NEWS & EVENTS

On Tuesday, March 5, 2019, the Edwin O. Reischauer Center for East Asian Studies and the U.S.-Japan Research Institute(USJI) hosted Dr. Hideaki Miyajima, Professor of Japanese Economy at Waseda University, to present his research on the corporate governance reforms of Abenomics.

Dr. Miyajima compared the Japan Stewardship Code to the new Corporate Governance Code and evaluated their effects on the behavior of Japanese firms and on the Japanese economy. He explained his findings that corporate governance reforms have boosted the proportion of outside directors on Japanese corporate boards and the performance of middle-sized and family-run firms. He also found that corporations are opting to return cash to their shareholders, rather than spend on R&D and capital, implying that corporate governance reform may not boost Japanese GDP. Dr. Miyajima then fielded questions from the audience on the independence of outside directors and Japanese corporate culture.