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Thanks to the sponsorship of Advisory Research (Drew Edwards) and Econvue (Lyric Hale), Nicholas Benes of BDTI gave a seminar/course on the topic of “The Vital Role of Director Training in Japan’s Corporate Governance Reforms”, in Chicago on September 26, 2016.
BDTI’s first overseas “Director Boot Camp” was successfully held on Tuesday, 13th September in San Francisco. Almost every participant was a fluent speaker of Japanese, which bodes well for the future of Japan’s director pool.
We would like to thank our co-sponsors, the Japan Society of Northern California, and the donor of the wonderful conference room we used, the law firm of Morgan, Lewis & Bockius.
For the first time in Japan, Doshisha Law School and Pepperdine School of Law’s Straus Institute for Dispute Resolution are jointly offering an international version of Straus’s acclaimed Mediating the Litigated Case ™ program.
An intensive course delivered from November 28-December 3 (no class on November 29), this program is an ideal opportunity for lawyers, administrators, conflict resolution specialists, educators and other professionals to learn U.S.-style mediation and the ways it is different from Japanese-style mediation and conciliation techniques.
The venue is Doshisha University’s Tokyo seminar center, conveniently located near Tokyo station and easily accessible to professionals working or staying in Tokyo.
You can download the program here.
The Board Director Training Institute of Japan (BDTI) is a government-certified nonprofit providing one-day “director training” courses in English and Japanese, and governance-related seminars and e-learning courses. These programs teach participants key knowledge needed to serve on, report to, or analyze boards in Japan.
What topics are covered by such programs, and why? What issues surround the introduction of director training, or governance training, in the case of Japan? Why is training believed to be utterly essential to the success of Japan’s corporate governance reforms? What is the best approach – who needs to betrained, how? Why is the potential upside for Japan’s economy big?
In this seminar event, the proposer of Japan’s Corporate Governance Code will answer these questions, using the binders and documents that are actually used in BDTI’s English course. The program will kick off with lunch at 12:oo noon. Starting about 4:00 pm until 6:00 pm, the lecturer will lead interactive discussion about what the reforms mean from an investor’s perspective, what changes and debates are taking place “behind the scenes” in Japanese companies now, and what sort of tactics for investment and engagement with Japanese companies are likely to be most effective.
The Japan Audit & Supervisory Board Members Association published an English explanatory memorandum on the Audit & Supervisory Board Members, which explains their role and activities to overseas people who may be unfamiliar with various aspects due to the uniqueness of the Japan”s Audit & Supervisory Board Member system.
BDTI’s July 14th English Director Boot Camp was a great success, with active participation by a diverse group of Japanese, American、and Asian persons! Everyone in the room benefited from the perspectives and experience of this high-level group.
Just to add a few additional points in addition to Nick’s insightful comments–> Given (a) evidence that productivity in Japan is very strongly influenced by investment-specific technology, and (b) evidence that services sectors in the non-IT sector were “left behind” while manufacturing and IT sectors were able to capitalise on the technology boom, it makes sense to focus efforts on structural reform in the services sector.
Still, as Fukao, Miyagawa and Hisa demonstrated in their 2012 paper,increasing intangible capital alone has proven no indicator of rising TFP in the services sector. This may explain why policies designed to promote growth via intangible investment in services sector in the early 2000’s were misplaced.
So what are the policy alternatives? The second TFP paper gives us some key policy ingredients:
The the news of the day is that GPIF is suing Toshiba for ＄１０ million． It is only one asset manager that is suing, almost certainly under Article 21-2 Japan securities law (FIL) which makes it very easy for plaintiffs to sue and claim a “presumed damages amount”, and then shifts the burden of proof to the defendant company (unlike US law) to disprove its negligence. The stock has come down by about 26% or so. (Interestingly, Japanese securities law in this area is much harsher than US law, which never shifts the burden of proof in such cases.)
”A: The decision makes sense in light of the pace of growth in the country and the pace of growth in the global economy. At the same time, I think it’s important that attention be put on securing sustainable public financing in the long run. I think a postponement makes sense because the economy needs fiscal support rather than fiscal contraction right now. But at the same time, we would like to see a redesign of the consumption tax, where it’s introduced with increases coming in small percentages every year in the regular way, so that the decision is not political. It’s automatic, so that the effects aren’t so big, so that the growth needs of the economy can be taken care of.
But we certainly agree that the amount of public debt will need to be brought down. Getting to a primary balance is an important goal. [Japan needs to] continue to make progress in consolidation and make sure that public financing is made sustainable.
The string of resignations by CEOs, who are invariably in Japan the Representative Director as well, continues as a result of weak Boards, weak oversight from the Audit Committees and the absence of truly independent outside directors. http://asia.nikkei.com/Japan-Update/Admitting-oversight-limits-Suzuki-to-step-down-as-CEO