From Page 11 – 「 (8) Views on the appointment of external directors
For this month's spot question, we asked individual investors about their views on the appointment of external directors. On the issue of making the appointment of external directors mandatory, the highest proportion of respondents—32.4%—chose the answer appointing more than one clearly independent external director should be mandatory ….
Asked whether they had taken into consideration whether companies had external directors when they made equity investments in the past, or if they intended to do so in the future, the most popular answer selected by more than half of respondents—54.3%—was Have not taken into consideration before, but will do so in future
…Note: The question was as follows: Revisions to Japan's Companies Act are being debated with a view to preventing corporate fraud and improving management transparency. In this context, please give us your views on making the appointment of external directors mandatory, one idea under consideration. Please consider this issue with respect to listed companies. We asked respondents to choose one of the possible responses listed above. We defined independence within the available responses as indicating the lack of any interest in the company outside the external director relationship (such as being family members of senior managers or board members, or being an employee/director of the parent company)….
….Note: The question was as follows: ―Japanese corporate governance is attracting growing attention in the wake of recent company scandals. Some hold the view that the appointment of external directors needs to be made mandatory for Japanese companies to establish the necessary corporate governance framework. In your investments in shares thus far, have you taken into account whether companies have external directors? Do you intend to take this into consideration in the future? We asked respondents to choose one of the possible responses listed above.」
The full survey report:
http://bdti.mastertree.jp/f/wcolsiet
(Click on Download Original Asset at lower right)
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.