Month: April 2020

April 20th “Director Boot Camp” Course Held by Video Conference! Next Course: July 8th, 2020!

2020-04-23 posted by

On April 20th, in the midst of the Corona virus pandemic, BDTI held its English Director Boot Camp via a teleconference arrangement. The day-long intensive course was attended by 10 highly-experienced participants, including two Ambassadors, one General Counsel, and senior executives. The participants heard lectures about corporate governance by Nicholas Benes, and Andrew Silberman of AMT, and exchanged experiences and opinions. Despite the IT challenges everything went smoothly, with breaks for everyone to stretch their legs or review materials in more depth.

We are planning to hold the next course on Wednesday, July 8, 2020. Sign up early! Please see a description of our director training course here or click the button below for further information.

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Japan’s FSA is Planning to Postpone the Deadline for Submission Annual Report for March-end (Accounting Term) Companies Until the End of September.

2020-04-13 posted by

According to the FSA on the 10th, the Financial Services Agency will postpone the deadline for submitting annual reports for the companies closing in March for three months, until the end of September, considering the effects of the new corona virus. The coucil composed of the Japan Institute of Certified Public Accountants, Tokyo Stock Exchange and Keidanren announced on the same day. It is expected to be officially decided next week. Financial Services Agency has begun to consider postponing the deadline for submitting annual reports required for listed companies, including the reporting of companies as of end of March and quarterly reports of companies as of end of December last year.

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The New Whistle-blower Protection Bill, from the Perspective of the Olympus Case

2020-04-07 posted by

The current Whistleblower Protection Act was enacted in 2004 and was enforced in 2006. It was said that the scandals of the recall cover-up by Mitsubishi Motors and the disguised beef origin by Snow Brand Foods brought the new Act. However, from the beginning, it was criticized that the range of target facts was too narrow, prevention measures for retaliation were not effective, etc. Based on the supplementary resolutions of the Diet and the supplementary provisions of the Act, the Consumer Commission Whistleblower Protection Special Research Committee was established, and discussions were underway for revision. However, the speed was very slow. The Committee finally issued the report in December 2018. Public comments were solicited for the new appendix table to the Act regarding the target laws. The amendment bill was approved by the Cabinet on March 9, 2020. It is now planned to submit to the National Assembly.

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METRICAL: Willingness to Change

2020-04-02 posted by

We have observed the number of female directors as a key factor on board practices to measure how a company is willing to change. The table below shows the correlation analysis between the number of female directors and performance key measures such as ROE (actual), ROA (actual) and Tobin’s Q on the 1,755 companies as of March 31, 2020. We have seen the statistically significant positive correlation between ROE (actual or results) and the factor since we started the correlation analysis with correlation analysis with BDTI in 2017. Now, the factor shows the sign of significance to ROA (actual or results) in this month, updating the data of December fiscal year end companies after AGMs.

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METRICAL: March – Prices Fell Sharply But CG Top20 Stocks Outperformed

2020-04-02 posted by

The market price in March 2020 continued to fluctuate with high fluctuations due to concerns about the spread of the Coronavirus around the world. Approximately half of the sharp decline by mid-month recovered at the end of the month. Both Topix and JPX400 stocks have fallen sharply in March for the month of -6.46% and -6.79% respectively. The Top20 CG rating score was -6.22%, outperforming the previous month at -0.30% compared to the two main stock indices, with a lower rate of decline. By the way, the stock prices of the ten companies with the top 10 CG rating scores were -1.44%, which was even smaller.

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