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Corporate governance is becoming a very important issue in Japan as the country seeks to reform its economic institutions and in particular to undertake financial reform. The existing system of corporate governance in Japan gives main banks and large parent companies considerable power, and also involves a large degree of interlocking shareholdings. It has some advantages, but tends to be non-transparent and lacking in external accountability. It is widely believed that this system has now come to the end of its useful life.

In recent years Japanese corporate organization and business and management practices have attracted widespread attention, although the focus of that attention has been shifting over time. After the high growth of the 1960s and the favorable structural adjustment to the "oil shocks" of the 1970s, Japan has continued to exhibit strong economic performance, to the point where per capita gross national product (GNP) now exceeds that in the United States. Much attention has been directed to understanding the organization and behavior of the firms whose operations have contributed to this economic performance. The perception that Japanese firm organization, both internal (the employment system) and external (capital structure and interfirm relations), differs in important ways from firm organization elsewhere, particularly in the other dominant economy, the United States, has intensified this interest, and has helped to stimulate a large body of literature on Japanese corporate organization and behavior in such disciplinary areas as economics, management science, and sociology, and in more popular and journalistic writings.1

• GeneralL. Castle and C. Findlay. Pacific Trade in Services. Sydney, Wellington, London, and Boston: Allen & Unwin, in association with the Pacific Trade and Development Conference Secretariat and the Australian National University, 1988. Pp. 294.Denys Lombard and Jean Aubin, editors. Marchands et Hommes d'Affaires Asiatiques. Paris: Editions de l'Ecole des Hautes Etudes en Sciences Sociales, 1988. Pp. 375. Plates, maps, tables. 260F, paper.R.J. May and William J. O'Malley, editors. Observing Change in Asia. Essays in Honour of J.A.C. Mackie. Bathurst: Crawford House Press, 1989. Pp. x, 265. Tables, acknowledgments, notes, bibliographies, index.Amin Saikal, editor. Refugees in the Modern World. Canberra Studies in World Affairs Number 25. Canberra: Department of International Relations, Research School of Pacific Studies, Australian National University, 1989. Pp. 125.• China and inner AsiaArif Dirlik and Maurice Meisner, editors. Marxism and the Chinese Experience. Armonk, New York and London: M.E. Sharpe, 1989. Pp. 384. Index, contents, acknowledgements, introduction, notes.Michael S. Duke, editor. Modern Chinese Women Writers: Critical Appraisals. New York: M.E. Sharpe, Inc., 1989. Pp. 272.Thomas Heberer. China and its National Minorities, Autonomy or Assimilation? Armonk and London: M.E. Sharpe, 1989. Pp. 165. Contents, preface, notes, glossary, illustrations, tables, maps, bibliography, index. $39.95, cloth.Ray Huang. China: A Macro History. Armonk, New York: M.E. Sharpe, 1987. Pp. xix, 277. Maps, line drawings, chronological charts, index.Huang Tsung-hsi. The Records of Ming Scholars. Edited by Julia Ching with the collaboration of Chaoying Fang. Honolulu: University of Hawaii Press, 1987. Pp. xxi, 336. Acknowledgements, note, abbreviations, glossary, introduction, bibliographies, index. US$27.00, cloth.Ono Kazuko. Chinese Women in a Century of Revolution 1850-1950. Edited by Joshua A. Fogel. Stanford: Stanford University Press, 1989. Pp. v, 255. Prefaces, introduction by Joshua A. Fogel and Susan Mann, chronology, notes, supplementary references, index. Hardcover.Colin Mackerras, Kevin Bucknall, Russell Trood. The Beijing Tragedy: Implications for China and Australia. Australia-Asia Papers No. 51. Brisbane: Centre for the Study of Australia-Asia Relations, Griffith University, 1989. Pp. ii, 93. $6.00, paper.Zhang Xinxin and Sang Ye. Chinese Lives: An Oral History of Contemporary China. Edited by W.J.F Jenner and Delia Davin. London: Penguin Books, 1989. Pp. v, 367. Contents, preface, editor's introduction, author's note, chronology, map, Chinese titles and sources. $14.99, paper.Chinese Lives: An Oral History of Contemporary China is an abridged English language version of Beijingren: Yibaige putongrende zishu (Shanghai: Wenyi Chubanshe, 1986, repr. 1987; 616 pp.).