SPECIAL ISSUE: THE JAPANESE BUSINESS SYSTEM

Tsunehiko Yui

doi:10.5029/jrbh1984.1.1

The Development of the Organizational Structure of Top Management in Meiji Japan

Tsunehiko Yui

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JOURNALS FREE ACCESS

Volume 1 (1985) Pages 1-23

DOI https://doi.org/10.5029/jrbh1984.1.1

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Released: June 28, 2010 [Advance Publication] Released: - received: - corrected: - accepted: -
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Date of correction: June 28, 2010 Reason for correction: - Correction: CITATION Details: Right : 1)Increasingly common in large Japanese firms since about1960has been the jomukai(often referred to as“executive committee”).Junior executive directors do not participate in meetings of this committee,thus making it considerably different from its predecessors.
2)A good deal of research has been done on these companies.See,for example,Wataro Kanno,Nihon kaisha kigyo hassei shi no kenkyu(Tokyo,1931).
3)Meiji Zaisei Shi Hensankai,ed.,Meiji zaisei shi(The History of Meiji Public Finance),vol.13(Tokyo,1937),p.91.
4)Ibid.,p.183.
5)Rules pertaining to boards of directors are taken from the articles of incorporation of the firms cited.For specific sources,see Tsunehiko Yui,“Meiji jidai ni okeru juyaku soshiki no keisei,”Keiei shigaku(Japan Business History Review)vol.14no.1.
6)Taguchi Ukichi zenshu,vol.4(Tokyo,1928),pp.191-193.
7)Tokyo keizai zasshi350(January1887):20-21.
8)See Yui,“Meiji jidai ni okeru juyaku soshiki no keisei”for information on the original documents containing the articles of confederation quoted here.
9)Daiichi Ginko80Nen Shi Hensankai,ed.,Daiichi ginko shi(The History of the Daiichi Bank)(Tokyo,1957),p.131.
10)Daishi Ginko Kikakubu,ed.,Daishi ginko hyakunen shi(One Hundred Years of the Daishi Bank)(Niigata,1974),p.57.At the time,one yen was worth slightly less than one American dollar.
11)On occasion during this period,the senior executive director was called jomu(rather than senmu)torishimariyaku.
12)Kazuo Suehiro,Kondo Renpei oyobi iko(The Biography of Renpei Kondo)(Tokyo,1926),pp.246-47.
13)The exact amount of Nakamigawa's bonus is not known.His salary upon taking his post was250yen per month-not a very large amount.But the bank's records for that year(1893)indicate that68,000yen was appropriated to the bank's directors as bonuses,and half of that is thought to have gone to Nakamigawa.See“Mitsui ginko shokuinbo1893nen1gatsu”and“Mitsui ginko eigyo hokokusho”(December1893).
14)Tsunehiko Yui,“Nihon ni okeru juyaku soshiki no hensen,”Keiei ronshu vol.24no.3-4(March1977):39-40.
15)In Nihon keiei shi(Japanese Business History)(Tokyo,1981),Hidemasa Morikawa discusses the position of“salaried executive directors”in1905(for banks and railroad companies with real capital assets of at least2,000,000yen,and for other firms with assets of at least1,000,000yen)and1913(for banks,electric power companies and mining companies with assets of at least3,000,000yen,and for other firms with assets of at least1,500,000yen).Of75major firms examined for1905,22had such directors;of the115firms examined for1913,39had such directors.Six firms had two people in this position.See especially p.89.
16)The terms senmu torishimariyaku(senior executive director)and jomu torishimariyaku(executive director)are very close in meaning,and were sometimes used interchangeably(see note11).The latter term,however,was generally used to indicate a more direct managerial position.
17)The appellation hira was an informal one,and was not used officially.
18)Hidemasa Morikawa,“The Significance and Process of Development of Middle Management in Japanese Business,”in Organization and Management1900-1930[Proceedings of the Japan-Germany Conference on Business History],ed.Keiichiro Nakagawa and Tsunehiko Yui(Tokyo,1981).See especially pp.135-37.

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