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The politics of CSR in Japan

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  • Julia Bartosch

    (FFJ - Fondation France-Japon de l'EHESS - EHESS - École des hautes études en sciences sociales)

Abstract

The corporate governance (CG) system in Japan has long been relatively coordinated with long-term relationships between firms, owners and employees (Aguilera, Filatotchev, Gospel, & Jackson, 2008; Hall & Soskice, 2001; Yoshikawa, Tsui-Auch, & McGuire, 2007). However, the prevalence of non-market forms of interaction started to change in the late 1990s (Ahmadjian & Robbins, 2005; Jackson & Moerke, 2005), mostly due to a banking crisis and a discussion about the "modernity" of the Japanese economic system. Almost at the same time, around 2001, Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) started to be diffused in Japan and steadily developed as legitimate activity of large firms (Mun & Jung, 2018; Suzuki, Tanimoto, & Kokko, 2010). Recent studies have investigated the rise of CSR, explain the rise from different theoretical angles. For instance, the rise of CSR is portrayed as a result of a global shift towards economic liberalism, privatization and deregulation and thus was a way to legitimate these shifts ex ante and ex post (Kinderman, 2012). Within corporatist countries, CSR has been described as a tool that was instrumentally used to challenge, reinterpret, or evoke institutionalized social solidarity (Höllerer, 2013). In contrast, Lim and Tsutsui (2012) highlight the role of global institutional pressure through nongovernmental organizations, activists, governments and international organizations that encourage CSR adoption and thereby highlight the role of the world society approach and isomorphic pressures.

Suggested Citation

  • Julia Bartosch, 2019. "The politics of CSR in Japan," Working Papers hal-02139471, HAL.
    • Handle: RePEc:hal:wpaper:hal-02139471
    Note: View the original document on HAL open archive server: https://hal.science/hal-02139471
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    References listed on IDEAS

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    1. Gregory Jackson, 2005. "Stakeholders under Pressure: corporate governance and labour management in Germany and Japan," Corporate Governance: An International Review, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 13(3), pages 419-428, May.
    2. Toru Yoshikawa & Lai Si Tsui-Auch & Jean McGuire, 2007. "Corporate Governance Reform as Institutional Innovation: The Case of Japan," Organization Science, INFORMS, vol. 18(6), pages 973-988, December.
    3. Gregory Jackson & Andreas Moerke, 2005. "Continuity and Change in Corporate Governance: comparing Germany and Japan," Corporate Governance: An International Review, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 13(3), pages 351-361, May.
    4. Ruth V. Aguilera & Igor Filatotchev & Howard Gospel & Gregory Jackson, 2008. "An Organizational Approach to Comparative Corporate Governance: Costs, Contingencies, and Complementarities," Organization Science, INFORMS, vol. 19(3), pages 475-492, June.
    5. Nikolas Rathert, 2016. "Strategies of legitimation: MNEs and the adoption of CSR in response to host-country institutions," Journal of International Business Studies, Palgrave Macmillan;Academy of International Business, vol. 47(7), pages 858-879, September.
    6. Gregory Jackson & Androniki Apostolakou, 2010. "Corporate Social Responsibility in Western Europe: An Institutional Mirror or Substitute?," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 94(3), pages 371-394, July.
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