Kigyo No Shakai-Teki Sekinin: Challenges for Corporate Social Responsibility in Japan

Globally, there is increasing discussion about corporate social responsibility (CSR). Many large multinational enterprises, particularly in mining and other resource sectors, have voluntarily adopted CSR programs, having concluded that social, economic, and environmental sustainability measures are good for the bottom line and fro the communities in which they operate. Companies in Japan have yet to move in that direction, although there are a few notable exceptions. In part, this lack of adaptation to the growing interest in CSR internationally is due to cultural and social norms in Japan that suggest that many aspects of CSR properly belong to the domain of remedial legislation, such as environmental protection legislation, human rights lawn and social safety nets. One of the biggest challenges to Japanese corporations\u27 promotion of CSR activities has been directors\u27 obligation to consider how every activity of the corporation contributes directly or indirectly to profits. It has been difficult of Japanese corporations to develop CSR activities when they are not based on laws that would be enforced by regulatory bodies and/or the private sector. This paper begins to explore some of these issues. Through the collaboration between a Canadian scholar and a Japanese scholar working with Japanese corporations and policy-makers, this paper provides insight into the current state of Japanese corporate governance and the discussion regarding development of CSR activities and norms. Part II introduces some of the elements of CSR that have been adopted internationally, including a brief comparative reference to Canadian law. Part III explores why CSR has taken the particular trajectory it has in Japan. Part IV examines how the history and development of corporate law has influenced or been influenced by various components of CSR, particularly in the political and environmental arenas. Parts V and VI then respectively examine labour law and environmental law in Japan and their relationship to the potential for the growth of CSR

Japan\u27s Love for Derivative Actions

Not long ago, there was a consensus in the legal academy that the Japanese were irrational litigants. As the theory went, Japanese people would forgo litigating for financial gain because of a cultural obsession with maintaining social harmony. Based on this theory, it made perfect (but economically irrational) sense that Japanese shareholders let their U.S.-transplanted derivative action lay moribund for almost four post-war decades, while at the same time the derivative action was a staple of shareholder litigation in the United States. The 1980s brought a wave of law and economics to the scholarship of Japanese law, which largely discredited the cultural explanation for Japan\u27s (economically irrational) reluctant litigant. In this new academic era, reasonable minds could disagree as to whether the efficiency of settlement or high cost of litigation explained the dearth of litigation in Japan. However, the assumption that the Japanese litigant was economically motivated and rational (i.e., that they would litigate only when the financial benefit from doing so exceeded the cost) was virtually beyond reproach. In the early 1990s, the number of derivative actions in Japan skyrocketed. Japanese shareholders suddenly found themselves as strange bedfellows with their American counterparts as the only shareholders of listed companies in the world that utilized the derivative action on a regular basis. This extraordinary change in the behavior of Japanese shareholders has largely been understood through the lens of the economically motivated and rational shareholder litigant. This Article challenges the assumption that the dramatic increase in Japanese derivative actions can be understood solely through the narrow lens of the economically motivated and rational shareholder. Using original empirical and case study evidence, this Article demonstrates that in Japan, neither shareholders nor attorneys stand to gain significant financial benefits from derivative actions. To the contrary, this Article suggests that the non-economic motives (i.e., political and environmental motives and veiled extortion) and irrational behavior of Japanese shareholders, (i.e., the use of inaccurate mental heuristics, self-serving bias, and herding behavior) are critical for providing an accurate explanation for one of the most dramatic increases in shareholder litigation in recent times. This revelation further suggests that the leading literature on shareholder litigation--which forms the basis for the current understanding of shareholder litigation in the United States--is flawed, as it overlooks the critically important role that non-economic motives and irrational behavior play in driving shareholder lawsuits

Identifying Protein Function—A Call for Community Action

Functional information is lacking for many of the hypothetical proteins encoded within sequenced genomes. Richard Roberts proposes that a community-based approach might offer an effecient way to fill the function ga

Land of the Falling “Poison Pill : Understanding Defensive Measures in Japan on Their Own Terms

Embraced by United States (“U.S.”) managers in the 1980s as a lifeline in a sea of hostile takeovers, the poison pill fundamentally altered the trajectory of American corporate governance. When a hostile takeover wave seemed imminent in Japan in the mid-2000s, Japanese boards appeared to embrace this American invention with equal enthusiasm. Japan's experience should have been a ringing endorsement for the utility of American corporate governance solutions in foreign jurisdictions-but it was not to be. Japan's unique interpretation of the “poison pill” that was so eagerly adopted by Japanese companies in the mid-to-late 2000s has turned out to be nothing like their potent American namesakes-and, in fact, the opposite of what would be expected by leading U.S. academics who have built a cottage industry publishing on the U.S. poison pill. Based on hand collected empirical data, we provide the first in-depth analysis of why Japan’s “poison pill” (defensive measures) is heading towards extinction—a watershed reversal that is unexplained in the Japanese literature and has almost entirely escaped the English language literature. By drawing on our hand-collected data, case studies, and Japanese jurisprudence, we illuminate the unique and untold story of how one of the most discussed mechanisms of corporate governance in the U.S. has worked almost entirely differently when transplanted to Japanese soil—the importance of which is heightened as Japan is by far the largest economy in which the poison pill has been tested outside of the United States. Additionally, our analysis sheds light on the unexpected importance of Japan’s recently implemented corporate governance code and stewardship code—two Western legal transplants that have garnered considerable attention in the English language literature, but which have yet to be evaluated in light of their impact on defensive measures in Japan.Published versionThis work was financially supported by the Japan Society for the Promotion of Science (JSPS) Grant-in-Aid JP18K01336 and by the Centre for Asian Legal Studies at NUS Law

