Shareholding Networks in Japan

The Japanese shareholding network existing at the end of March 2002 is studied empirically. The network is constructed from 2,303 listed companies and 53 non-listed financial institutions. We consider this network as a directed graph by drawing edges from shareholders to stock corporations. The lengths of the shareholder lists vary with the companies, and the most comprehensive lists contain the top 30 shareholders. Consequently, the distribution of incoming edges has an upper bound, while that of outgoing edges has no bound. The distribution of outgoing degrees is well explained by the power law function with an exponential tail. The exponent in the power law range is γ = 1.7. To understand these features from the viewpoint of a company’s growth, we consider the correlations between the outgoing degree and the company’s age, profit, and total assets.