Japanese Commercial Transactions and Sanctions Revisited: Sumitomo v. UFJ

Abstract

As Japan’s “bubble economy” collapsed in 1989, Japanese government and industry turned to deregulatory policies as a way of restructuring the economy. As part of that process, formal law, legal institutions, and lawyers were all elevated as regulatory techniques. Rule-based, hierarchical controls became more visible.1 At the same time, informal regulation through changing social norms, industry practices, and selfregulation tools such as codes of conduct and ethics emerged in new forms. I call this process the “re-regulation” of Japan.