ABSTRACT
To implement strategic production objectives, the Japanese system relies on an institution that too many Anglo-Americans may seem unique: the strategic corporation. Japan’s strategic corporations differ in some important respects from their Anglo-American counterparts, however. The typical strategic corporation issues stock but is not controlled by stockholders. Japan’s strategic corporations are not public in the sense of being nationalized. Crossholding of stocks by strategic corporations means in practice that management is nearly autonomous. The strategic corporations highest policy decisions are made by a committee consisting of its president, division heads, and other senior managers. The president of a strategic corporation is normally recruited from among the senior professional employees after a lifetime of service to the institution. Directors do constitute a privileged group in the world of the strategic corporation. Strategic unions in Japan differ from conventional trade unions in the West. Labor relations in the strategic corporation are vestigial and stylized.
