The political economy of the Japanese credit market : social norms versus financial globalisation

Since the 1970s, Anglo-Saxon financial hegemony has enhanced international capital mobility, promoting financial disintermediation in many countries. This thesis explores why disintermediation in Japan has stalled since the mid-2000s despite its financial deregulation during the 1980s and 1990s by examining an ideational conflict within Japanese elites between the market liberalisation and anti-free market camps, particularly between the American and Japanese credit rating agencies and between the two industrial associations. I adopt a neo-Gramscian approach in tandem with sociological, psychological and philosophical concepts and emphasise the concept of ‘systemic support’ as a solution to the research puzzle. Although the original, narrow definition of systemic support is government and bank support for financially strained financial institutions and companies, its broadened definition incorporates dominant elites’ support and protection of subordinates in exchange for obedience. Since the late-1990s, many scholars have focused on the possible convergence of Japanese capitalism to Anglo-Saxon capitalism and paid insufficient attention to the persistence of social norms. In contrast, I argue that Japanese society’s anti-liberal, anti-free market norms centred on systemic support are a form of counter-hegemony, and this has resisted Anglo-Saxon financial hegemony and disintermediation and prevented capitalist dominance from severing social ties (e.g., management-labour cooperation). Japanese style stakeholder capitalism is based on a management-labour alliance against capitalists and interlocking business relationships, supported by the confederation of anti-free market elites including bureaucrats, corporate executives (who share similar characteristics to bureaucrats), and conservative politicians. Under the Hashimoto (1996-8) and Koizumi (2001-6) administrations, market liberals advocating shareholder capitalism gained influence, and systemic support weakened temporarily. However, since 2006, both anti-free market elites and subordinates (regular workers and small business owners) conflicting with the market-friendly, short-term profit seeking mental framework of Anglo-Saxon capitalism, have driven an anti-neoliberal backlash. Consequently, systemic support has resurged, but this has generated growing contradictions in Japan

The Origin and Genetic Variation of Domestic Chickens with Special Reference to Junglefowls Gallus g. gallus and G. varius

It is postulated that chickens (Gallus gallus domesticus) became domesticated from wild junglefowls in Southeast Asia nearly 10,000 years ago. Based on 19 individual samples covering various chicken breeds, red junglefowl (G. g. gallus), and green junglefowl (G. varius), we address the origin of domestic chickens, the relative roles of ancestral polymorphisms and introgression, and the effects of artificial selection on the domestic chicken genome. DNA sequences from 30 introns at 25 nuclear loci are determined for both diploid chromosomes from a majority of samples. The phylogenetic analysis shows that the DNA sequences of chickens, red and green junglefowls formed reciprocally monophyletic clusters. The Markov chain Monte Carlo simulation further reveals that domestic chickens diverged from red junglefowl 58,000±16,000 years ago, well before the archeological dating of domestication, and that their common ancestor in turn diverged from green junglefowl 3.6 million years ago. Several shared haplotypes nonetheless found between green junglefowl and chickens are attributed to recent unidirectional introgression of chickens into green junglefowl. Shared haplotypes are more frequently found between red junglefowl and chickens, which are attributed to both introgression and ancestral polymorphisms. Within each chicken breed, there is an excess of homozygosity, but there is no significant reduction in the nucleotide diversity. Phenotypic modifications of chicken breeds as a result of artificial selection appear to stem from ancestral polymorphisms at a limited number of genetic loci

Industrial associations as ideational platforms : why Japan resisted American-style shareholder capitalism

Significant wage and treatment differentials between regular workers in long-term employment and precarious non-regular workers have been a major political issue in Japan since the mid-1990s. I argue this phenomenon was caused by Japanese society’s resistance to American neoliberal hegemony. Why has Japan resisted it, and how has the resistance resulted in the rapid increase in the working poor? I contend anti-liberal, anti-free market norms of Japanese society centred on ‘systemic support’ have bolstered resistance to convergence in order to prevent capitalist dominance from severing long-term social ties, such as management-labour cooperation. My broadened definition of systemic support incorporates dominant elites’ support and protection of subordinates in exchange for their loyalty and obedience. This paper will explore reasons for the resistance to convergence by examining an ideational conflict within Japanese elites between the market liberalisation and anti-free market camps, particularly between two major industrial associations, Keidanren and Keizai Doyukai, which have played a key role as ‘ideational platforms’ for Japanese corporate society. Under the Hashimoto (1996-8) and Koizumi (2001-6) administrations, the market liberalisation camp gained influence, but since 2006, both the anti-free market camp and its subordinates (e.g. regular workers) have driven anti-neoliberal backlash

Social norms strike back : why American financial practices failed in Japan

Moody’s and Standard & Poor’s, the major American credit rating agencies, were expected to outcompete and overwhelm the local agencies in Japan during the 1990s. The local Japanese rating agencies were widely understood to be compromised by their links to government and banks. Why have the influence of the American agencies in Japan diminished, while the local Japanese agencies survived? We emphasize the concept of ‘systemic support’ as a solution to this puzzle. Our broadened definition of systemic support incorporates dominant elites’ support and protection of subordinates in exchange for loyalty and obedience. We argue Japanese society’s anti-liberal, anti-free market norms (epitomised by systemic support) are a form of counter-hegemony, and this has resisted American financial hegemony and prevented capitalist dominance from severing long-term social relations (including management-labour alliances). Credit rating in Japan is an ideational battlefield between the market liberalization and anti-free market camps within the Japanese elite. The American agencies’ market-friendly, short-term profit seeking mental framework clashes with the continuing attachment to systemic support in Japan. Similar conflicts can be witnessed in other constrained market economies in Asia and Europe, where corporate bailouts often occur, and local agencies compete against the American majors

Japanese resistance to American financial hegemony : global versus domestic social norms

This book investigates why the convergence of Japan’s bank-centered financial system to an American-style capital market-based model has lost steam since the mid-2000s, despite financial deregulation during the 1980s and 1990s