| The principal purpose of this work is to broaden the scope of comparative research on the institution of corporate retirement benefits from those centering on the labor market and the financial market to the total socio-economic system including the field of corporate governance that clarifies the features of corporate management, and government-private relation covering regulative measures. Through institutional comparison of corporate retirement benefits in the US and Japan, it was confirmed that the relation-based system of Japan is taking in some parts of the rule-based system of the US, particularly in the financial area, with major environmental changes of market globalization, lower economic growth, rapid aging and diversification of life styles apparent in Japan. However, it is estimated that Japan's socio-economic system will not integrate to the US socio-economic system but will converge to a different balance, which is prominent in the employment practices. The direction of institutional reform indicates the evolution to a post-industrial capitalism model that pursues profit from differentiation. |
