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Social norms strike back : why American financial practices failed in Japan
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Gotoh, Fumihito and Sinclair, Timothy J. (2017) Social norms strike back : why American financial practices failed in Japan. Review of International Political Economy, 24 (6). pp. 1030-1051. doi:10.1080/09692290.2017.1381983 ISSN 0969-2290.
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Official URL: https://doi.org/10.1080/09692290.2017.1381983
Abstract
Moody’s and Standard & Poor’s, the major American credit rating agencies, were expected to outcompete and overwhelm the local agencies in Japan during the 1990s. The local Japanese rating agencies were widely understood to be compromised by their links to government and banks. Why have the influence of the American agencies in Japan diminished, while the local Japanese agencies survived? We emphasize the concept of ‘systemic support’ as a solution to this puzzle. Our broadened definition of systemic support incorporates dominant elites’ support and protection of subordinates in exchange for loyalty and obedience. We argue Japanese society’s anti-liberal, anti-free market norms (epitomised by systemic support) are a form of counter-hegemony, and this has resisted American financial hegemony and prevented capitalist dominance from severing long-term social relations (including management-labour alliances). Credit rating in Japan is an ideational battlefield between the market liberalization and anti-free market camps within the Japanese elite. The American agencies’ market-friendly, short-term profit seeking mental framework clashes with the continuing attachment to systemic support in Japan. Similar conflicts can be witnessed in other constrained market economies in Asia and Europe, where corporate bailouts often occur, and local agencies compete against the American majors.
Item Type: | Journal Article | ||||||
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Subjects: | H Social Sciences > HG Finance | ||||||
Divisions: | Faculty of Social Sciences > Politics and International Studies | ||||||
Library of Congress Subject Headings (LCSH): | Credit ratings -- Japan, Credit ratings -- United States, Moody's investors service, Standard and Poor's corporation | ||||||
Journal or Publication Title: | Review of International Political Economy | ||||||
Publisher: | Routledge | ||||||
ISSN: | 0969-2290 | ||||||
Official Date: | 4 October 2017 | ||||||
Dates: |
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Volume: | 24 | ||||||
Number: | 6 | ||||||
Page Range: | pp. 1030-1051 | ||||||
DOI: | 10.1080/09692290.2017.1381983 | ||||||
Status: | Peer Reviewed | ||||||
Publication Status: | Published | ||||||
Access rights to Published version: | Restricted or Subscription Access | ||||||
Date of first compliant deposit: | 26 September 2017 | ||||||
Date of first compliant Open Access: | 4 April 2019 |
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