Stock Market Capitalism: Japan and Germany Versus the Anglo-Saxons

Ronald Dore places recent developments in Japan in the broader context of gradual changes in modern patterns of capitalism common to all industrial societies—a process that he labels marketization plus financialization. His central focus is on the tendency for shareholder value to be preached as the sole legitimate objective of corporate executives, against the traditional aligment of Japan on the productivist, employee-favoring side of the divide.