• Japan and Northeast AsiaTheodore C. Bestor. Neighborhood Tokyo. Stanford: Stanford University, 1989. Pp. x, 268. Acknowledgements, appendixes, notes, bibliography, index. Cloth.Scott S. Burnett, editor. Korean-American Relations: Documents Pertaining to the Far Eastern Diplomacy of the United States. Volume 3. The Period of Diminishing Influence, 1896-1905. Honolulu: University of Hawaii Press, 1989. Pp. xiii, 304. Introduction. US$24.Yur-Bok Lee. West Goes East: Paul Georg Von Mollendorff and Great Power Imperialism in Late Yi Korea. Honolulu: University of Hawaii Press, 1988. Pp. x, 295. Preface, notes, bibliography, index, illustrations. US$29.00.Stephen E. Marsland. The Birth of the Japanese Labor Movement: Takano Fusataro and the Rodo Kumiai Kiseikai. Honolulu: University of Hawaii Press, 1989. Pp. ix, 271. Preface, appendixes, notes, bibliography, index. US$27.00, cloth.Robert A. Scalapino and Hongkoo Lee, editors. Korea-US Relations: The Politics of Trade and Security Berkeley: Institute of East Asian Studies, University of California, 1988. Research Papers and Policy Studies Number 25. Pp. vi, 242. Introduction, contributors. US$17.00, paper.Tanizaki Jun'ichirô. A Cat, Shôzô and Two Women. Translated by Matsui Sakuko. The University of Sydney East Asian Series, Wild Peony, Sydney, 1988.Karel van Wolferen. The Enigma of Japanese Power: People and Politics in a Stateless Nation. London: Macmillan, 1989. Pp. 496. Acknowledgements, notes, index. Hardcover.Paul Varley and Kumakura ISAO, editors. Tea in Japan: Essays on the History of Chanoyu. Honolulu: University of Hawaii Press, 1989. Pp. vii, 285. Contents, preface, glossary, index, black-and-white and colour photographs. $25.00, cloth.• Southeast AsiaSharom Ahmat and Sharon Siddique, editors. Islamic Society, Higher Education and Development in Southeast Asia. Singapore: Institute of Southeast Asian Studies, 1986. Pp. xii, 219. Contents, foreword, acknowledgements, contributors, introduction. S$18.40, paper.William J. Duiker. Historical Dictionary of Vietnam. Asian Historical Dictionaries No. 1. Metuchen NJ & London: The Scarecrow Press Inc., 1989. Pp. xiv, 269. Preface, maps, appendices, bibliography. $32.50, cloth.Charles Higham. The Archaeology of Mainland Southeast Asia. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1989. Pp. xvi, 387. Maps, illustrations. $99.00.Ruurdje Laarhoven. Triumph of Moro Diplomacy: The Maguindanao Sultanate in the 17th Century. Quezon City: New Day Publishers, 1989. Pp. xx, 268. Foreword, acknowledgements, abbreviations, introduction, maps, appendices, reference notes, glossary, bibliography. $14.25, paper. Distributed outside the Philippines by the Cellar Book Shop, Detroit.Donald H. Mcmillen, editor. Conflict Resolution in Kampuchea: Proceedings of the Third International Conference on Indochina. Brisbane: Centre for the Study of Australian-Asian Relations, 1989. Pp. 151. $10.00, paper.Vincente L. Rafael. Contracting Colonialism: Translation and Christian Conversion in Tagalog Society under Early Spanish Rule. Ithaca and London: Cornell University Press, 1988. Pp. 230. Plates, bibliography.Garry Rodan. The Political Economy of Singapore's Industrialization: National State and International Capital. London: Macmillan, 1989. Pp. xvii, 266. Preface, acknowledgements, list of tables, index, abbreviations, notes and bibliography. £35, cloth.Friedrich Seltmann. Die Kalang: Eine Volksgruppe auf Java und ihre Stamm-Mythe, ein Beitrag zur Kulturgeschichte Javas. Stuttgart: Franz Steiner Verlag Wiesbaden GmbH, 1987. Pp. 430. Tabular overview, indices, glossary, seventeen sketches, forty-five black-and-white photos, eight colour photographs, maps. DM244, cloth.Yoshikazu Takaya. Agricultural Development of a Tropical Delta: A Study of the Chao Phraya Delta. Translated by Peter Hawkes. English-Language Series no. 17, monographs of the Center for Southeast Asian Studies, Kyoto University. Honoloul: University of Hawaii Press, 1987. Pp. xviii, 269.

