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Black Mist and White Collars: Economic Crime in the United States and Japan

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Abstract

Comparative studies of crime have persistently challenged and daunted criminology scholars. For criminologists studying Japan, interest has traditionally been focused on the country’s much-heralded low crime rate. The current study examines white-collar lawbreaking in both the United States and Japan, focusing on similarities and differences in culture, law, criminal justice system response, corporate governance, and regulation. The study concludes that if Japan’s low crime rate is an enigma to criminologists, then its ample amounts of white-collar and corporate crime appear that much more puzzling. Given that the depth of the problem of white-collar crime goes far beyond adjudicated cases, Japan’s remarkably low rate of common crime is likely eclipsed by its rate of white-collar and corporate crime. The study concludes that the different legal and cultural contexts of the “law in inaction” go far in explaining the official nonrecognition of white-collar and corporate crime in both the United States and Japan.

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Notes

  1. Malcolm M. Feeley, “Comparative Criminal Law for Criminologists: Comparing for What Purpose?” In David Nelken (ed.), Comparing Legal Cultures. Aldershot, UK: Dartmouth, 1997, pp.93–104; David T. Johnson, “American Law in Japanese Perspective.” Law & Social Inquiry 28:3 (2003), pp. 771–798.

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  3. Setsuo Miyazawa, “The Enigma of Japan as a Testing Ground for Cross-Cultural Criminological Studies.” In David Nelken, (ed.), Comparing Legal Cultures. Aldershot, UK: Dartmouth, 1997, p 195.

  4. Ibid, p. 195; also see Feeley, op. cit.

  5. Nobuo Komiya, “A Cultural Study of the Low Crime Rate in Japan,” British Journal of Criminology 39 (3) (summer 1999):369–390; see also Charles R. Fenwick, “Culture, Philosophy and Crime: The Japanese Experience,” International Journal of Comparative and Applied Criminal Justice, 9:1 (1985):67–81. See generally Ruth Benedict, The Chrysanthemum and the Sword: Patterns of Japanese Culture. New York: Houghton Mifflin, 1946.

  6. Yuki Tanaka, Hidden Horrors: Japanese War Crimes in World War II. Boulder, CO: Westview, 1996; George L. Hicks, Comfort Women: Japan’s Brutal Regime of Enforced Prostitution in the Second World War. New York: W.W. Norton, 1995.

  7. Benedict, op. cit.

  8. Harold R. Kerbo and Mariko Inoue, “Japanese Social Structure and White Collar Crime: Recruit Cosmos and Beyond,” Deviant Behavior 11, 1990:139–154, p. 148.

  9. Komiya, p. 372.

  10. Ibid, p. 374.

  11. Ibid, p. 375; For an excellent discussion of the use and meaning of rights in Japanese legal culture see Eric Feldman, “Patients’ Rights, Citizens’ Movements and Japanese Legal Culture.” In David Nelken (ed.), Comparing Legal Cultures. Aldershot, UK: Dartmouth, 1997, pp. 215–236.

  12. Komiya, p. 379.

  13. Edwin H. Sutherland, “White-Collar Criminality,” American Sociological Review 5 (1940):1–12; Stanton Wheeler, David Weisburd, Elin Waring, and Nancy Bode, “White Collar Crimes and Criminals,” American Criminal Law Review 25:3 (1988):331–358; David O. Friedrichs, Trusted Criminals: White-Collar Crime in Contemporary Society, (3rd ed.), Belmont, CA: Thomson Wadsworth, 2007; Stephen M. Rosoff, Henry N. Pontell, and Robert H. Tillman, Profit Without Honor: White-Collar Crime and the Looting of America (4th ed.), Upper Saddle River, NJ: Prentice Hall, 2007; Gilbert Geis, White-Collar and Corporate Crime, Upper Saddle River, NJ: Prentice Hall, 2007.

  14. Edwin H. Sutherland, White Collar Crime. Translated by Ryushi Hirano and Koji Iguchi. Tokyo: Iwanami Shoten, 1955.

  15. Minoru Yokoyama, “Analysis of Political Corruption in Japan,” Kokugakuin Journal, 42:4 (2005): 208–256; Tomomi Kawasaki, “White Collar Crime and the Reactions of the Criminal Justice System in the U.S. and Japan.” In Henry N. Pontell and Gilbert Geis, (eds.), International Handbook of White-Collar and Corporate Crime. New York: Springer, 2007, pp. 552–567.

  16. Albert J. Reiss, Jr. and Albert Biderman, Data Sources on White-Collar Law-Breaking. Washington, DC: U.S. Department of Justice, National Institute of Justice, 1980.

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  18. Johnson, op. cit., p. 787.

  19. Ibid, p. 778.

  20. Ibid.

  21. Komiya, p. 386.

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  23. Michael Gottfredson and Travis Hirschi, A General Theory of Crime. Stanford, CA: Stanford University Press, 1990.

  24. Kerbo and Inoue, p. 141.

  25. Ibid.

  26. Gilbert Geis and Joseph F. DiMento, “Empirical Evidence and the Legal Doctrine of Corporate Criminal Liability,” American Journal of Criminal Law, 29 (2002):345–375; Tomomi Kawasaki, op. cit.

  27. Kawasaki, op. cit.

  28. Damien Schiff, “Samaritans: Good, Bad and Ugly: A Comparative Law Analysis,” Roger Williams Law Review, 11 (2005):77–141.

  29. Kawasaki, op. cit.

  30. Ibid.

  31. Ibid; Another reason for lower civil penalties in Japan according to Kawasaki and others is because of the public’s greater trust in corporations as compared to that which exists in the United States.

