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This paper describes different forms of ownership across countries and how these forms influence the way companies are governed. In most stock markets in the world, listed companies frequently have a controlling shareholder, usually a family. However, Japan, the UK, and to a lesser extent the US, are exceptions. In these three countries, ownership is frequently highly fragmented, where share stakes are held by different institutional owners, including asset managers, both active and passive, and by shareholder activists. The paper focuses in particular on the governance structure of different institutional shareholders, how they engage with target firms, and their effectiveness. The paper concludes with recommendations for regulators to enhance different forms of ownership. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper shows that firms from financial centres are more likely to go public than their provincial counterparts. The financial centre bias is analysed for 32 countries, including the European Union, the USA and Japan. It is particularly strong in countries with underdeveloped stock markets and closed corporate governance regimes, but it is still present in countries with the most developed stock markets and most open corporate governance, such as the UK and the USA. Potential reasons for the bias include the benefits of issuers’ proximity to Initial Public Offerings intermediaries and specialised labour markets, corporate governance incentives and institutional factors. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

This paper is complementary to the recent cross-country studies of Jeffrey Sachs (1979), and William Branson and Julio Rotemberg (1980), which document the contrast between nominal wage inertia in the postwar United States and real wage inertia in Europe and Japan, and examine the theoretical and policy implications of this contrast. Here I begin with another procedure for documenting the difference in nominal wage behaviour among the United Kingdom, United States and Japan, and then concentrate on explaining its causes rather than its consequences. Real wage inertia plays no role in my analysis, reflecting my finding that the real wage rate in quarterly postwar data for the United Kingdom and Japan displays more variability than in the United States. The basic argument of this paper comes down to three main points: (1) Macroeconomic instability in the United States has been aggravated by the unusually sluggish behaviour of nominal wages during the postwar era. Whether measured as the standard deviation of wages relative to hours worked, or the ratio of the respective response coefficients of wages and hours worked to changes in nominal GNP, wages in Britain and Japan are five to ten times more responsive than in the United States. Thus, of any given fluctuation in aggregate nominal demand, a larger fraction takes the form of a change in real output and employment in the United States than in the United Kingdom or Japan. (2) The drastic decline of American wage responsiveness in the postwar period as compared to the years between 1892 and 1940, together with the 1948 invention of the three-year staggered wage contract in the American unionised industrial sector, seems to be more than coincidental. It is not only the long duration of US contracts, but also their staggered nature, that makes wage changes relatively unresponsive to expansions or contractions in nominal GNP growth. (3) Japanese labour market institutions look much more like those suggested a... [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The history of the Anglo-Japanese alliance is usually treated by historians as an exercise in power politics that came about because of the broadly similar national interests of the two signatories who were both opposed to Russian expansion in North-East Asia. Such an approach overlooks the fact that this was an alignment between two countries that differed in regard to race, religion, and culture. To overcome this divide and thus seal the alliance, both sides made overt use of royal diplomacy to create mutual respect and a sense of equality between the two nations. This led to a series of high-profile royal visits and the reciprocal conferment of the highest orders of honour. However, in the background racial factors, such as the ‘Yellow Peril’ phenomenon and the rise of pan-Asianism, continued to exist. In the Great War, these problems came to the surface and fuelled mutual suspicion. As a result, at the end of that conflict, some felt that the alliance had no future, and this sense of malaise contributed to its termination at the Washington Conference. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

We examine the effect of a permanent change to a country corporate income repatriation tax system on corporate financial policies. In 2009, Japan and the United Kingdom switched from a worldwide system to a territorial system for the taxation of repatriated foreign earnings, effectively reducing the tax liabilities of most multinational firms when repatriating earnings. We find that after the change firms accumulate less cash, pay out larger amounts through dividends and share repurchases, and invest less abroad.We do not find that the tax system change has significantly affected domestic investments even when controlling for capital constraints. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article explores the main areas in contention in relation to Great Britain's competitiveness policy vs. Japanese industrial policy. Industrial policy embraces all acts and policies of the state in relation to industry, be they economic, social or environmental. To the extent that the authorities controlling competition policy possess a certain amount of discretion, they may well practice an implicit industrial policy. Anti-dumping regulations would not normally fit in the definition, because their main purpose is to promote fair competition in all sectors exposed to the dangers of international competition. It refers to enhancing the strength of national industries' relative to their foreign competitors, it follows that certain industries or firms will be afforded special treatment either to enhance their export performance or their domestic performance relative to the foreign counterparts operating within the same territory. Japan's post-war industrial policy is a product of government intervention in the private sector during the war and the period of turmoil that ensued.

