Latest Japanese Studies Programme Papers

Earnings Quality, Accruals and Subjective Goodwill Accounting

Yuko Katsuo

JS526. April 2008.
This paper analyses accounting accruals that may relate to earnings quality and its information content. The characteristics specifying earning quality are discussed according to research surveys of earnings quality. These are compared with the characteristics of accounting income specified by the concept of ‘released from risks’ in ASBJ (2006). In this context, the conversion process of subjective goodwill, which is related to the allocation problem in accounting income and its relation to earnings quality, is focussed upon. The allocation problem is examined by clarifying the conversion process of subjective goodwill, and by highlighting the portion of the allocation error that reflects managerial discretion.

Full article: http://sticerd.lse.ac.uk/dps/js/js526.pdf

Business and Politics in Early 20th Century Japan

Masato Kimura, Peter von Staden

JS/2002/429. March 2002.
The paper by Masato Kimura seeks to clarify the contributions and limitations of Japanese business diplomacy by looking at the business mission to Britain and the US in 1921-22, and the Japanese Economic Mission to Europe and the United States of 1937. The paper argues that Japanese business diplomacy, while of significance particularly in building up international human networks, was insufficiently influential to prevent political and military conflict.Peter von Staden's paper focuses on the Iron and Steel Promotion Law of 1917 as a case study to explore the significance of the shingikai (deliberative councils) as a forum for formal and significant debate on isses of importance to both business and government. The paper argues that business interests saw the shingikai as a locus where conflicting interests could be resolved, calling into question the widespread assumption of across-the-board covert decision-making in the Japanese government-business relationship.

Full article: http://sticerd.lse.ac.uk/dps/js/JS429.pdf

Politics and the Economy in Pre-War Japan

Masataka Matsuura, Richard J Smethurst

JS/2000/381. February 2000.
The paper by Richard J Smethurst discusses the influences that led to the economic policies pursued in the interwar period by Takahashi Korekiyo, who engineered Japan's recovery from the depression in the early 1930s, and is often thought of as the 'Keynes' of Japan. The paper traces the influence on Takahashi's thinking of his Western experiences and diverse bureaucratic career, but focusses in particular on the role of Takahashi's mentor, Maeda Masana. The paper by Masataka Matsuura analyses the term zaikai as used in prewar Japan and its identity as a small network whose influence was distinct from that of the zaibatsu. The paper traces the membership and activities of this small group from the time of Shibusawa Eiichi through to the Second World War, and argues for the importance of the functions they discharged in the context of the developing Japanese economy.

Full article: http://sticerd.lse.ac.uk/dps/js/JS381.pdf

Aspects of Japanese Shipping History

Peter N Davies, Kunio Katayama

JS/1999/376. December 1999.
Peter Davies in his paper outlines the major trends in the development of Japan's commercial shipping prior to World War I. The paper focusses in particular on the role played by the Japanese government, arguing that the promotion of the industry was undertaken primarily not for commercial, but for strategic imperialist reasons. Kunio Katayama's paper focusses on Japanese shipping policy in the years immediately prior to the Sino-Japanese War of 1894-5. Using analysis of parliamentary debates over subsidies for shipping and prize-winning essays on the topic, the author contends that public opinion in favour of the creation of major overseas shipping liones was well established prior to the war, and that these plans were conceived for economic and commercial reasons, and not imperialist and stratetic ones.

Full article: http://sticerd.lse.ac.uk/dps/js/JS376.pdf

Japan: State and People in the Twentieth Century - Papers presented at the STICERD 20th Anniversary Symposium in July 1998

JS/1999/368. March 1999.
The four papers and comments in this volume deal with different aspects of the relationship between state and people in twentieth century Japan. Ben-Ami Shillony's paper is concerned with religious aspects of this relationship, in particular concerning the role of the emperor, while Barbara Molony is concerned with the position of women. Sheldon Garon's paper deals with the state's propaganda to promote saving, while Werner Pascha addresses the broader issue of the position of central government and the possibility of Japan's moving towards more of a federal structure.

Full article: http://sticerd.lse.ac.uk/dps/js/js368.pdf

The Learning Process and the Market: The Japanese Capital Goods Sector in the Early Twentieth Century

Tetsuro Nakaoka

JS/1994/271. January 1994.
Professor Tetsuro Nakaoka, formerly of Osaka University, and now of the Faculty of Management, Osaka University of Economics, gave a seminar on Japanese industrial development at the Suntory-Toyota Centre during 1992. Although it was not possible to publish that paper as a STICERD discussion paper, we are extremely grateful to Professor Nakaoka for allowing us to reproduce the present paper. STICERD would also like to express thanks to Dr K Sugihara of the School of Oriental and African Studies, University of London, for assistance with the English version of the paper.

Full article: http://sticerd.lse.ac.uk/dps/js/JS271.pdf

The Formation of the Japanese Railway Network in the 1890s: The Case of the Kobu Line

Masahiro Sato

JS/1990/221. November 1990.
Preface: Professor Masahiro Satō of the Institute of Economic Research, Hitotsubashi University, presented this paper at a special session of the joint LSE-SOAS seminar series 'Japanese Economy and Society in Comparative Historical Perspective, held on 14 March 1990 at STICERD. The seminar organisers are very grateful to Professor Satō for permitting his paper to appear as a STICERD Japanese Studies discussion paper.

Full article: http://sticerd.lse.ac.uk/dps/js/js221.pdf

The Social History of Occupied Japan: 1: Some Sources and Problems, 2: British Writings on Japanese History

Gordon Daniels, Janet Hunter, Ian Nish

JS/1990/214. July 1990.
Preface: Dr Gordon Daniels, Reader in History at the University of Sheffield, presented his paper on the Social History of Occupied Japan at a one-day workshop on the Teaching of Japanese Economic and Social History, hel at the Suntory-Toyota International Centre on 16 May 1990. We are grateful to Dr Daniels for allowing us to reproduce his paper here.The bibliography of British writings on Japanese history was compiled in responde to a request for informtion from Professor Haruko Wakita.

