Coordinated Capitalism, Corporate Finance and the Pension System as a Source for Patient Capital: Germany and Japan compared

The paper looks at the interplay between 'capitalist production' and 'social protection'. It describes the role of the Japanese and German pension systems for both countries' postwar coordinated economies, in particular in providing the patient capital so essential for long-term economic coordination. It also shows how the recent opening up of the Japanese and German pension markets affected the political economies of both countries. US-Japan trade negotiations and European market integration provided foreign competitors with entry into the pension market and increasingly allowed domestic firms to opt out the national 'regulatory regime'.