Author: Admin

Swiss Institute of Directors Donates 600,000 Yen to BDTI

2023-04-16 posted by

Re: Donation of the Swiss Institute of Directors

2023 From: Hilb, Martin
Sent: Saturday, April 15, 2023
Dear Nicholas
Many thanks for your valuable BDTI’s update report for the FY 2022 and for the great summary of your plans for the current year which is very much appreciated. We would like to congratulate you and your team for your great achievements!
d
Per your request please receive a donation from the Swiss Institute of Directors which is also a not for profit organization. Best wishes and kind regards,
d
Martin Hilb
President of the Swiss Institute of Directors
———————————————————————————–

Read More

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.

Read More

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.

Read More

BDTI Year-End Donation Campaign and Update

2022-11-26 posted by
We would greatly appreciate it if you could possibly donate to BDTI, and even if not, forward this link to any and all.  Thank you for your support !
Friends, Supporters, and Compatriots Overseas , — As the end of the year approaches, we at The Board Director Training Institute of Japan want to recognize all of the people who have helped us fulfill our dream of adequately training directors in Japan. Our small organization and its passionate team have endured for 13 years, and have managed to have an outsized impact. For a full list of our recent activities, I hope you’ll read the update below of our recent activities and milestones, to see just how much of an impact your contributions can have, and for many of you, did have.
s
Every donation provides much-needed fuel for our many courses, seminars, webinars, and outreach activities in support of better corporate governance in Japan, where the market-clearing price for director training is still very low.  As you consider your tax position at the end of 2022, we humbly ask if you would be willing to contribute whatever you can to help us continue this amazing journey and the successes we’ve had.
s

Read More

9/13 “Director Boot Camp” Held by Zoom! Next Courses: 12/1 !

2022-09-15 posted by

On September 13, BDTI held its English Director Boot Camp via teleconference. The day-long intensive course was attended by 10 highly-experienced and highly interactive participants. The participants heard lectures about corporate governance by Nicholas Benes along with a guest lecture by Andrew Silberman of AMT, and exchanged experiences and opinions. Even during a pandemic, training continued smoothly, with all participants chiming in with insightful comments and questions.

Read More

BDTI Seeks Dialogue with Large Japanese Institutional Investors

2022-08-15 posted by

On July 27th, BDTI sent this letter to senior persons at Japan’s largest asset managers, asking for a dialogue and cooperation to improve Japanese boards via training, engagement, and data. Right now, we have fruitful dialogues with the many foreign institutional investors who are the source of 99% of donations to BDTI, or purchase our data, but very few dialogues with Japanese large investors. They could probably benefit from what we have learned providing director training to 2,500 persons over the past 11 years, and from what my colleagues and I have learned serving as independent directors for many years…. given that most fund managers have never sat on a board. We sent out letters like this last year, but received no responses. We will let you know what the result is this year; what kind of firms responded (if any) vs. not. （Note: the letter below is a translation from the original Japanese. )
=================================

Mr. /Ms. XXXX
President/Chairman/CIO
XXX Corporation

Dear ______________,

I am Nicholas Benes, Representative Director of the Board of Directors Training Institute (BDTI).

Since its establishment in 2009, BDTI has provided director and pre-director training, and has analyzed data on the status of corporate governance at listed companies, with the aim of improving governance in Japan.

Today, I would like to ask for your help in improving the quality of boards in Japan. This is something which will lead to the greater attractiveness of the Japanese stock market, which is the source of your firm’s profits. I have contacted you because I believe that we are both striving towards this common goal.