  32. V. Lee Hamilton and Joseph Sanders, “Corporate Crime Through Citizens’ Eyes: Stratification and Responsibility in the United States, Russia, and Japan.” Law & Society Review, 30:3 (1996): 513–548.

  33. Ibid, p. 530.

  34. Ibid.

  35. John C. Coffee, Jr. “’No Soul to Damn, No Body to Kick’: An Unscandalized Inquiry into the Problem of Corporate Punishment,” Michigan Law Review, 79 (1981):386–459.

  36. John Braithwaite, Crime, Shame and Reintegration. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1989.

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  40. John Braithwaite, Markets in Vice, Markets in Virtue. Annandale, NSW, Australia: Federation Press, 2005, p. 133.

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  42. Yokoyama, p. 222.

  43. Johnson, The Japanese Way of Justice; See also, Henry N. Pontell, Kitty Calavita, and Robert Tillman, “Corporate Crime and Criminal Justice System Capacity: Government Response to Financial Institution Fraud,” Justice Quarterly 11:3 (1994) pp. 383–410.

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  46. Robert E. Pierre and Juliet Eilperin, “Taficant is Found Guilty.” Washington Post, April 12, 2002, p. 1.

  47. Juliet Eilperin,, “House Votes 420 to 1 to Expel Taficant.” Washington Post, April 25, 2002, p. A1.

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  49. Masahiko Matsukawa, Misogi Rensei-Dokuhon. Tokyo: Sakuragi Shobo, 1944.

  50. Berkshire Hathaway Inc., Annual Report 2002, p. 16.

  51. William K. Black, The Best Way to Rob a Bank is to Own One. Austin: University of Texas Press, 2005.

  52. Zenichi Shishido, Japanese Corporate Governance: The Hidden Problems of Corporate Law and Their Solutions, Delaware Journal of Corporate Law 25 (2000): 189–226.

  53. Ibid, p. 202; See also Curtis Milhaupt and Mark West, Economic Organizations and Corporate Governance in Japan: The Impact of Formal and Informal Rules. New York: Oxford University Press, 2004.

  54. Ibid, p. 191.

  55. Mark D. West, “Information, Institutions, and Extortion in Japan and the United States: Making Sense of Sokaiya Racketeers,” Northwestern University Law Review, 93 (1999):767–817, p. 767.

  56. Ibid, p. 768.

  57. The Japan Times, “Seibu Railway President Steps Down,” April 9, 2004, p. 1.

  58. The Japan Times, “Mr. Tsutsumi’s Lack of Accountability,” October 30, 2004, p. 1.

  59. The Japan Times, “Seibu Rail Shirked Board Meetings,” December 19, 2004, p. 1.

  60. William K. Black, “The Dango Tango: Why Corruption Blocks Real Reform in Japan.” Business Ethics Quarterly, 14:4 (2004): 602–623.

  61. Ibid, p. 604.

  62. The Asahi Shimbun, “Arrests at UFJ Bank: This is Likely Just the Tip of the Iceberg,” December 3, 2004, p. 1.

  63. Henry N. Pontell, Stephen M. Rosoff, and Jason Lam, “The Role of Fraud in the Japanese Financial Crisis: A Comparative Study,” in Henry N. Pontell and David Shichor (eds.), Contemporary Issues in Crime and Criminal Justice: Essays in Honor of Gilbert Geis. Upper Saddle River, NJ: Prentice Hall, 2001, pp. 321–340.

  64. Black, op. cit., p. 618.

  65. The Asahi Shinbum, op. cit.

  66. Kitty Calavita and Henry N. Pontell, “The State and White-Collar Crime: Saving the Savings and Loans,” Law and Society Review 28:2 (1994):297–324; Kitty Calavita, Henry N. Pontell, and Robert Tillman, Big Money Crime: Fraud and Politics in the Savings and Loan Crisis. Berkeley: University of California Press, 1997.

  67. Kawasaki, op. cit.

  68. Black, op. cit., p. 605.

  69. John McMillan, “Dango: Japan’s Price Fixing Conspiracies,” Canberra, Australia. Research School of Pacific Studies, Australian National University, 1991.

  70. Gordon, 1996, 4–71; Gilbert Geis, White-Collar Crime: The Heavy Electric Equipment Antitrust Case of 1961. In Marshall B. Clinard and Richard Quinney (eds) Criminal Behavior Systems: A Typology. New York: Holt, Rinehart, and Winston, 1967, 139–150.

  71. Shin Watanabe, “Dubious Deals Created Livedoor Monster.” The Daily Yomiuri, January 18, 2006, p. 8.

  72. John Braithwaite, Crime, Shame and Reintegration. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1989, p. 136.

  73. Rosoff, Pontell, and Tillman, op. cit.

  74. Braithwaite, op. cit.

  75. The Daily Yomiuri, “Legal Trump Card to Protect Consumers?” May 15, 2006, p. 4D.

  76. John Braithwaite, “What’s Wrong With the Sociology of Punishment?” Theoretical Criminology 7:1 (2003):5–28.

Acknowledgement

We thank Tokikazu Konishi, Tomomi Kawasaki, Minoru Yokoyama, Eric Feldman, Susan Bibler Coutin, Kari Ferver, and three anonymous reviewers for their thoughtful suggestions.

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  1. Department of Criminology, Law and Society, University of California, Irvine, CA, 92697, USA

    Henry N. Pontell & Gilbert Geis

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Correspondence to Henry N. Pontell.

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Pontell, H.N., Geis, G. Black Mist and White Collars: Economic Crime in the United States and Japan. Asian Criminology 2, 111–126 (2007). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11417-007-9032-1

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