In April of 2003 Japan’s Commercial Code was revised with the purpose of accelerating the introduction of US style "corporate management" to Japanese firms.

First of all, the new management method is to include the corporate officer system in order to separate business operations from the functions of the board of directors. The reasoning was to help speed up management decisions. Japan has by tradition worked to build a consensus before acting. Good for the team, but slow going.

Secondly, Japanese companies were to appoint "outside directors to ensure more transparency in the business managements.

Lastly, Japanese companies were going to allow stock options for their employees.

The below figures are where the companies stood in 1999 in ( ) and 2002 causing us to wonder What the percentages are likely to be in the next survey?

1. (30.1) 35.8% of companies say they are already using this system.

2.  (1.1)  2.9% of companies say they plan to use it.

3. (27.3) 32.7% of companies say they are considering it but don’t bet on it.

4. (41.4) 28.6% of companies say ‘no way’. Our companies are still ours and why should we let some outside ‘dude’ tell us what to do?

The number of Japanese companies willing to be more transparent is growing. Good or bad?

What do you think?

go to 老毕看中国