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Many Japanese firms have no plans to strengthen governance after Ghosn arrest: survey

29 Comments
By Tetsushi Kajimoto

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29 Comments
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Of course not, it's because Nissan had to deal with a foreigner at the helm and HE was the rotten apple.

Japanese run corporations never do anything wrong, so there is no need for any added governance

16 ( +21 / -5 )

A company without governance is a timebomb waiting to happen. Shareholders should demand oversight.

14 ( +16 / -2 )

yubaru said it.

Japan is the titanic. time we all got off

7 ( +14 / -7 )

As long as you can bow, you have a plan.

9 ( +14 / -5 )

Japan is the titanic. time we all got off

I'll never let go, Aly. I'll never let go.

I'm king of the wooooooorld!

5 ( +10 / -5 )

They got no plans because Japanese Government oversight... i.e., actual inspections by people that have an accounting clue, is crap in Japan. The Government basically is hands off and Japanese Financial Institutions that actually own stock in Japanese Companies don't seem to care either. Japanese Financial Institutions don't give a dam about shareholders. The Government of Japan is $11 Trillion in Debt. This small country that pays practically nothing towards a Military is that much in debt. Why.... because they're not properly investigating and taxing corporate Japan. The average individual.... taxed heavily but corporate Japan, they get a nice and easy free pass.

10 ( +13 / -3 )

I'll never let go, Aly. I'll never let go.

> I'm king of the wooooooorld!

LOL!! Nice one Mate!!

2 ( +6 / -4 )

Given what's happened to Ghosn, if I were a foreigner and crazy enough to take on a senior position at a Japanese firm,

whoa! stop right there brother! After seeing what happened to Ghosn and Michael Woodford, IF I had to choose between being the CEO of a Japanese company (or any company) in Japan or become an ALT for 200,000 yen a month with no insurance or pension, I'd take the ALT job.

1 ( +1 / -0 )

We Japanese don’t need these things. wink

Indifference was a good word to describe the sentiment regarding the suggested new safeguards.

Since Ghosn's Nov 19 arrest, Nissan's board has created a special committee to improve governance, incorporating external independent experts,

Damage control. Cosmetic efforts to distract. Two months boys; keep reminding yourselves that. Hope it’s a constant little voice in your collectivist hive minds.

-1 ( +2 / -3 )

But Japanese firms are not required to have a compensation committee and only 26 percent of listed firms do, with the practice being more common among bigger companies,

Since it's not required so it's not necessary for them to do so.

3 ( +5 / -2 )

I’m still looking for the international community’s response. It’ll come.

4 ( +6 / -2 )

What a big surprise. None of these companies want to expose themselves to scrutiny for fear of ending up just like Ghosn.

9 ( +9 / -0 )

They all do it. Ghosn was just singled out because he disturbed the "natural" order. Get him out of Nissan and everything will be fine again.

2 ( +4 / -2 )

Ghosn's arrest is political: no amount of governance strengthening will protect you from that.

7 ( +8 / -1 )

Who needs governance when you can just hold a press conference, bow deeply, apologize and promise to regain the publics’s trust even if you have no intention of doing so! :-/

5 ( +6 / -1 )

I'd be interested to see the actual survey because I have read several similar ones over the past few years that have had radically different results.

Actual change is still of course far more elusive.

Comp and nomination committees are important but they would probably be limp when the CEO/Pres and Chair of the board are the same person. Someone needs to watch the detectives. Lack of knowledgeable and active external boards has to be considered priority one to improve corporate governance. It seems the independent people who do often sit on boards are just people picking up an extra paycheck for doing very little as either a nice name for the company to have or as a pat on the back.

0 ( +0 / -0 )

"Nissan acknowledges that the misconduct by its former chairman Carlos Ghosn and former representative director Greg Kelly...

Unreal that an official Nissan spokesman is talking as if Ghosn and Kelly are already guilty without a trial taking place.

7 ( +7 / -0 )

To many skeletons in the closet, of course not, sweet as apple pie, no need to govern, we deserve a gold medal in scandals year after year..

3 ( +4 / -1 )

Corporate governance is more than just executive salaries and nominations; it is the whole system of rules, practices and processes by which a firm is directed and controlled.

4 ( +5 / -1 )

Of course they won't. This is Japan, and this is what you get when you ask Japanese companies if they want to or not. The government could make it law, of course, but with so many lawmakers having vested interests and future amakudari careers in businesses, they are not interested in doing anything but requesting they form panels to think about making a decision on whether to ask the question about bringing it up at a board meeting for discussion.

4 ( +6 / -2 )

Of course not!

This was never about corporate governance!!

This was about kicking the foreigners out of Nissan!!

Corporate governance, malfeasance and all of that was just a cover to rid Nissan of Ghosn, Renault and foreigners!!

Make no mistake, Japan Inc HATES foreigners having any control in Japan.

But, of course, they think they have every right to buy up companies outside of Japan whenever they wish!!

Duplicitous liars and backstabbers!!

6 ( +7 / -1 )

Corporate governance is more than just executive salaries and nominations; it is the whole system of rules, practices and processes by which a firm is directed and controlled.

...somewhere else

0 ( +1 / -1 )

Three-quarters of Japanese companies have no plan to create committees overseeing compensation or executive nomination, a Reuters survey found,

Unless they have a Gaijin as their boss, doesn't matter what law a local CEO breaks nothings gonna happen - think Toshiba, Takata, Kobe Steel, etc etc etc

2 ( +3 / -1 )

Thank god, in other Japanese companies, they do not have people like the Japanese of the bad kind in their system like Nissan, not doing a real job and taking credit for it. . But this cannot be true because maybe they do not understand what is governance in a real company . The Japanese are always back-wards in actions. This is not an insult but I have lived in Japan for 31 years and things happening in developed Asian countries are always happening in Japan 5 years later than Asia. If all the good Japanese spend their time on doing the educated issues, maybe, the Japanese will live a happier life.

1 ( +2 / -1 )

Bunch of hypocrites!! Enough said.

1 ( +2 / -1 )

Pls do not worry, Japan will sink in everything if the Japanese leave it to Japanese, most of yr comments are correct. They discuss & the always saying that we are Japanese , we understand each other as a tool for convincing other Japanese to be on their side but then they start thinking for themselves , just the norm in this country. Look at the Japanese companies that had been in every wrong doings, just bow and say moshiwake gozaimasen and go back to their old life styles. How can any good Japanese be happy ???.

-1 ( +0 / -1 )

Well, if J-corp doesn't think strengthening governance is a priority, then it's up to J-gov to put its foot down and severely punish any J-corp caught cooking their books. But we know nothing is going to happen as corruption and passing the brown envelop under the table is business as usual in Japan. This is just proof that Ghosn is nothing but a scapegoat for an obvious coup by Nissan.

-1 ( +0 / -1 )

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