The lifetime employment system has been an effective tool for enclosing human resources within a certain company. Enclosure avoids check and balance from outsiders. The individual players as well as the group as a whole enjoy a check-free paradise. Neither the legislature nor the judiciary exercise enough power to monitor arbitrary administrative decisions. Japanese companies have managed to avoid serious pressure from stockholders, labor unions, and consumer groups.
Enclosure also discourages criticism from outside and inside.
Because no one wants to lose membership and its benefits, freedom of speech is more or less restricted among club members who want to do things differently. Although the banking association reluctantly deregulated this restriction, the bar association believes it is still entitled to its conservative ways, largely thanks to national borders, language barriers, and extraordinarily difficult bar exams. The combination of the two has proven to be very successful, at least to a point. No one denies that markets were segmented, rules were unfair, and inefficiency was preserved, yet everybody was in some way happy as long as membership in certain circles was procured. One might be an outsider in some circles, but a solid base in a specific important circle assured a modest standard of living, provided the total economic pie kept growing.