ABSTRACT
This chapter discuses a clearer picture of corporate governance and the post-war Japanese main bank system. The system of Japanese corporate governance is said to have changed greatly from the so-called classical governance structure of shareholder leadership prior to the Second World War. In prewar Japan, it was the industrialists who, as major stockholders, maintained a great deal of power and personal interest in the governance of large enterprises. In post-war Japan, it was the firm's main bank that was in the best position for monitoring. From the viewpoint of corporate governance, there was growing investment in large-scale equipment and facilities, as well as an increase in the role of financial institutions as stakeholders in the steel industry. Okazaki asserts that, in post-war Japan, a growth-promoting corporate governance structure, constituted of growth-oriented lifetime employees, and also growth-oriented financial institutions, was established. Even the 'growth-promoting corporate governance system' only promoted 'growth' in the limited sense of increasing the scale of production.