The Faber Book of Contemporary Australian Short Stories, edited by Murray Bail. Faber and Faber, London and Boston, 1988. xii + 413 pp. £12.95 hardback, £5.95 paperback. ISBN 0-571-14763-1 and 0-571-15083-7.The Book of Sei, by David Brooks. Faber and Faber, London and Boston, 1988. xi + 142 pp. £9.95. ISBN 0-571-15145-0.Oscar and Luanda, by Peter Carey. Faber and Faber, London and Boston, 1988. xi + 512 pp. £10.95. ISBN 0-571-14812-3.Captivity Captive, by Rodney Hall. Faber and Faber, London and Boston, 1988. vii + 214 pp. £10.95. ISBN 0-571-15093-4.The Oxford Literary Guide to Australia, edited by Peter Pierce. Oxford University Press, Melbourne and Oxford, 1988. xvi + 344 pp., illus., maps. £25. ISBN 0-19-554592-3.Pacific Prelude. A Journey to Samoa and Australasia, 1929. Margery Perham. Edited and with an Introduction by A. H. M. Kirk-Greene. Peter Owen, London, 1988. 272 pp. 4 pp. plates. £18.95. ISBN 0-7206-0683-7.Prehistory in the Pacific Islands: A study of variation in language, customs, and human biology, by John Terrell. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, 1986. xvi + 299 pp. £12.50. ISBN 0-521-36956-8.Voyages of Discovery: Captain Cook and the Exploration of the Pacific, by Lynne Withey. Hutchinson, London, Melbourne, Auckland and Johannesburg, 1987. 512 pp., illus. £16.95. ISBN 0-09-173602-1.Research, Realpolitik, and Development in Korea. The State and the Green Revolution, by Larry L. Burmeister. Westview, Boulder and London, 1988. xiii + 200 pp. $29.50. ISBN 0-8133-7400-6.U.S. Policy and the Two Koreas, by Edward A. Olsen. Westview, Boulder and London, 1988. xvii + 115 pp. £9.95. ISBN 0-8133-0593-4.The Foreign Relations of North Korea. New Perspectives, edited by Jae Kyu Park, Byung Chul Koh and Tae-Hwan Kwak. Westview, Boulder and London, 1988. xvi + 491 pp. $39.50. ISBN 0-8133-0569-1.Korea: The Unknown War, by Jon Halliday and Bruce Cumings. Viking, London, 1988. 224 pp. Photographs. £14.95. ISBN 0-670-81903-4.Korea: Enduring Division? (A Keesing's Special Report), edited by D. S. Lewis. Longman, Harlow, Essex, 1988. x + 173 pp. £9.95. ISBN 0-582-02627-X.A Short History of Modern Korea, by David Rees. Ham Publishing, Isle of Man, 1988. ix + 196 pp. £10.95 hardback, £5.95 paperback. ISBN 1-871235-05-7 and 1-871235-00-6.The Koreans: Contemporary Politics and Society, by Donald Stone Macdonald. Westview Press, Boulder, Colorado and London, 1988. xv + 309 pp., 25 figures and tables, 3 appendices (including glossary), bibliography and index. £25.50. ISBN 0-8133-0515-2.The Kwangju Uprising, edited by Donald Clark. Westview, Boulder and London, 1988. vi + 101 pp. £11.75. ISBN 0-8133-7523-1.Financing East Asia's Success: Comparative Financial Development in Eight Asian Countries, by Michael T. Skully and George J. Viksnins. Macmillan, Basingstoke and London, 1987. xiii + 242 pp. £29.50. ISBN 0-333-42655-X.The Financial Samurai: The Emerging Power of Japanese Money, by Aaron Viner. Kogan Page, London, 1988. 