Month: March 2023

BDTI Director Training for Women Initiative 2023

2023-03-30 posted by

 

The Board Director Training Institute of Japan (“BDTI”) will again announce this year an initiative to sponsor board director training courses for women. The goal of the initiative is to equip highly qualified female leaders with the skills and training needed to succeed as board directors, and to proactively address the imbalance in board gender diversity in Japan by growing the pool of board-ready, qualified female director candidates.

Starting April 3rd, for qualified women who enroll to take any of BDTI’s director training courses as described below, one of the generous sponsor companies will cover all costs.  These Japanese and English-language training programs have been designed by leading experts in Japan to prepare candidates to serve as directors, statutory auditors, and executive officers in Japan. We look forward to many qualified woman taking advantage of this opportunity to receive director education.

Information &  Procedures for Application

【Applications】

Accepted from April 3, 2023 until funds depleted. Sponsors will determine whether to award scholarships to applicants. Scholarship applications are reviewed on a first-come, first-served basis, so please send your outline resume as soon as possible.

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BDTI Update, Plans for Next Year, and Scholarships Initiative

2023-03-27 posted by 2 Comments
BDTI Director Training

As the pandemic wound down through 2022, BDTI returned to in-person training. During FY2023, fully 55% of the participants in our “open enrollment” programs were women, thanks in large part to a generously sponsored program that funded “training scholarships” for women. The year before, the equivalent figure was only 32%. We would like to maintain this level of 50%+ female participation in order to spread knowledge of governance and directorship skills throughout all of Japanese society, which is BDTI’s core mission, and to promote the active inclusion of women in director and executive roles as part of that mission.

According to a METI survey, only 20% of listed companies are “taking action on director training”. In addition, while the CGC and related rules have enhanced disclosure, this new data is significantly underutilized. In FY2023, BDTI plans to intensify its activities to increase the quality and breadth of its programs, and to provide disclosure “big data” which facilitates effective stewardship and thereby improves the economy. To achieve our goals, we need to ask for your kind financial support.

We are pleased to report on our activities through March 2023 and our planned activities for the fiscal year 2023. The same information is also available in PDF format.

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Public Comment to METI’s Fair Acquisition Study Group

2023-03-25 posted by
Questions to Ask in Engagement

As an individual and not representing any organization, I submitted the public comment attached below to METI’s Fair Acquisition Study Group.
Nicholas Benes – Public Comment to the METI Fair Acquisition Study Group-03.15.2023

My conclusion:

” Instead, I believe that the study group should seriously consider proposing that Japan adopt the UK model for takeovers and similar transfers of control or substantial influence, and the UK’s rules for collective engagement. These rules fit much better with Japan’s systemic and corporate governance realities. Were this to be done, the following policies should be implemented:

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METRICAL: How Far Has Corporate Governance Progressed in 2022? (1) ~ Board Practices Section

2023-03-17 posted by

Metrical provides monthly corporate governance assessments of approximately 1,700 companies with market capitalization exceeding approximately 10 billion yen, primarily those listed on the TSE 1st Section. This year, continuing on from last year, I would like to see how far listed companies have progressed in their corporate governance efforts over the past year.

The chart below shows the changes in each of the evaluation items for approximately 1,700 companies in the Metrical Universe over the past 3 years (December 2020, December 2021, and December 2022). Metrical divides the evaluation items into Board Practices and Key Actions. This time, I will look at the Board Practices section. Let’s take a look at them in order.

The first chart shows the distribution of Metrical CG scores, which represent the overall corporate governance rating of a listed company across a number of corporate governance measures. The distribution of scores in December 2022 is indicated by purple bars. distribution of the bars shows that the distribution of the bars moves to the right (toward higher scores) with each subsequent year, from December 2020, December 2021, and December 2022. It can be inferred that listed companies have advanced their corporate governance initiatives in response to the revision of the Corporate Governance Code in 2021 and the market reorganization of the TSE in 2022. Let’s take a look at the contents of these efforts by evaluation item below.

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