DePaul Business and Commercial Law Journal Volume 15 Issue 1 Fall 2016 Article 2 Corporate Governance Models: the Japanese Experience in Context Maria Lucia Passador Harvard University Follow this and additional works at: https://via.library.depaul.edu/bclj Recommended Citation 15 DePaul Bus. & Com. L.J. 25 This Article is brought to you for free and open access by the College of Law at Via Sapientiae. It has been accepted for inclusion in DePaul Business and Commercial Law Journal by an authorized editor of Via Sapientiae. For more information, please contact
[email protected]. \\jciprod01\productn\D\DPB\15-1\DPB102.txt unknown Seq: 1 1-MAY-17 15:21 Corporate Governance Models: the Japanese Experience in Context Maria Lucia Passador* Avoid the crowd. Do your own thinking independently. Be the chess player, not the chess piece. —Ralph Charell INTRODUCTION: JAPANESE CORPORATE LAW AND ITS REFORM This Article aims to assess the claim that three countries – Italy, Japan and Portugal – present a tripartite,1 Latin, classic,2 and hybrid,3 model of corporate governance. In general, Japanese law seems an “exotic variation of Roman-Ger- manic models,” affected by United States legal models transplanted after World War II, while at the same time, presenting original fea- tures related to the history, evolution, and economic and social legacy of both Buddhist and Confucian philosophies.4 * PhD Candidate in Legal Studies - Business and Social Law, Bocconi University Law School, Milan, Italy; Visiting Researcher, Harvard Law School, Cambridge, MA, U.S.A. I am grateful to prof. Piergaetano Marchetti for his valuable, constant guidance and advice, and to prof.