Postwar Reform in Enterprise Management Managerial Revolution from Above and the Emergence of the“ gJapanese-type” hFirm

Hideaki MIYAJIMA

doi:10.5029/jrbh1984.10.53

Postwar Reform in Enterprise Management

Managerial Revolution from Above and the Emergence of the“ gJapanese-type” hFirm

Hideaki MIYAJIMA

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JOURNAL FREE ACCESS

1994 Volume 10 Pages 53-82

DOI https://doi.org/10.5029/jrbh1984.10.53

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Published: March 15, 1994 Received: - Available on J-STAGE: June 28, 2010 Accepted: - Advance online publication: - Revised: -
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Date of correction: June 28, 2010 Reason for correction: - Correction: CITATION Details: Right : 1Hidemasa Morikawa,Zaibatsu:The Rise and Fall of Family Groups in Japan(Tokyo:University of Tokyo Press,1992);H.Morikawa,“The Increasing Power of Salaried Managers in Japan's Large Corporations,”in Managing Industrial Enterprise:Cases from Japan's Prewar Experience,Wm D.Wray,ed.(Cambridge:Harvard University Press),1989.
2During the war a change in enterprise goals was advocated,from the pursuit of profits to maximizing production,and measures were taken to limit dividends and the authority of stockholders'meetings.See:Hideaki Miyajima,“Senji keizaika no jiyushugi keizairon to tosei keizairon”[Liberal economics versus controlled economics in the wartime economy],Shiriizu Nihon kin-gendai shi3:Gendai shakai e no tenkei[Modern and contemporary Japanese history series,no.3:The transformation to contemporary society](Tokyo:Iwanami Shoten,1993);and Tetsuji Okazaki,“Wartime Planned Economy and Corporations,”Journal of Japanese and International Economies,vol.7,no.2,1993.
3See Hiroshi Okumura,“Enterprise Groups in Japan,”Journal of Finance,no.147,1986;Masahiko Aoki,Information,Incentives and Bargaining in the Japanese Economy(Cambridge:Cambridge University Press,1988);and Michael L.Gerlach,Alliance Capitalism:The Social Organization of Japanese Business(Berkeley: University of California Press,1992).
4The most inclusive and detailed treatment of the scale,investment areas,and stockholdings of the zaibatsu during the war can be found in the introductory chapter of Showa zaisei shi-shusen kara kowa made,2dokusen kinshi[Showa financial history:from the end of the war to conclusion of the peace treaty,2antimonopoly measures],Finance Ministry Financial History Office,ed.(Tokyo:Toyo Keizai Shinposha,1982).
5For more material on developments during this period,see Juro Hashimoto and Haruhito Takeda,eds.,Nihon keizai no hatten to kigyo shudan[The development of the Japanese economy and enterprise groups],chapters3(on the move of zaibatsu towards becoming combines,by Juro Hashimoto)and4(on the wartime economy and the zaibatsu,by Minoru Sawai).On Mitsubishi,see Yasuo Mishima,The Mitsubishi:Its Challenge and Strategy(JAI Press,1989).
6Much of the material for this section,including citations,is taken from chap.1,section2,of Showa zaisei shi,cited in note4,from Nihon zaibatsu to sono kaitai[Japan's zaibatsu and their dissolution],ed.by the Holding Company Liquidation Commission,1951,from Eleanor Hadley,Antitrust in Japan(Princeton:Princeton University Press,1970),chap.5,and from T.A.Bisson,Zaibatsu Dissolution in Japan(Berkeley:University of California Press,1954).
7For more on the macroeconomic conditions at the time,see Takafusa Nakamura,The Postwar Japanese Economy:Growth and Structure(Tokyo:University of Tokyo Press,1981);and Koichi Hamada and Munehisa Kasuya,“Reconstruction and Stabilization of the Postwar Japanese Economy,”in Postwar Economic Reconstruction and Lessons for the East Today,R.Dornbush and W.Nolling,eds.(Cambridge: MIT Press,1993).
8Unless otherwise noted,the recollections of new managers in the section below rely upon the volumes in the series Watakushi no rirekisho-keizaijin[My career:businessmen](Tokyo:Nihon Keizai Shinbunsha,1980).
