Praxis und Chancen der Aktionärsdemokratie in Japan

Abstract

The contribution gives an overview over the development and the present status of “shareholder-democracy” in Japan. It includes comparative references to the situation in Germany. From a formalistic legal perspective, company law in Japan appears to have a stronger commitment towards realizing the goal of shareholder-democracy than its German counterpart does. In Japan, the general shareholders’ meeting is by far the most important organ of the company with various fundamental competences like the right to appoint and dismiss directors and auditors. These competences suit the concept of shareholder-democracy well. Thereafter, the author discusses the advantages and disadvantages of a future digitalization of information dissemination to the shareholders and the introduction of a virtual shareholders’ meeting. He then turns to the important issue of minority shareholder protection. Special emphasis is laid on their protection in the context of related party transactions between a parent company and its daughter companies. The contribution concludes with a discussion whether a firm should be predominantly managed in the interests of its shareholders or employees. The author regards it as almost impossible to decide on an abstract level whether a shareholder value-oriented system might work better than one focused on the interests of the employees. Rather one should try to discover which alternative suits a given company’s institutional environment better.

(The Editors)