Read More

My Letter to Mark Facebook at Facebook/Meta

2022-08-15 posted by

The Board Director Training Institute of Japan has sent the letter set forth below to the Mark Zuckerberg,m CEO of Meta Plataforms, Inc. (Facebook), asking FB to make it possible for Japanese users  to donate to certified non-profits in Japan, rather than just the US, Germany, Denmark and many other countries that are listed in the current drop-down menu.  It would be very easy for Facebook to implement this change, because their drop-down menu for donations is linked to each country’s list of certified non-profits, and Japan’s cabinet office also furnishes a convenient web page (a “registry”) for purposes such as this.  It doesn’t make sense for Japanese users (say on their friend’s birthday) to be limited to donating on that friend’s behalf to a nonprofit in Luxembourg or Denmark or the U.S. (This is not to deny anything to charities in those countries, but rather, to state the obvious.)   We have also sought to contact persons in Facebook Japan’s office about this, but have not yet received any answer as of this writing (August 15, 2022).

=============================         July 27, 2022

Mr. Mark Zuckerberg
CEO
Meta/ Facebook
1 Hacker Way
Menlo Park, California
94025    USA

CC: copies also sent to
Director of Communications
Director of Fundraising Activities Team
Board of Director members via Corporate Secretary

Dear Mr. Zuckerberg,

The Board Director Training Institute of Japan (BDTI), which I lead from here in Tokyo, is a “public interest” nonprofit certified as such by the Japanese government. We provide: 1) training about directorship and corporate governance in Japan; 2) analysis and information dissemination about corporate governance; and 3) structured long-term big data taken from three separate types of disclosure reports in Japan. These are our major activities as approved by Japan’s Cabinet Office.

Read More

Video of “The General Counsel as Board Member – Discussion with Larry Bates, Panasonic’s first General Counsel”

2022-08-02 posted by 1 Comment

This webinar explores how in Japan there was no traditional role of “General Counsel” (GC), in Japanese companies. However, as Japanese companies have expanded and globalized, more of them are realizing that it is essential to have an actual licensed attorney serve as the “Chief Legal Officer” (CLO), serving a broader, more senior, and influential role.

BDTI’s own Nicholas Benes interviews the well-known Larry Bates, who recently stepped down from his role as Panasonic’s first General Counsel. During the past 30 years, Larry has served as General Counsel at three different companies, all of which operated in a global legal context. To provide actionable advice and perspectives to Japanese companies, the interview focuses on key issues such as: “What should be the GC’s role and mission, and how does the concept of “GC” differ from the traditional Japanese model?” and “What are the pros and cons of having the GC sit on the board and what is his or her relationship with the board and other executives?” – among other questions.

Included is a short panel discussion with other experienced legal advisors and independent directors at global companies. Larry Bates is joined by Chika Hirata, currently Regional Head of Ethics and Compliance at Takeda, and the former CLO and Corporate Secretary at MetLife Japan; and by Yumiko Ito of Ito Law Office, who also serves as an independent director for Kobe Steel, Ltd. and as an independent corporate auditor for Santen Pharmaceutical, Co., Ltd., and has served as General Counsel at Sharp Corporation, GE Medical Systems Japan, and Microsoft Japan.

Read More

Hibiki Path Advisors to Tokyo Stock Exchange: Concern about Japanese Companies and the Japanese Stock Market

2022-07-15 posted by

This article (letter to the Tokyo Stock Exchange (cc: portfolio companies) is posted by BDTI on behalf of Yuya Shimizu, Hibiki Path Advisors Pte. Ltd. **************************************************************************** [English translation of a letter sent by Hibiki Path Advisors to Tokyo Stock Exchange] To: Yamaji Hiromi, President & CEO 2-1 Nihombashi Kabutocho, Chuo-ku Tokyo 103-8220 Japan Tokyo Stock […]

Read More

Governance Screening Tool for ALL Companies in Japan – Just ONE of GoToData Dashboard’s Features!

2022-05-30 posted by

GoToData Dashboard’s screening tool shows us that only 75% (1464) of all TSE1 firms have nom + com committees, but only 842 of them are chaired by outside directors. At only 51 of those firms does an outside director serve as chair of the board, and 44 firms in that group have at least one female board member. Below, read more of the interesting results from this demonstration of the screening tool.

Read More