The Economics of Japanese Corporate Organization and the "Structural Impediments" Debate

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