Different Paths of Corporate Governance Reform after the 1997 Crisis

As Far-East Asia was shaken by the 1997 financial crisis, corporate governance reforms have become as priority in many countries. Corporate governance structure and their regulating frameworks have gone through significant changes following many international benchmarks that promoted adoption of new, primarily Anglo-Saxon, practices. This paper aims to examine closer the corporate governance reforms of two Far-East Asian countries, namely Japan and South Korea. Since the Asian economies rapidly grow, a special focus on the firms¿ disclosure practices in their annual reports and the publication of the firms¿ risk management policies receive higher importance for investors and for global economic strategy developers. This research also reveals the extent of disclosure of the top 30 largest companies of the two countries, which currently occupy leading positions in the global market. The topic is of interest because of the unique business cultures of the two countries and the increasing importance of transparency which may contribute to good investor and public relations.