233 pp. £12.95. ISBN 1-85091-614-4.The Political Economy of Japan, Volume 2: The Changing International Context, edited by Takashi Inoguchi and Daniel I. Okimoto. Stanford University Press, Stanford, Ca., 1988. xxii + 568 pp. $37.50 hardback, $12.95 paperback. ISBN 0-8047-1380-4 and 0-8047-1381-2.The Japanese through American Eyes, by Sheila K. Johnson. Stanford University Press, Stanford, Ca., 1988. xiv + 192 pp. $22.50. ISBN 0-8047-1449-5.China Under Deng Xiaoping: Political and Economic Reform, by David Wen-Wei Chang. Macmillan, London, 1988. xxiii + 304 pp. £33. ISBN 0-333-45129-5.A Critical Biography of Deng Xiaoping: Vol. 1. 1904-1959; Vol. 2. 1960-1977, by Han Shanbi. East West and Culture Publishing Co., Hong Kong, 1988. Vol. 1, 362 pp., illus.; Vol. 2, 368 pp. Chronology. HK$40 each volume.Hu Yaobang: A Chinese biography, by Yang Zhongmei. Translated by William A. Wycoff, edited by Timothy Cheek. With a foreword by Rudolf G. Wagner. M. E. Sharpe, Inc., Armonk, New York, 1988. $29.95 pp. xxvi + 208. ISBN 0-87332-457-9.Family, Fields and Ancestors: Constancy and Change in China's Social and Economic History, 1550-1949, by Lloyd E. Eastman. Oxford University Press, Oxford, 1988. 267 pp. Notes, maps, tables, photographs. £22.50. ISBN 0-19-505269-2.The House of Confucius, by Kong Demao and Ke Lan. Translated by Rosemary Roberts. Edited and with an introduction by Frances Wood. Hodder and Stoughton, London, 1988. ix + 180 pp., 12 pp. photos. £14.95. ISBN 0-340-41279-8.The Far East and Australasia 1989 (updated and revised edition). Europa Publications, London. xxi + 1,048 pp., maps. £85. ISBN 0-946653-45-3.

This paper characterizes the Japanese main bank system as an arrangement for facilitating reciprocal delegation of monitoring among a set of banks. Reciprocal delegated monitoring allows banks and firms to remain diversified while ensuring that monitoring takes place without duplication, but when monitoring is unobservable, it induces a principal-agent relationship between non-main banks and the main bank. The convention that the main bank bears a disproportionately large share of bank losses is viewed as being part of a contractual arrangement among banks designed to give the main bank adequate incentives to carry out monitoring on behalf of lending banks as a whole. J. Japan. Int. Econ., March 1994, 8(1), pp. 1–21. Faculty of Economics, Osaka University, Toyonaka, Osaka 560, Japan.Copyright 1994, 1999 Academic Press

David and Maya Bradley, Problems of Asian Students in Australia: Language, Culture and Education, Department of Education and Youth Affairs, Australian Government Publishing Service, Canberra, 1984. xi, 357pp. Foreword, appendices, bibliography. Paper: $15.40.Robert Adley, All Change Hong Kong, Blandford Press, Poole, U.K., 1984. 128pp. Preface, index, bibliography, photographs, maps. Cloths $13.95.Elisabeth Croll, The Family Rice Bowl: Food and the Domestic Economy in China, Zed Press, London, 1983. 375pp. Tables, figures, notes, appendices, index. Papers £6.95.John DeFrancis, The Chinese Language: Fact and Fantasy, University of Hawaii Press, Honolulu, 1984. x, 330pp. Preface, introduction, illustrations, tables, notes, glossary, index. Cloth: US$20.00.Frederick C. Drake, The Empire of the Seas: A Biography of Rear Admiral Robert Wilson Shufeldt, USN, University of Hawaii Press, Honolulu, 1984. v, 468pp. Maps, plates, notes, bibliography, index. Cloth: US$29.95.Huang Liu-hung and Djang Chu, trans. and ed., A Complete Book Concerning Happiness and Benevolence: Fu-hui ch'üan-shu; A Manual for Local Magistrates in Seventeenth-Century China, University of Arizona Press, Tucson, 1984. 