Exchange of Views on the Promotion of Corporate Governance Reforms
[Provisional translation]
On April 3, 2024, Prime Minister Kishida attended an exchange of views on the promotion of corporate governance reforms at the Prime Minister’s Office.
Based on the exchange of views, Prime Minister Kishida said:
“Today we received valuable opinions from all of you who are globally renowned for your asset management experience and insights into corporate governance.
We believe that it is necessary to constantly strengthen corporate governance reforms in order to ensure a growing reputation about the Japanese market that we received from you.
As it reported, the Tokyo Stock Exchange (TSE) requested listed companies to realize management that is conscious of cost of capital and stock price, including price-book value ratio (PBR). Starting this year, the exchange also makes public a list of companies that are pushing ahead with such efforts.
With a view to further enhancing the earning power of Japanese companies, it is important for enterprises that have yet to take their first step to steadily put efforts to improve corporate value into practice through dialogue with investors.
In addition, we will actively proceed with creating an environment to give substance to corporate governance. Starting in April next year, companies listed on the Prime Market will be required to disclose important information in English. As you have just recommended, the Financial Services Agency, in collaboration with the relevant ministries and agencies, will advance discussions on the development of an environment that will lead more enterprises to disclose their annual securities reports before their shareholder meetings, with the aim of further promoting dialogue between companies and investors.
I ask the FSA and the TSE to update the Action Program this spring by reflecting these efforts and forge ahead with reforms toward its steady implementation.
In concluding my remarks, the Government of Japan intends to continuously promote corporate governance reforms based also on the inputs we received today, so that we can meet your long-term expectations for Japan.
Thank you very much for today.”