Ad Hoc Press Conference by ASO Taro, Deputy Prime Minister, Minister of Finance, and Minister of State for Financial Services

(Excerpt)

(Tuesday, June 29, 2021, 11:07 am to 11:19 am)

[Questions and answers:]

Q.

I will ask you about the annual shareholder meeting of Toshiba held on June 25. Board reappointments, including that of the board chairman, presented by the company were rejected. The external investigation concluding that last year's annual shareholder meeting was not conducted properly seems to have affected the shareholders' decision. What do you think of possible influences of this case on foreign investors' evaluations of Japanese companies as a whole and their investment decisions from now on?

A.

Do you think that the Finance Minister would make a comment on an issue of an individual company? I can only speak in generalities. This is nothing special for listed companies, as shown in their respective corporate governance principles. It should be no surprise that a listed company governs itself in consideration of its shareholders' exercise of their rights, in light of the significance thereof. We have revised the Corporate Governance Code recently with the awareness of the need for its reform. Japanese listed companies have investors, including a number of foreign investors, and it is important for them to make efforts to win the trust of the market in order to enhance their corporate value through constructive dialogues with those investors. This is a matter of the entire Japanese economy. Therefore, we have presented a preferable direction for corporate governance, while expecting individual companies to make further efforts to win the trust of the market.