The people of Japan placed themselves under new national governance in August with the historic election of the Democratic Party of Japan. Now the DPJ and Japanese regulators seem likely to move forward with changes to corporate governance as well.
Exactly what the DPJ might propose remains unclear. At the moment, the party is devoting much of its energy to larger priorities, such as overhauling the country’s postal system and improving Japan’s sagging birth rate. Shizuka Kamei, the new chief of Japan’s Financial Services Agency, said recently that corporate governance measures agreed on during the Liberal Democratic Party’s rule were yet to be discussed. But the country’s stock exchanges have a raft of reforms they can push through themselves, and the FSA seems likely to carry out regulatory changes proposed during the previous administration’s tenure.