Full article: http://sticerd.lse.ac.uk/dps/js/js214.pdf

Wage Differentials in Japan: 1958-85

Michio Morishima

JS/1989/203. September 1989.
The market is a place where people behave quite relentlessly. If one person is selling a particular commodity at a higher price than others, no one will buy that commodity from him, however virtuous or merciful he is known to be. Of course, the actual world does not always work exactly in this way, but if it works too differently, the case is regarded as being an exceptional one. Thus, the assumption that the market is a relentless place is acceptable as a first approximation ot the real world.

Full article: http://sticerd.lse.ac.uk/dps/js/JS203.pdf

Education in Japan and England: A Personal View

Rachel Hall

JS/1987/158. January 1987.
Japan and England tend to approach education in quite different ways and often for different ends. Japan tends to see the direct economic benefit that accrues from an educated population and therefore places a great deal of emphasis on schooling. Successive English governments have not been so keen to provide a nationwide system of schooling for several reasons: the fear of an educated working class and the feeling that it should be a private or clerical responsibility, for example. This does not mean that Japan devotes a particularly large slice of her resources to education but perhaps that she has more clearly defined aims.

Full article: http://sticerd.lse.ac.uk/dps/js/JS158.pdf

Ideology and Economic Activity

Michio Morishima

JS/1986/142. January 1986.
In considering ideology and economic activity, ideology is defined as a system of beliefs which binds people together into a social grouping. This is synonymous with religion as defined by Durkheim (1912) and, as a definition of religion, it may be too wide; but if this definition is adopted, both Confucianism and Marxism are 'religion'. In any case, there are two broad-based classes of approach to this problem, Marxian and Weberian. The former regards ideology which, together with such institutions as the state, family structure, etc., constitute the superstructure of the society, as being no more than a reflection of underlying basic material conditions. The latter, on the other hand, approaches from the superstructure to the base and establishes the reverse relationship. As will be seen later, neither of the two approaches alone can serve for the intepretation of a social historical process. To achieve this we must use both approaches and examine interdependence and interaction between materialistic or economic factors, and ideological or religious ones.

Full article: http://sticerd.lse.ac.uk/dps/js/JS142.pdf

A Historical Transformation From Feudalism to 'Capitalism'

Michio Morishima

JS/1986/138. January 1986.
'Where feudalism ends, the capitalist regime commences.' This familiar and prima facie self-evident statement is the proposition which I want to examine in this paper. I would argue as follows: Even given the uniformity of feudalism everywhere in the world (i.e. if it has always appeared in its purest form with no deviation from the logically constructed ideal type), it must have appeared in combination with many other elements such as, for example, whether a country has an oceanic or continental climate, the types of weapons available in a society, the type of religion most influential in the lives of the people there, and so forth. These additional elements must also play significant roles; so where combinations vary, different types of economy (or society) must be obtained after any transition from feudalism to a more developed mode of production. It may thus be conjectured that even if feudalism were unique, capitalism as a result of the transition would not be unique. The present paper aims to confirm this conjecture by comparing aspects of the history of Japan with that of England.

Full article: http://sticerd.lse.ac.uk/dps/js/JS138.pdf

The Role of Japan in the International Economy: A Private View

Michio Morishima

JS/1986/129. January 1986.
In earlier times economists used to view the world in terms of dual economic models. For Marx the Asiatic mode of production(1) was the concept which was the counterpart of the Western feudalism from which the capitalist regime and bourgeois society emerged: Weber regarded the Confucian prebendary state as the pair of the Protestant civic society.(2) At the time, however, the various countries conforming to the Asiatic mode of production and the Confucian states played no more than a marginal role on the world economic stage and, though they might have been objects for exploitation by the capitalist nations of the west, they could not be equal competitors. For this reason the mechanism possessed by these obverse models (ideal types) was never subjected to in-depth analysis.(1) Marx's view of the Asiatic mode of production appears in various places throughout his many publications. See, for example, "Capital", vol.III (Progress Publishers, Moscow, 1966) p.791. V Melotti, "Marx and the Third World", (Macmillan, 1977) is a convenient synthesis of these writings for those wishing to know more about the manner in which Marx perceived Asia.(2) M Weber, 'Konfuzianismus und Taoismus', in "Gesammelte Aufsätze zur Religionssoziologie", vol.1, (J.C.B. Mohr [Paul Siebeck], Tübingen, 1920).

Full article: http://sticerd.lse.ac.uk/dps/js/JS129.pdf

The Production of Technologists and Robotization in Japan

Michio Morishima

JS/1985/119. January 1985.
When Japan embarked upon her forced march to build a modern nation in 1868 the resource upon which she was most able to rely was her labour force. This was of a considerable size, and certainly not of a poor quality. According to Ronald Dore, at least 40% of Japanese males at that time had received a basic level of education. In international terms this was a very high figure for the time. Furthermore, the Japan of that time had already more or less fulfilled many of the preconditions enabling the appearance of modern companies and corporations and guaranteeing their domestic development. The language of Tokyo was already in essence the country's standard language, in common use, at least as the official language, almost everywhere throughout the country. Something else of considerable importance was that both samurai and merchants regarded it as a virtue not to break their word; hence it was easy to establish a contractual society. Furthermore, they were all well aware that it was not a good thing to get public and private mixed up.

Full article: http://sticerd.lse.ac.uk/dps/js/JS119.pdf