15 Conclusion: Whither Japan's Corporate Governance?

Abstract

Abstract This chapter examines the cumulative effects of gradual changes taking place in Japan's corporate landscape in general, and corporate governance in particular, in the past decade or so. It regards corporate governance as an instance of institutional change which has not been completed yet. In order to substantiate this view, the chapter first documents the essential features of the changes and then interprets them using a game-theoretic framework of comparative corporate governance analysis. It identifies corporate governance institutions as multiple equilibria of a game played between investors, managers, and employees, and interprets the changes taking place in Japan as a transition from the model of Contingent Governance to that of stock market monitoring of complementary linkages between the managerial model and the specific human assets of the firm.