MFJ Lunch Seminar - Japanese Economy and Society : Is Corporate Governance in Japan Headed to a Better Place?

Is Corporate Governance in Japan Headed to a Better Place?

The presentation will cover the topics related to corporate governance and the situation of Japanese companies at present. The contemporary historical perspective how and why Japan has reformed its corporate governance practices will first set the ground for short analytic views on the Corporate Governance Code. The relevant issue for economists is if and how companies are actually changing? And if yes, what tipping points are being reached and why?

One must take into account the fact that frustrations do exist and such are those by an outside director (depending on the company!) Although it is clear that different sorts of reforms are needed, what are possibly the next?

Case examples of relevant issues are, for instance, the state of director training in Japan, and how investors should engage with Japanese companies. There are trends revealed by market-wide data and some long term prognosis may be attempted as well – within the format allowed by the Eco-Lunch seminar.

Depending on time, the speaker will refer participants to presentation materials shared with them.

Speaker

Mr. Benes leads a non-profit organization, The Board Director Training Institute of Japan (BDTI), which has provided training for board members and executives on corporate governance and related management topics for over 10 years, and is supported by many institutional investor donors. BDTI is the one of only “public interest organizations” approved by the Japanese government to act in this area. In addition to training activities, BDTI promotes efficient analysis of corporate governance at all listed Japanese companies, by normalizing time-series data (including text) from all key disclosure documents.