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“…..Guiding Principles
Some of the key themes in the Japanese and UK Codes are similar, for example the responsibillities and the independence of the Board, the internal risk and control framework, and engagement with stakeholders. However, implementing corporate governance in a practical and invulnerable way is often much more challenging than outlining the guiding principles.
Lessons from UK Experience
The UK experience could provide valuable lessons in the following areas:
Andrew Silberman of AMT Group demonstrating how to have greater impact in board meetings:
Japan’s Government Pension Investment Fund has been blocked from investing directly in equities amid corporate fears that the $1.1tn state monolith could wield too great an influence over the private sector. The decision, reached on Wednesday by an “Critics of the world’s biggest sovereign pension fund say that, despite clear pressure from the government of […]
Glass Lewis has issued is policy guidelines for 2016 for the Japanese market, in both English and Japanese. It is a statement of the times that Glass Lewis made a Japanese translation this year, as they have not done that in previous years.
Japan’s Antimonopoly Act (the AMA) was recently amended so as to adopt a wider and deeper scope for the surcharge system, a leniency program, and the authority to investigate criminal cases as measures to strengthen enforcement.
At the same time, the TPP (which has been largely agreed upon) includes a provision which introduces a so-called “commitment” program in which corporations voluntarily address problems following agreements with the “national competition authority”. (This is the terminology used in the TPP.) Discussion about how to implement this feature of the TPP is now underway in Japan’s Fair Trade Commission (the JFTC). Moreover, the JFTC has shown showed interest in commencing discussions this year concerning a discretionary surcharge system. As if that was not enough, it seems that the AMA will soon be substantially amended again. Japan’s “national competition authority” is changing its views, and discussions within it are being influenced by enforcement practices in foreign countries.
This is an English translation of a presentation in Japanese that I have given recently to several influential members of the government.The opinions are my own.
”The main reason why the Japanese economy is sluggish is because Japanese companies do not withdraw from unprofitable operations and/or engage in sufficient industry consolidation, and as a result corporate assets are not reallocated to their best uses.
⇒ To resolve this requires the following:
A. Further enhancing corporate governance, and pension governance
Further strengthen corporate governance, mainly through the ongoing review of the Corporate Governance code (see 1 below)
Improve the governance of pension funds via a number of measures (see 2 below)
B. Eliminating rigidities in the labor market
Create the new employment classification of “Type 2 regular employees” (see 3 below)
