Can Japan's corporate system withstand globalization? Once considered the source of the nation's competitive strength, traditional practices such as lifetime employment and seniority-based pay have in recent years been increasingly attacked as contributors to poor performance. The postbubble slump eroded an elaborate system of cross-shareholdings, artificially high market valuations and anti-competitive government policies that previously sheltered Japanese companies, leaving them now vulnerable to corporate predators of both domestic and foreign origin. But it has been the incursion of overseas investors that has caused the most consternation in business and government circles, with fears of the pernicious effects of foreign takeover.
Amid speculation over a foreign bailout of Japan Airlines, moves by Mitsubishi Motors to seek a French partner and historically high levels of foreign ownership of Japanese stocks, George Olcott's debut work, "Conflict and Change: Foreign Ownership and the Japanese Firm," could not be more timely. The book probes the impact of foreign takeover on five major Japanese companies, including Nissan Motor, the Long Term Credit Bank of Japan or LTCB (now Shinsei Bank) and Chugai Pharmaceutical.
The result is a detailed study not only of how foreign management is imposing shareholder-oriented practices, but also the impact on the Japanese "community firm" and its recruitment, training, employment and reward systems.