La Porta et al see Anglo-American common law as most favourable to economic development, but in 1899 Japan explicitly preferred the German corporate law tradition. Yet its new Commercial Code omitted the GmbH (private company) form, which Guinnane et al see as the jewel in the crown of...

Lifetime employment is one of the most conspicuous features of contemporary large Japanese corporations. The employment practices of merchant houses in the Edo period are sometimes proposed as one source of such lifetime commitment. Little attention has been paid, however, to the connection...

This paper aims to analyze the role of a branch of a Japanese bank in the internationals financial centers and its change during the Interwar period. Branches of international exchange banks generally buy bills for goods exported from where they exist, to collect bills for goods imported to...

This paper analyzes the formation and modification of yakuin-shoyo in Japan. Yakuin signifies directors and auditors in these days. Soon after the Meiji Restoration, however, yakuin signified directors and white-collar workers, because National Bank Act of 1872 used this term in this way and...

This paper aims to analyze personnel management of Mitsui Bank, which was one of the largest banks in prewar Japan, from 1897 to 1943. Around 1900 it began to hire only new school leavers, although it hired many people in mid-career in the 19th century. As a result vacant positions came to be...

In the Edo period money was transferred by bills between Edo (now Tokyo) and Osaka, and money markets in these two cities were connected each other. Money was transferred principally through bills on Edo money-exchangers issued not by merchants but by Osaka money-exchangers. In the first half of...