Japan has been slow in carrying out economic reforms that many astute observers of the Japanese political economy believe are needed but have been blocked due to the opposition by powerful interest groups. In contrast, South Korea undertook speedy economic reforms soon after the 1997-98 crisis....

In this paper I address two critical questions about divorce in postwar Japan: Why is the divorce rate so low compared to other industrialized economies? And, Why is it rising? I examine divorce in the context of institutional change, and discuss how the rising divorce rate in Japan is an...

This working paper shows China's technological advance, its basis in using foreign technology combined with its own manpower resources, and its clever integration of regional ambitions with national policies and programs. It also indicates an emerging global rivalry as China moves towards a...

After the burst of the "bubble" economy and the subsequent recession of the 1990's, a new era of M&A started in Japan. Following the deregulation in a number of non-tradable sectors, a relatively large number of foreign firms have entered the Japanese market, using M&As as a tool for market...

Amakudari, or the reemployment of the officials retired from the government into senior management positions in private companies, is one of the informal institutions most frequently mentioned in the literature of Japanese political economy. However, few studies have examined it systematically....

This paper describes the abundance of semiconductor consortia that have come into existence in Japan since the mid-1990s. They clearly reflect the ambition of the government – through its reorganized ministry METI and company initiatives - to regain some of the industrial and technological...

Numerous studies based on firm-level data have reported higher average wages in foreign-owned firms than in domestically-owned firms. This, however, does not necessarily imply that the individual worker’s wage increase with foreign ownership. Using detailed matched employer-employee data, we...

Western firms locating in China face a business environment that differs from their home country environment. The differences increase uncertainties and are negative for economic performance. However, firms may differ in their ability to overcome the difficulties, depending on their previous...

This paper traces the evolution of the Japanese labor movement's stance toward institutional change from the early post-World War II era to the present. It argues that, like most labor movements, the Japanese movement began as a movement that promoted the wholesale reconstruction of national...

The substantial institutional and organisational changes in Japan that followed the Meiji Restoration of 1868 have often gone down in history as an unmitigated success story. The objective of this paper is to analyse the course of the Meiji reform process to indicate how far it might offer any...