström is Professor of Economics at the Stockholm School of Economics and President of the European Institute of Japanese Studies.

Sumner La Croix is Professor of Economics at the University of Hawaii-Manoa, USA.

"I found the book provocative, informative, and one of the best compilations of research on recent changes in the Japanese economy that I have seen.  Institutional Change in Japan addresses the question of how and how much Japan in changing with theoretical and empirical rigor.  The chapters in the volume examine change in Japan through the lens of institutional theories developed in economics, sociology, and political science, placing Japan in a comparative context with other developed economies, other Asian economies, and its own history." - Christina L. Ahmadjian, Journal of Japanese Studies 34:2 (2008)