Using an institutional and empirical approach, this book analyzes the role of formal rules (law and regulations) and informal rules (norms, practices, and shared beliefs) in the Japanese economy. Through in-depth studies of corporate governance and finance, mergers and acquisitions, financial regulation, and markets for everything from venture capital to legal talent and organized crime, Milhaupt and West show that institutions play a crucial and heretofore overlooked role in the structure of the Japanese economy, which often is portrayed as being governed exclusively by interpersonal relations and bureaucratic fiat.