Transformation Toward Shareholder Value-Oriented Management and Corporate Governance in Japan and Germany after the 1990s: Resurgence of the Americanization of Business Management

After the 1990s, influence and pressure on business management by the capital market became stronger under the United States-led “financialization” and the globalization of finance. Such changes can be seen in the transformation toward shareholder value-oriented management and capital market-oriented corporate governance. However, such a transformation toward the American management model greatly differs among nations with no tendency of convergence. Therefore, this chapter examines the transformation toward shareholder value-oriented management and corporate governance in both Japan and Germany in relation to the financing and ownership structures of companies, the changes in the managerial behaviors of banks, the values of management, and the organization of top management. Furthermore, it considers critical changes in the characteristic of the Americanization of business management after the 1990s compared with previous such phenomena and discusses the overall significance of these changes.