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Corporate governance in Japan – views of an Independent Board Director of a listed Japanese Company

Prime Minister Abe urges reform of corporate governance

Slow but steady change…

Reuters reports that Japan’s Prime Minister Abe urges company boards to reform corporate governance to include independent directors. I added the following comment.

Corporate governance in Japan: exercise of shareholder power and emergency situations

The question of independent Board Directors is often framed in terms of exercising shareholder power over the company, as is the main message of the article above. Another focus of discussions on the role of outside independent directors, is during emergencies, and here the Olympus case is often cited.

Corporate governance Japan: steady state contributions of independent directors

However, in my experience in Japan, including my work as a non-Japanese independent Board Director of a public Japanese company, enlightened companies will welcome independent Board Directors for their know-how and contributions to the company – in the end the market decides.

Docomo vs SoftBank

As an example, lets compare NTT-Docomo and SoftBank. NTT-Docomo has a homogeneous pure Japanese Board, while SoftBank has independent Directors from many different countries and from many different walks of life. SoftBank recently overtook NTT-Docomo in terms of market cap, revenues, operating income and net income.

In the end regulations have limitations, regulations influence behavior of course, but regulations do not produce business results or grow new business (with the exception of the compliance industry), and the realities of the market decide, as is the case of SoftBank.

SoftBank and SPRINT

As another example, SoftBank appointed Marcelo Claure, CEO of Brightstar Corporation and of Bolivian origin, to the Board. Masayoshi Son announced the appointment with the following words: “Marcelo’s experience as an entrepreneur and businessman who created and successfully grew a global telecommunications company will bring an invaluable perspective to Sprint’s board.” Note that Masayoshi Son clearly states that Marcelo Claure is appointed to bring invaluable know-how and experience to SPRINT, Masayoshi Son does not seem to be motivated by “increasing the power of the shareholders over Sprint”.

The “power of shareholders” is usually a matter of last resort, when all other methods fail.

Usually, when you have to show your power, its too late.

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