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Nearly 30 years have passed since the government of Japan unveiled its first Official Development Assistance Charter. Although it sets forth fundamental guidelines for the government's foreign aid policy, previous studies have downplayed the influence of the ODA Charter. By contrast, this study argues that the ODA Charter changed Japan's aid allocation behavior in relation to a number of issues. First, regarding military matters: since the introduction of the 1992 ODA Charter, testing of weapons of mass destruction by developing nations, as well as military expenditures for conventional weaponry by developing nations outside of Asia, have had a negative effect on aid from Japan. Non-military cooperation with military personnel was newly introduced as a principle in the 2015 Development Cooperation Charter, and that type of cooperation increased from 2015 on, a clear indication of the influence of the Charter. Foreign aid designed to serve Japan's own interests was first discussed in the 2003 Charter, and the proportion of that type of aid has since increased. The aims of avoiding military force and returning economic benefits to Japan, which have long had strong domestic support in postwar Japan, were seamlessly incorporated into the ODA Charter. By contrast, the aims of promoting democratization and protecting the vulnerable—international norms for foreign aid, imported from abroad—are duly set forth in the ODA Charter, which ostensibly guides Japan's foreign aid policy, but they have had no impact on its actual aid allocation behavior. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Corporate charters, which vest power in a network of control centres, can offer advantages for directors, shareholders, and other stakeholders. The author describes how he reduced the cost of capital through the establishment of a "Senate" as a watchdog board to improve investor and director protection. A cybernetic analysis is used to indicate how the involvement of customers, employees, and suppliers in corporate governance, as found in U.S., Europe, and Japan, can provide competitive advantages and improve self-regulation. A theory of firms, and organizations, based on economizing information processing by individuals are introduced to provide a common foundation for other theories. Cybernetic laws of requisite variety are presented as a basis for designing self-governing social institutions with operating advantages to minimize the role and cost of government while improving the quality of democracy. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]