Nice to see that my personal push that resulted in the CG Code revision re pension fund governance mentioned in the article below, has now led to 14 pensions of non-financial corporates that signed the Stewardship Code…. up from one two years ago. https://www.al-in.jp/investmentjapan/2922/
But as to independent directors on boards, keep in mind that these statistics use the numbers that the companies CLAIM to be “independent” directors, whereas if you follow the TSE’s own definition of independence, the number of INEDs on TSE1 company boards is actually only about 66% of the numbers used in the chart. BDTI database shows this.
Still, step by step there is progress here. Soon to come, I think, is better regulation of listed subsidiaries. How much better, we will see. But at least the government is explicitly mentioning the issues, rather than avoiding the problem entirely. See the article: “Japan to curb conflicts of interest in parent-subsidiary listings” (Nikkei)
Nicholas Benes