Structural study of CHCl3 molecular assemblies in micropores using X-ray techniques

The original publication is available at www.springerlink.comArticleADSORPTION-JOURNAL OF THE INTERNATIONAL ADSORPTION SOCIETY. 11: 169-172 (2005)journal articl

Catabolic regulation analysis of Escherichia coli and its crp, mlc, mgsA, pgi and ptsG mutants

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>Most bacteria can use various compounds as carbon sources. These carbon sources can be either co-metabolized or sequentially metabolized, where the latter phenomenon typically occurs as catabolite repression. From the practical application point of view of utilizing lignocellulose for the production of biofuels etc., it is strongly desirable to ferment all sugars obtained by hydrolysis from lignocellulosic materials, where simultaneous consumption of sugars would benefit the formation of bioproducts. However, most organisms consume glucose prior to consumption of other carbon sources, and exhibit diauxic growth. It has been shown by fermentation experiments that simultaneous consumption of sugars can be attained by <it>ptsG, mgsA </it>mutants etc., but its mechanism has not been well understood. It is strongly desirable to understand the mechanism of metabolic regulation for catabolite regulation to improve the performance of fermentation.</p> <p>Results</p> <p>In order to make clear the catabolic regulation mechanism, several continuous cultures were conducted at different dilution rates of 0.2, 0.4, 0.6 and 0.7 h^-1using wild type <it>Escherichia coli</it>. The result indicates that the transcript levels of global regulators such as <it>crp, cra, mlc </it>and <it>rpoS </it>decreased, while those of <it>fadR, iclR, soxR/S </it>increased as the dilution rate increased. These affected the metabolic pathway genes, which in turn affected fermentation result where the specific glucose uptake rate, the specific acetate formation rate, and the specific CO₂evolution rate (CER) were increased as the dilution rate was increased. This was confirmed by the ¹³C-flux analysis. In order to make clear the catabolite regulation, the effect of <it>crp </it>gene knockout (Δ<it>crp</it>) and crp enhancement (<it>crp⁺</it>) as well as <it>mlc, mgsA, pgi </it>and <it>ptsG </it>gene knockout on the metabolism was then investigated by the continuous culture at the dilution rate of 0.2 h^-1and by some batch cultures. In the case of Δ<it>crp </it>(and also Δ<it>mlc</it>) mutant, TCA cycle and glyoxylate were repressed, which caused acetate accumulation. In the case of <it>crp⁺</it>mutant, glycolysis, TCA cycle, and gluconeogenesis were activated, and simultaneous consumption of multiple carbon sources can be attained, but the glucose consumption rate became less due to repression of <it>ptsG </it>and <it>ptsH </it>by the activation of Mlc. Simultaneous consumption of multiple carbon sources could be attained by <it>mgsA, pgi</it>, and <it>ptsG </it>mutants due to increase in <it>crp </it>as well as <it>cyaA</it>, while glucose consumption rate became lower.</p> <p>Conclusions</p> <p>The transcriptional catabolite regulation mechanism was made clear for the wild type <it>E. coli</it>, and its <it>crp, mlc, ptsG, pgi, and mgsA </it>gene knockout mutants. The results indicate that catabolite repression can be relaxed and <it>crp </it>as well as <it>cyaA </it>can be increased by <it>crp⁺, mgsA, pgi</it>, and <it>ptsG </it>mutants, and thus simultaneous consumption of multiple carbon sources including glucose can be made, whereas the glucose uptake rate became lower as compared to wild type due to inactivation of <it>ptsG </it>in all the mutants considered.</p

Upregulation of Aquaporin-3 Is Involved in Keratinocyte Proliferation and Epidermal Hyperplasia

Aquaporin-3 (AQP3) is a water/glycerol-transporting protein expressed in keratinocytes of the epidermis. We previously showed that AQP3-mediated transport of water and glycerol is involved in keratinocyte migration and proliferation, respectively. However, the involvement of AQP3 in epidermal hyperplasia in skin diseases, such as atopic dermatitis (AD), is unknown. In this study, we found significantly increased AQP3 transcript and protein expression in the epidermis of human AD lesions. The upregulation of AQP3 expression in human keratinocytes by transfection with human AQP3 DNA plasmid was associated with increased cellular glycerol and ATP, as well as increased cell proliferation. Among several cytokines and chemokines produced in the skin, CCL17, which is highly expressed in AD, was found to be a strong inducer of AQP3 expression and enhanced keratinocyte proliferation. In mouse AD models, AQP3 was strongly overexpressed in the epidermis in wild-type mice. Epidermal hyperplasia was reduced in AQP3-deficient mice, with a decreased number of proliferating keratinocytes. These results suggest the involvement of AQP3 in epidermal hyperplasia by a mechanism involving upregulated AQP3 expression and consequent enhancement of keratinocyte proliferation