Publications by Author: Miwa, Yoshiro

2006
Ramseyer, Mark J, and Yoshiro Miwa. 2006. The Fable of the Keiretsu: Urban Legends of the Japanese Economy. University of Chicago Press. Publisher's Version Abstract

For Western economists and journalists, the most distinctive facet of the post-war Japanese business world has been the keiretsu, or the insular business alliances among powerful corporations. Within keiretsu groups, argue these observers, firms preferentially trade, lend money, take and receive technical and financial assistance, and cement their ties through cross-shareholding agreements. In The Fable of the Keiretsu, Yoshiro Miwa and J. Mark Ramseyer demonstrate that all this talk is really just urban legend.

In their insightful analysis, the authors show that the very idea of the keiretsu was created and propagated by Marxist scholars in post-war Japan. Western scholars merely repatriated the legend to show the culturally contingent nature of modern economic analysis. Laying waste to the notion of keiretsu, the authors debunk several related “facts” as well: that Japanese firms maintain special arrangements with a “main bank,” that firms are systematically poorly managed, and that the Japanese government guided post-war growth. In demolishing these long-held assumptions, they offer one of the few reliable chronicles of the realities of Japanese business.

2005
Ramseyer, Mark J, and Yoshiro Miwa. 2005. “The Good Occupation”. Abstract
Many Americans picture the Allied (i.e., U.S.) Occupation of Japan (1945-52) as the quintessentially good occupation: elaborately planned in advance, idealistically administered until derailed by anti-Communist indeologues in its later years, it laid the foundation for Japan’s post-War democracy and prosperity. In fact, the Americans—especially those Americans celebrated as most "idealist"—did not plan a Japanese recovery, and for the first several years did not work for one. Instead, they mostly just planned retribution: whom to hang, and which firms to shutter. Economic issues they entrusted to Japanese bureaucrats, and those bureaucrats merely manipulated the controls they had used to disastrous effect during the War. Coming from a New Deal background in Washington, the Americans enthusiastically urged them on. Although the Japanese economy did grow, it did not grow because of the Occupation. It grew in spite of it. In early 1949, Japanese voters overwhelmingly rejected the political parties offering economic controls. In their stead, they elected center-right politicians offering a non-interventionist platform. These politicians then dismantled the controls, and (despite strong opposition from New Deal bureaucrats in the Occupation) imposed a largely non-interventionist framework. As a result of that choice—and not as result of anything the Occupation did—the Japanese economy grew.
Also John M. Olin Center for Law, Economics, and Business, Working Paper no. 514.
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Ramseyer, Mark J, and Yoshiro Miwa. 2005. “Trade Credit, Bank Loans, and Monitoring: Evidence from Japan”. Abstract
Firms in modern developed economies can choose to borrow from banks or from trade partners. Using first-difference and difference-in-differences regressions on Japanese manufacturing data, we explore the way they make that choice. Whether small or large, they do borrow from their trade partners heavily, and apparently at implicit rates that track the explicit rates banks would charge them. Nonetheless, they do not treat bank loans and trade credit interchangeably. Disproportionately, they borrow from banks when they anticipate needing money for relatively long periods, and turn to trade partners when they face short-term exigencies they did not expect. This contrast in the term structures of bank loans and trade credit follows from the fundamentally different way bankers and trade partners reduce the default risks they face. Because bankers seldom know their borrowers’ industries first-hand, they rely on guarantees and security interests. Because trade partners know those industries well, they instead monitor their borrowers closely. Because the costs to creating security interests are heavily front-loaded, bankers focus on long-term debt. Because the costs of monitoring debtors are on-going, trade creditors do not. Despite the enormous theoretical literature on bank monitoring, banks apparently monitor very little.
Also John M. Olin Center for Law, Economics, and Business, Working Paper no. 527.
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2002
In many ways, the current financial distress in Japan traces itself to the limited range of non-bank financial intermediaries available. That limited availability is itself a creature of regulation. By examining the recent deregulation of commercial paper issues by financial intermediaries, we explore the dynamics of the regulatory process that originally contributed to—if not caused—the current distress. We also use this case study to explore the dynamics of the Japanese legislative and regulatory process more generally. We characterize deregulation as a bargain between banks and the newer non-bank intermediaries: the banks acquiesced to commercial paper issues by non-banks, while the non-banks agreed to the regulatory jurisdiction of the Ministry of Finance. The non-banks obtained a cost-effective way to raise additional funds; the banks brought their new competitors within their regulatorily enforced cartel. At a specific level, the dynamics illustrate the classic Stiglerian theory of regulation; at a more general level, they illustrate the trans-national economic logic to the Japanese legislative and regulatory process.
Also John M. Olin Center for Law, Economics, and Business, Working Paper no. 373.
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