656pp. Preface, notes, glossary, illustrations, index. Cloth: US$37.50.Lee Yu-Hwa, Fantasy and Realism in Chinese Fiction: T'ang Love Themes in Contrast, Asian Library Series No.37, Chinese Materials Center Publications, San Francisco, 1984. 89pp. Cloth: US$15.50.R.K.I. Quested, Sino-Russian Relations: A Short History, George Allen & Unwin, Sydney, 1984. 194pp. Introduction, bibliography, time charts, index. Cloth: $22.95, Paper: $10.95.Stuart R. Schram, Mao Zedong: A Preliminary Reassessment, The Chinese University Press, Hong Kong, 1983. xv, 104pp. Introduction, preface, appendices, plates. Cloth: US$17.50.Robert A.F. Thurman, trans., Tsong Khapa's Speech of Gold in the Essence of True Eloquence, Princeton University Press, Princeton, 1984. 442pp. Preface, foreword, introduction, glossary, illustrations, bibliography, index. Cloth: US$65.00.Wen-hui Tsai, Patterns of Political Elite Mobility in Modern China, 1912-1949, Chinese Materials Center, San Francisco, 1983. xxiii, 277pp. Preface, introduction, figures, tables, appendices, bibliography, index. Cloths US$25.80.Masao Ishizawa, Teizo Suganuma, Ichimatsu Tanaka, Chisaburo Yamada, Yuzo Yamane, Yoshiho Yonezawa and Itsuji Yoshikawa, The Heritage of Japanese Art, Kodansha International Ltd., Tokyo, New York and San Francisco, 1982. 208pp. Introduction, map, plates, bibliography, index. Cloth: $69.00.Ikuo Iwasaki, compiler, Japan and Southeast Asia: A Bibliography of Historical, Economic and Political Relations, Institute of Southeast Asian Studies, Singapore, 1983. xiv, 176pp. Paper: US$7.00.Jin'ichi Konishi, A History of Japanese Literature, Vol. 1, The Archaic and Ancient Ages, translated by A. Gatten and N. Teele, edited by E. Miner, Princeton University Press, Princeton, 1984. xx, 475pp. Preface, foreword, introduction, tables, bibliography, index. Cloth: US$65.00, Paper: US$25.50.Shibusawa Masahide, Japan and the Asian Pacific Region, Croom Helm, London and Sydney, 1984. 196pp. Introduction, notes, bibliography, index. Cloth: $35.95.Alan Rix and Ross Mouer, eds., Japan's Impact on the World, Japanese Studies Association of Australia, Griffith University Press, Nathan, 1984. viii, 252pp. Preface. Paper: $8.00.Kazuo Sato and Yasuo Hoshino, eds., The Anatomy of Japanese Business, M.E. Sharpe, New York and Croom Helm, London and Sydney, 1984. 369pp. Introduction. Cloth: $44.95.Makoto Ueda, Modern Japanese Poets and the Nature of Literature, Stanford University Press, Stanford, 1983. viii, 451pp. Preface, introduction, bibliography, index. Cloth: US$28.50.John Young and Kimiko Nakajima-Okano, Learn Japanese: New College Text, University of Hawaii Press, Honolulu, 1984. Vol.1, xiv, 270pp., Vol.2, ix, 346pp. Introduction, appendices, glossary, index. Paper: US$13.95.K.N. Chaudhuri, Trade and Civilization in the Indian Ocean. An Economic History from the Rise of Islam to 1750, Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, 1985. xiii, 269pp. Maps, plates, preface, introduction, notes, glossary, bibliography, index. 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