Management and governance of a regional company in pre-war Japan::The case of the Tone Electric Power Company

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The purpose of this paper is to investigate the management and governance of a joint-stock company in Japan in the 1910s, focusing on the case of the Tone Electric Power Company. The Tone Electric Power Company was established in 1909, whose supply area was assumed to be Gunma prefecture at first. However, through mergers and acquisitions of electricity companies in the neighborhood, it grew up to be a big business beyond a regional company, covering four prefectures as the supply area. Tone Electric Power's history is a good case for investigating the evolution of management and governance in a Japanese regional company.In the governance of the Tone Electric Power Company, the large stockholders basically played a central role, and in this sense, the corporate governance structure was close to the classic shareholders sovereignty. However, it is notable that the shareholders were not monolithic and each large shareholder acted for his own interest. And in this situation, the employed manager, Sozo Osawa, gradually got power and became relatively independent from the shareholders. This fact suggests that the governance structure of the Tone Electric Power was in transition from the classic one in the 1910s.
経営史学会の論文