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For the past 17 weeks, Japan’s hit Sunday evening show has dramatized Shibusawa Eiichi’s life-the face of the new Y10,000 banknote and the “father of Japanese capitalism.” The show is still a few months away, but we already know its end: Japan has risen from the 19th century and has a unique, ethical and socially superior stakeholder capitalist brand whose qualities resonate strongly today.
This is a warm myth that Toshiba may have just crushed through an epic conspiracy with the government to suppress shareholder rights.
Maybe the toughest challenge in the world 147 page report A survey of Toshiba’s annual shareholder meeting released last week by an independent investigative team is studying who performed the worst. The choices included Toshiba’s management, the Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry (METI), the superstar former investment director of Japanese $1.6 trillion pension fund Hiromichi Mizuno, possibly Prime Minister Yoshihide Suga, and crucially Japan’s global image as an investment destination.Nobuaki Chagu Resign as CEO of Toshiba In April, it may be on the verge.
In addition, the real embarrassment is that the slogans and obvious reforms of the past six years, during which Japan has been trying to convince the world of its commitment to governance and management, pessimists always worry that it is a sign on the surface. Scam under. Progress.
This villainous document weakens the cooperation between the government and Toshiba’s management, and both parties seem to regard outspoken radical shareholders as enemies. It concluded that Toshiba’s 2020 annual shareholder meeting was unfair. The focus of the collusion is to rely on specific major shareholders to change their opposition to the Blade AGM vote, and Kurumatani’s survival depends on it. It claimed that an executive called on the Ministry of Trade to “beat up” large rights activists on its behalf. Another person emphasized the way that foreign funds were “feared” by the Japanese authorities, and hinted that this could be used against them.
The report shows that certain officials of the Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry believe that the Foreign Exchange and Foreign Trade Law (which was revised in 2019) can be used to influence foreign activists. British “Financial Times” warning Can have this effect.A follow-up Letter to the Financial Times The Deputy Minister of Finance in charge of international affairs assures readers that activists are welcome to contact Japanese companies to increase corporate value.
The investigation happened only because shareholders forced the company to conduct an investigation, but Japanese reports rarely show this: dishonesty, trickery, and hypocrisy are the culprits, usually incompetence, collective thinking, and unquestionable hierarchical structure. Was accused of being the culprit. Four Toshiba board members issued a statement in an unprecedented move, calling the report “surprising, disappointing, and deeply disturbing in some respects.”
As the four pointed out, the report’s detailed exposure of misconduct is a particularly painful contrast with Toshiba’s initial internal investigation of the matter—this whitewashing looks at the marginalization of shareholder interests and contempt for corporate governance. It looks like a master class.
Nevertheless, the report is still a document, and its explosion radius depends on bystanders. For those who view their findings as specific to a particular corporate situation and who already believe that Toshiba is an incurable governance horror story, the air is full of conclusive evidence. For those who have long suspected that the Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry is vulnerable to interference or even conspiracy, this does not alleviate people’s concerns that if necessary, the Ministry will take similar actions with other Japanese companies. It is not difficult to imagine Carlos Ghosn who has long claimed that the Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry was one of the conspirators who contributed to his arrest in 2018, and he used this report to reinforce this belief.
But the same strong temptation is to view the entire incident as revealing a broader truth: In many cases, the basic attitudes of Japanese companies and the government officials most directly involved have only undergone minor changes in a broader direction. Care about shareholders.
If, as one of Toshiba’s largest shareholders said, this report and its provocative nature are now a catalyst for real change, then this conclusion, despite all the negative effects, may ultimately be useful. Toshiba has been in trouble for a long time, starting with an accounting scandal in 2015, which pushed the company to the brink of collapse a few years later. The risk has always been that it will be seen as a jaw-dropping outlier, rather than just sitting idly by. The scope of governance is as bad as that of Japanese companies.
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