October 27th “Director Boot Camp” – Another Successful Program! Next Course: December 15th

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On October 27th, BDTI held its English Director Boot Camp , attended by a number of experienced participants. Participants from various companies heard lectures about corporate governance and related topics by Nicholas Benes and Andrew Silberman of AMT, and exchanged experiences and opinions at a spacious, comfortable room kindly donated for our use by Cosmo Public Relations, a leading communications and PR firm in Tokyo.

We are planning to hold the next course on December 15th. Sign up early!

Corporate Governance in Japan: Where Will It Go from Here? Where Should It? (Part 1 of a Series)

Japan has made significant steps forward in promulgating a stewardship code and a corporate governance code. Change and differentiation between companies (leaders vs. laggards) will accelerate from this point on; it is already accelerating. But how much impact will be made by the new “comply or explain”-based, potentially vastly-expanded disclosure regime, and menu of best practices that are being encouraged, will largely depend on how much investing institutions are willing to do the hard work of analyzing and comparing all this new information, assessing its true substance vs. the lack thereof, and proactively communicating with portfolio companies the kind of concrete practices and robust disclosure they would like to see next.

This Insight will be a series focusing on various issues that need to be understood and discussed deeply going forward, and will affect this process and the future evolution of governance in Japan.

Hoang C. C. et al : ”Institutional Investors and Trends in Board Refreshment”

”As many institutional investors have concluded, prevailing governance policies and practices have not produced desired board refreshment, which these investors would support in order to strengthen expertise, promote diversity and provide fresh perspectives in the board room. At the same time, companies and investors alike appreciate that term and age limits, as they have been typically applied, may not be the solutions, because they force the arbitrary retirement of valuable directors.

BCCJ: “Japan’s Corporate Governance Code: A UK Perspective”

“…..Guiding Principles

Some of the key themes in the Japanese and UK Codes are similar, for example the responsibillities and the independence of the Board, the internal risk and control framework, and engagement with stakeholders. However, implementing corporate governance in a practical and invulnerable way is often much more challenging than outlining the guiding principles.

Lessons from UK Experience

The UK experience could provide valuable lessons in the following areas:

Global Financial Literacy – Among Developed Nations, Japan Ranks Low, Just Slightly Higher than Italy

On the link below, you can download S&P's report comparing global financial literacy in various countries.  (See definition below.) S&P asked four simple questions about things like how interest works and ranked countries based on the percent of correct responses.  At 41%, Japan has a relatively low score among developed nations, which ranks it just above Italy in most respects.