Abstract
The recent cases of whistleblowing that caused enormous damage to a company were largely based on inadequate internal systems. Therefore, there is a need for preparing an effective internal whistleblowing system. Despite these facts, there is little relatively research on the factors associated with an internal whistleblowing system for corporate governance in Japanese corporations. This exploratory study examines the factors associated with a positive attitude towards developing an internal whistleblowing system, especially organizational characteristics, past experiences, and overseas factors. In this study, I employ a logit analysis of 1,090 listed Japanese corporations for FY2017. The results show significant and positive correlations between positive attitudes toward an internal whistleblowing system and organizational characteristics (i.e. corporate social responsibility (CSR) attitude, ethical interest, compliance awareness, independence of internal audit, risk management attitude), past scandalous affairs, and overseas expansion. The results also show that firm size affects the company’s attitude towards implementing a strong internal whistleblowing system.