The author summarizes the various developments of business strategy, business finance and labor management in Great Britain, U.S. and Japan, and explains from a long-term business history perspective the meaning of the business system in Japan after World War II as compared to those in Great Britain and the U.S. The international differences in basic business strategies which developed at the early stages of the countries' industrialization resulted in the emergence of industrial and business organizations unique to the respective nations which in turn gave rise to the different modes of business performance among the industrial nations.

This article discusses the relationship between the evolution of corporate structure and the structure of the financial systems within the U.S., British, German, French and Japanese economies during the first half of the twentieth century. The financial system of each of these economies exerted an important influence on the development of corporate structure, but did so largely through facilitating, rather then determining, organizational innovation. The financial system of each of these economies influenced the selection environment within which firms developed, but this environment reflected the operation of other factors as well. The relationship between the evolution of corporate and financial structure is an interactive one that exhibits considerable path-dependence; the array of economic and technological opportunities available to one firm or to one economy contrasts with that faced by another firm or economy at a different historical moment.

When investigating the association between brain tumors and use of mobile telephones, accurate data on tumor position are essential, due to the highly localized absorption of energy in the human brain from the radio-frequency fields emitted. We used a point process model to investigate this association using information that included tumor localization data from the INTERPHONE Study (Australia, Canada, Denmark, Finland, France, Germany, Israel, Italy, Japan, New Zealand, Norway, Sweden, and the United Kingdom). Our main analysis included 792 regular mobile phone users diagnosed with a glioma between 2000 and 2004. Similar to earlier results, we found a statistically significant association between the intracranial distribution of gliomas and the self-reported location of the phone. When we accounted for the preferred side of the head not being exclusively used for all mobile phone calls, the results were similar. The association was independent of the cumulative call time and cumulative number of calls. However, our model used reported side of mobile phone use, which is potentially influenced by recall bias. The point process method provides an alternative to previously used epidemiologic research designs when one is including localization in the investigation of brain tumors and mobile phone use. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: The Seven Countries Study in the 1960s showed very low mortality from coronary heart disease (CHD) in Japan, which was attributed to very low levels of total cholesterol. Studies of migrant Japanese to the USA in the 1970s documented increase in CHD rates, thus CHD mortality in Japan was expected to increase as their lifestyle became Westernized, yet CHD mortality has continued to decline since 1970. This study describes trends in CHD mortality and its risk factors since 1980 in Japan, contrasting those in other selected developed countries.Methods: We selected Australia, Canada, France, Japan, Spain, Sweden, the UK and the USA. CHD mortality between 1980 and 2007 was obtained from WHO Statistical Information System. National data on traditional risk factors during the same period were obtained from literature and national surveys.Results: Age-adjusted CHD mortality continuously declined between 1980 and 2007 in all these countries. The decline was accompanied by a constant fall in total cholesterol except Japan where total cholesterol continuously rose. In the birth cohort of individuals currently aged 50-69 years, levels of total cholesterol have been higher in Japan than in the USA, yet CHD mortality in Japan remained the lowest: >67% lower in men and > 75% lower in women compared with the USA. The direction and magnitude of changes in other risk factors were generally similar between Japan and the other countries.Conclusions: Decline in CHD mortality despite a continuous rise in total cholesterol is unique. The observation may suggest some protective factors unique to Japanese. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

