Business Unit Governance in Japan: Focusing on corporate boundaries and two-layer agency relationships (Japanese)

With the diversification and globalization of Japanese companies in recent years, their business portfolios have become more complex, and the grouping of companies has progressed via carve-outs and M&As. As a result, adequate control of business units by headquarters (business unit governance) has grown in importance. Meanwhile, as organizational structures have become more decentralized, companies have to face two-tier agency relationships in corporate governance—the traditional agency relationship between shareholders and managers and the increasing number of agency relationships between headquarters' managers and divisional managers or between a parent company and its subsidiaries. In this paper, we analyze the current practice of business governance, from the viewpoints of authority delegation and monitoring of business units. We use a survey on corporate diversification and the governance conducted by RIETI in April 2007, targeting the firms listed on the First Section of the Tokyo Stock Exchange (excluding financial and insurance companies). Through our analysis, we found that more authority was delegated to the wholly owned subsidiaries than to the in-house business units. Furthermore, we show that there was significant complementarity between the delegation of authority and monitoring of in-house business units, while that between the delegation of authority and wholly owned subsidiaries was not found. With respect to two-tier agency relationships, we illustrate that companies under stronger pressure from the capital market or those more actively reforming their board of directors are likely to monitor their business units more strictly.

Reconsideration of a structural model of a casein micelle for small-angle X-ray scattering measurements

departmental bulletin pape

1006-44 A Prognostic Factor in Coronary Artery Disease (CAD): Platelet-Dependent Thrombin Generation in Patients with CAD

We examined platelet-dependent thrombin generation in patients with coronary artery disease (CAD). Thrombin generation was measured according to the method of Aronson et al (Circulation, 1992). 0.5ml of platelet rich plasma (PRP, 15×104/ml) was prepared, and 40mM of CaCl, was added to start clotting. 0.5mM of S-2238 was added to each sample in a microtiter plate every 10min, and the plate was read kinetically at a wavelength of 405nm on a microtiter plate reader. The patients with CAD devided into 3 groups.Thrombin generation 20 min after CaCI2, additon is:Control (n=12)48±10(mOD)Stable angina (SAP) (n=15)79±27Unstable angina (UAP) (n=15)**562±155Acute myocardial infarct (AMI) (n=43)**440±269**p<0.01 compared to SAPThe patients with UAP and AMI showed marked increase in thrombin generation compared to SAP and control subjects. AMI patients with severe coronary artery disease (Group B) showed higher levels of thrombin generation (Group A, Gensini score<32: 382±248 mOD vs Group B, Gensini score> 31: 578±238, P<0.05). LVEF of group A is significantly higher than that of group B (P < 0.05). These findings indicate that patients with UAP and AMI have an evidence of hypercoagulable states and that platelet-dependent thrombin generation may play an important role in pathophysiology of UAP or AMI, and may be a prognostic factor in CAD

Growth and Fluctuations of Personal Income

Pareto's law states that the distribution of personal income obeys a power-law in the high-income range, and has been supported by international observations. Researchers have proposed models over a century since its discovery. However, the dynamical nature of personal income has been little studied hitherto, mostly due to the lack of empirical work. Here we report the first such study, an examination of the fluctuations in personal income of about 80,000 high-income taxpayers in Japan for two consecutive years, 1997 and 1998, when the economy was relatively stable. We find that the distribution of the growth rate in one year is independent of income in the previous year. This fact, combined with an approximate time-reversal symmetry, leads to the Pareto law, thereby explaining it as a consequence of a stable economy. We also derive a scaling relation between positive and negative growth rates, and show good agreement with the data. These findings provide the direct observation of the dynamical process of personal income flow not yet studied as much as for companies.Comment: 9 pages, 4 figure

Spatial distribution of cryoconite granules and microorganisms on Qaanaaq Glacier, Greenland

第6回極域科学シンポジウム分野横断セッション：[IB2] 地球環境変動の解析と地球生命システム学の構築11月19日（木）　統計数理研究所 セミナー室1（D305

Climatic and atmospheric histories over the past 700,000 years from the Dome Fuji deep ice core, Antarctica

第3回極域科学シンポジウム　横断セッション「海・陸・氷床から探る後期新生代の南極寒冷圏環境変動」11月26日（月） 国立国語研究所 ２階講

Response of Firm Agent Network to Exogenous Shock

This paper describes an agent-based model of interacting firms, in which interacting firm agents rationally invest capital and labor in order to maximize payoff. Both transactions and production are taken into account in this model. First, the performance of individual firms on a real transaction network was simulated. The simulation quantitatively reproduced the cumulative probability distribution of revenue, material cost, capital, and labor. Then, the response of the firms to a given exogenous shock, defined as a sudden change of gross domestic product, is discussed. The longer tail in cumulative probability and skewed distribution of growth rate are observed for a high growth scenario.Comment: 8 pages, 9 figures, APFA

Simple and Sensitive Enzyme-Linked Immunosorbent Assay for Ivermectin

A sensitive and reproducible enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA) for the determination of the concentration of ivermectin (IVM) in biological fluids was developed. A conjugate of IVM on bovine serum albumin and poly-L-lysine was used to produce antibodies in rabbits and served as a solid-phase marker for titration of antibodies, respectively. The competitive ELISA was conducted by simultaneously incubating IVM and IVM-biotin conjugate with anti-IVM antiserum over goat anti-rabbit IgG (Fc) and then determining the amount of bound IVM-biotin with avidin-peroxidase conjugate as a tracer. The coefficient of variation for the assay was less than 10% in the range of 0.3?10 ng/ml. The limit of detection was 0.1 ng/ml. The cross-reactivities of anti-IVM antiserum with some anthelmintic drugs were negligible. Using this ELISA, serum levels of IVM were easily determined in Mongolian jirds (Meriones unguiculatus) up to 72 hr following a single oral dose of 500 μg/kg of body weight

社会的企業のソーシャル・アカウンティング : 地域福祉事業の事例から

社会的企業に対する国際的な関心と期待が高まるなか、これらの組織が生み出す社会価値の測定や評価の方法が課題となっている。本稿では、社会的企業の評価ツールとして欧米で検討されているSocial Return on Investmentアプローチなども踏まえながら、日本の社会的企業の実状に合わせたソーシャル・アカウンティングの手法を検討する。その１つの試みとして、地域福祉事業を実施する２つのNPO法人と１つの有限会社の財務諸表を活用して社会価値計算書を作成し、地域社会貢献度・制度資金依存度・有償性・ボランティア貢献度・効率性を測定する社会価値指標の試算を行った。その結果、一定の限界はあるものの、これらの社会的企業が生み出した見えない社会価値を金額的に示すことができ、組織形態や収入規模の違いを超えて社会性を比較することが可能となった。ただし、これらの指標の望ましい水準はいまだ明らかになっておらず、今後ケース・スタディを積み上げて、信頼性のある社会的企業の評価手法を探りたい