Twentieth-Century Enterprise Forms: Japan in Comparative Perspective

摘要: La Porta et al. see common law as most favorable to corporate development and economic growth, but Japanese legislators explicitly based their system on German civil law. However, Japan’s commercial code of 1899 omitted the GmbH (private company) form, which Guinnane jewel in crown Germany’s organizational menu. Neither apparent “mistake” retarded adoption because its offered flexible governance liability options, implemented liberally. It was this liberal flexibility, not choice legal family or hybrid forms emphasized by previous writers, that drove corporatization forward Japan more widely. Surprisingly (given superficially fuller menu predated many decades country wealthier), 1930s already had only corporations than Germany, also commandite partnerships (with some characteristics). After introduction yugen kaisha 1940, became nearly widely used United States, Kingdom, Switzerland.