I recently attended a symposium where lawyers, financial regulators and a TSE representative discussed corporate scandals and how to address them. What was interesting was that everyone who spoke seemed to accept without question that companies did not just belong to the shareholders who owned them, but that their revenues represented the results of employee labor, payments by customers and so forth.
I mean, we all know that is the way it works in practice, but I have never seen it stated so openly and explicitly in such a context (e.g. “revenue generated by the company does not just belong to the shareholders, but was received through the hard work of employees, comes from purchases of the company’s products by consumers, etc.). One hears about “stakeholder capitalism” but it was fascinating to see it accepted so openly, including by people whose primary role in this context would seem to be enhancing shareholder protection.
The Board Director Training Institute (BDTI) is a "public interest" nonprofit in Japan dedicated to training about directorship, corporate governance, and related management techniques. It is certified by the Japanese government to conduct these activities as a regulated nonprofit. Read a summary about BDTI here, and see a menu of its services for both corporations and investors here.