ABSTRACT
A distinctive feature of the last decade has been the drastic change wrought by globalization and financial innovation on the world’s financial systems. With the worldwide shift toward financial systems based on global markets, attention is focusing on the need to redesign existing financial institutions and markets, corporate governance schemes and regulatory frameworks in East Asia and Japan so as to better promote the region’s sustainable economic development. Interest in restructuring the region’s financial systems has intensified as a result of the East Asian crisis and the prolonged depression in Japan. The purpose of this book is to discuss some basic and indeed urgent issues that bear upon the new architecture of financial systems in East Asia and Japan, referring where appropriate to European and North American experiences.