I evaluate the voluntary export restraint placed on Japanese automobile exports from 1977 to 1999 by the UK. I show that the policy failed to assist the British domestic car industry. Instead, UK-based US multi-nationals and Japanese manufacturers were the primary beneficiaries, at a substantial cost to UK consumers. Whilst there are a number of caveats, the policy was on balance damaging to the UK economy in welfare terms. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Pre-industrial China and Japan provide contrasting patterns in how transactions were conducted in the rural economy. Chinese peasants would exchange their products anonymously for cash at the nearest market, while transactions in rural Japan tended to be made among people who were well-acquainted through credit rather than currency. The case of early modern England, where ordinary people tended to make deferred payments by means of oral agreements, shows a similarity to the Japanese situation. This comparison suggests, in general terms, that currency and credit could combine to supply the total amount of means of payment needed in a region. However, commercial activities progressed in divergent ways: either through anonymous currency transactions or by means of chained debts among locals. Unlike currency-dominant systems, which tended to create plural units of account, credit-dominant systems made it easier to establish a monetary system based on a standard formula. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article offers global perspectives on 20th century British history from Australia, Hong Kong, Japan, and South Africa. In Australia, the author discusses migrants from Britain, the British influences within Australian media, and how British history is taught at universities. In South Africa, the author discusses British identity, culture, and politics in relation to South African historical work. In Japan, the author discusses how the economic and social history of Britain has served as model for modernization. In Hong Kong, the author discusses how British colonial influences have led to internationalization.

Objectives. The epidemiological manifestations of ANCA-associated vasculitis (AAV) differ geographically. However, there have been no prospective studies comparing the incidence of AAV between Japan and Europe over the same time period using the same case definitions.Methods. The incidence of AAV was determined by a population-based method in Miyazaki prefecture, Japan, and Norfolk, UK, between 2005 and 2009. Patients with AAV were defined and classified according to the European Medicines Agency (EMEA) algorithm.Results. The number of incident cases of AAV in Japan and the UK were 86 and 50, respectively, and the average annual incidence over the 5-year period was 22.6/million (95% CI 19.1, 26.2) and 21.8/million (95% CI 12.6, 30.9) in Japan and the UK, respectively. The average age was higher in patients in Japan than in patients in the UK [mean (median), 69.7 (72) vs 60.5 (61) years]. Microscopic polyangiitis (MPA) was the predominant subtype in Japan (83%), while granulomatosis with polyangiitis (Wegener's) was more frequent in the UK (66%). As for the pattern of ANCA positivity, >80% of Japanese patients were pANCA/MPO positive, whereas two-thirds of UK patients were cANCA/PR3 positive. Renal involvement in MPA was very common in both countries, but was much less common in granulomatosis with polyangiitis in Japan compared with the UK.Conclusion. There was no major difference in AAV incidence between Japan and the UK, but this prospective study found MPA and MPO-ANCA to be more common in Japan and granulomatosis with polyangiitis and PR3-ANCA to be more common in the UK, in line with earlier reports. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

The article discusses the history of the Loochoo Naval Mission established by the Royal Navy of Great Britain in the mid-19th century on the Ryukyu Islands (later Okinawa) off the coast of Japan. The mission sent the first Protestant missionaries to modern Japan, and was meant to serve a variety of ends: to counter Catholic influence and to facilitate British evangelical, commercial, and colonial expansion in East Asia. The history of the mission is seen as a study in the relationship between Christian missionary activity and Western imperialism in East Asia.

Financial structure is an important determinant of the efficiency and stability of financial systems and the channels through which monetary policy is transmitted. We document the substantial differences in the financial systems of the euro area, the UK, the USA, Japan, and non-Japan Asia. The traditional classification of bank-based and market-based systems is shown to be too simplistic. We focus on two particular aspects of financial structure: financial institutions and the housing and mortgage markets. It is shown that institutional investors differ in important ways across the regions considered. One recent change is that Central Banks, particularly those in Asia, have become significant institutional investors. Housing and mortgage markets differ even more. We are still a long way from understanding which kind of financial structure is best. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Examines the British Far Eastern naval strategy in 1941 that involves the decision to dispatch the battleship HMS Prince of Whales and battlecruiser HMS Repulse to Singapore to disrupt Japanese landings in Malaya and Thailand. Significance of the destruction of the Prince of Wales and Repulse; Motives of the members of the Defense Committee in making the decision; Elaboration of British naval war planning prior to the dispatch of the ships.