Twentieth century enterprise forms: Japan in comparative perspective

Hannah, Leslie ORCID: 0000-0003-0839-7412 and Kasuya, Makoto (2015) Twentieth century enterprise forms: Japan in comparative perspective. Economic History working paper series (217/2015). London School of Economics and Political Science, London, UK.

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Abstract

La Porta et al see Anglo-American common law as most favourable to economic development, but in 1899 Japan explicitly preferred the German corporate law tradition. Yet its new Commercial Code omitted the GmbH (private company) form, which Guinnane et al see as the jewel in the crown of Germany’s organizational menu. Neither apparent “mistake” retarded Japan’s business development because its corporate laws offered flexible governance and liability options, implemented liberally. Surprisingly (given that Germany’s organizational menu predated Japan’s by many decades and the country was wealthier), by the 1930s Japanese businesses already used not only corporations proper (kabushiki kaisha) but also commandite partnerships (goshi kaisha, with more corporate characteristics than Anglo-American partnerships) more intensively than Germany. After the introduction of the yugen kaisha (a GmbH-equivalent) in 1940, corporate forms were nearly as widely used in Japan as in the US, the UK or Switzerland.

Item Type:	Monograph (Working Paper)
Official URL:	http://www.lse.ac.uk/economicHistory/home.aspx
Additional Information:	© 2015 The Author
Divisions:	LSE
Subjects:	H Social Sciences > HF Commerce
JEL classification:	K - Law and Economics > K2 - Regulation and Business Law > K22 - Corporation and Securities Law L - Industrial Organization > L5 - Regulation and Industrial Policy > L51 - Economics of Regulation N - Economic History > N2 - Financial Markets and Institutions > N25 - Asia including Middle East P - Economic Systems > P1 - Capitalist Systems
Date Deposited:	24 Nov 2015 15:44
Last Modified:	06 Oct 2024 17:30
URI:	http://eprints.lse.ac.uk/id/eprint/64489

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