Shareholders Increasingly Make Governance a Focus of Attention

Shareholders are becoming increasingly demanding regarding improvements in companies’ corporate values. Each company must make further efforts to establish a governance system that will be a basis for strengthening its earning capacity. The wave of general shareholders meetings of listed companies whose business year ended in March has peaked. About 30 percent of companies held their general shareholders meeting on Wednesday — the lowest-ever proportion to be held on the busiest day for such meetings. This marks a radical change from the 1990s, when at times more than 90 percent of listed companies would hold their general shareholders meetings on the same day. Reasons for the growing dispersion of meeting days include the diminishing activity of sokaiya corporate extortionists.