Abstract: Since its inception in 1991, Keidanren's Charter of Corporate Behavior has undergone six revisions.Its paradigm has shifted from “crisis-responsive self-discipline” to “strategic CSR”, and further to “sustainable capitalism”, with its core principles elevating from “legal compliance” to “value co-creation”. This evolution is not a smooth, linear progression but is driven dually by international norms and domestic crises. Acting as an “institutional entrepreneur”, Keidanren selectively absorbs global agendas, such as CSR and the SDGs through two mechanisms of institutional change—“layering” and “conversion”—and anchors them within the indigenous tradition of “corporate citizenship” and the legacy of relational governance, ultimately forming a “hybrid responsibility paradigm” that combines international discourse with distinctly Japanese characteristics. However, this paradigm exhibits significant limitations: principle ambiguity, fragility of enforcement mechanisms, structural bias in elite consensus, and deep-seated tensions between global discourse and domestic path dependency. Analyzing this evolutionary process not only reveals the agency and boundaries of non-state actors in reconciling global standards with local practices, but also provides a theoretical reference for understanding the restructuring of business-society relations in East Asia and the institutional conditions for industry self-regulation.

Key words: Keidanren, Charter of Corporate Behavior, CSR, sustainable capitalism, glocalization