9The“official records”of the various companies that were used to compile this table are the documents presented to GHQ by the325companies designated by the Law for the Elimination of Excessive Concentrations of Economic Power.These exist in both English and Japanese.The former are kept in the National Archives in Washington.
10It was a bribery scandal involving preferential loans from the Reconstruction Finance Bank.It was linked with the fall of the Ashida Cabinet in1948.
11Morikawa,Zaibatsu(see n.1above),chap.5.
12Kazuo Noda,“Managerial Change,”in Postwar Economic Growth in Japan,R.Komiya,ed.(Berkeley:University of California Press,1966).
13Yoshitaro Wakimura,“Sengo keiei shi no shuppatsuten:zaibatsu kaitai”[The point of departure of postwar business history:the dissolution of the zaibatsu],Bijinesu rebyu[Business review],vol.32,no.2,1983.
14The commonly accepted understanding has been one that laid stress on the“original,ambitious”management as a result of the youthfulness of the managers.See Noda,“Managerial Change,”and Nakamura,The Postwar Japanese Economy.
15Nihon Keizai Shinbun[Japanese Economic News],29October1948.
16Andrew Gordon,The Evolution of Labor Relations in Japan:Heavy Industry,1853-1955(Cambridge:Harvard University Press,1985).
17Watakushi no rirekisho-keizaijin,vol.14(Katsuji Kawamata)(Tokyo: Nihon Keizai Shinbunsha,1980),p.244.
18For a case study of how harmonious labor-management relations took hold in the iron and steel industry,see Seiichiro Yonekura,“Postwar Reform in Management and Industrial Relations,”in Juro Teranishi and Yutaka Kosai,eds.,The Japanese Experience of Economic Reforms(New York:Macmillan,1993).
19A detailed description of the formation of keiretsu financing can be found in Hideaki Miyajima,“Zaibatsu kaitai”[Zaibatsu dissolution],chap.5in Nihon keizai no hatten to kigyo shudan(see n.5above);also in Juro Teranishi,“Emergence of Loan Syndication in Wartime Japan:An Investigation into the Historical Origin of the Main Bank System,”in Japanese Main Bank system and Its Relevance for Developing Market and Transforming Socialist Economics,M.Aoki and Hugh Patrick,eds.(Oxford University Press,forthcoming).
20Tekko Shinbunsha[The iron and steel newspaper company],ed.,Tekko kyojin den-Nishiyama Yataro [Giants of the iron and steel industry:Yataro Nishiyama],1971,p.638.
21Detailed information on despatching of officials and bank intervention in personnel matters during this period can be found in“Ginko no shihairyoku no kyoka to zaibatsu saihensei no hoko”[Strengthening of bank control and directions in zaibatsu reorganization],Toyo keizai shinposha24October1953and“Zaibatsu saihensei to kin'yu shihairyoku no jittai”[Facts about zaibatsu reorganization and financial control],Toyo keizai shinposha,1January1954.
22Bunpei Otsuki,Watakushi no Mitsubishi showa shi[My history of Mitsubishi during the Showa period](Tokyo:Toyo Keizai Shinposha,1987),p.72.
23Hideo Edo,Watakushi no Mitsui showa shi[My history of Mitsui during the Showa period](Toyo Keizai Shinposha,1985),pp.71-71;also,Watakushi no rirekisho-keizaijin14(Tsunesuke Wada),p.244.
24For more details on mutual holdings,see Miyajima,“Zaibatsu kaitai,”and Yomiuri Shinbunsha Keizaibu[Yomiuri Newspaper Economics Section,Shin:Zaibatsu monogatari[The new zaibatsu story](Tokyo,1956),p.55.
25Chohei Asada,of Kobe Steel,and Shigeki Tashiro,of Toray(as chairman of the board)were not simple cases of comebacks by prewar managers,because in both instances they were managers with a strong engineering background,and it was because of this expertise that they were restored.
26Hisashi Tsuda,Watakushi no Sumitomo Showa shi[My history of Sumitomo in the Showa period](Tokyo:Tokyo Keizai Shinposha,1985),pp.7-12.

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