Trends in European Corporate Group Law Systems and the Future of Japan fs Corporate Law System

Balancing the interests of the parent company (the corporate group as a whole) and those of its subsidiaries when managing a corporate group is a challenge in corporate law. To address this challenge, legislative proposals based on the understanding that protecting the interests of subsidiaries should be the top priority have been repeatedly presented in Japan and Europe. However, in Europe, rules that appear to place priority on the activities of parent companies and corporate groups as a whole have recently been presented due to the practice of conducting corporate activities on a group basis and the effects of globalisation. This paper closely examines recent debates concerning this matter in Europe and identifies the factors that have brought changes in the basic thinking behind the debates. By doing so, the paper reviews existing views concerning corporate group law system in Japan (particularly in relation to the management of groups) and presents points of attention concerning how to proceed with future debates.