Category: Investment

The recent decision by the MOJ’s Advisory Committee on the Company Law made it clear that for the next ten years or so, in terms of the composition of Japanese boards, the most that investors can expect will be soft-law rules requiring (or encouraging) the appointment of only one independent director at listed companies. Thus, most Japanese boards will remain overwhelmingly dominated by internal executives.

The following very useful explanation appearedon Governance Metrics International’s web site. GMI is the leading independent provider of global corporate governance and ESG ratings and research. Corporate stakeholders – including leading investors, insurers, auditors, regulators and others – use GovernanceMetrics services to identify and monitor risks related to non-financial measures covering key environmental, social, governance and accounting risk factors. (Memo by James James Kaplan, Co-Founder and Chief Executive.)

Quotes and Related Sections: There’s no quality control on outside directors and no training requirement

( August 06, 2012 Hideo Aiba ) A series of insider trading scandals involving Nomura Securities and others have cast a dark cloud over Japan's capital markets. But this is just the tip of the iceberg, says financial journalist Hideo Aiba.

A series of insider trading scandals involving Nomura Securities and others have cast a dark cloud over Japan's capital markets. But this is just the tip of the iceberg, says financial journalist Hideo Aiba.

[From the web site of the UK Department for Business Innovation and Skills) – A new independent review from Professor John Kay sets out measures to transform UK equity markets. The report recommends that there should be a much needed shift in the culture of the stock market.

Excellent entry to the Harvard Law School Form on Corporate Governance and Financial Regulation, summarizing the results and trends in the most recent proxy season.

http://blogs.law.harvard.edu/corpgov/2012/07/21/2012-proxy-season-review-overall-trends-in-shareholder-proposals/

The Board Director Training Institute of Japan (BDTI) is pleased to announce that Fidelity Worldwide Investments has become a Special Sponsor of our organization.

I read news that the governement will not likely to pursue to make it a legal requirement to have an outside board member. If this is true, a big disappointment!

This is a BBC TV Interview about SONY. The expert being interviewed, Gerhard Faso lwas a BDTI DirectorBoot Camp student.

Key findings of the interview-based research include:

1. Proxy firms’ role as data aggregators become increasingly important to asset managers
2. Proxy advisers’ influence extends well beyond the moment of voting, but mutual funds consider multiple factors
3. Asset managers have wide range of approaches to decision-making across the voting process
4.Three questions about level of internal deliberation on voting matters can help outside observers evaluate independence of asset managers' decisions