Venue: UC Hastings College of the Law | Room J, 198 McAllister St., San Francisco, CA 94102

Capital Markets and the Law in Japan: Legal Reform & Corporate Governance

The Japan Society of Northern California (JSNC) will be partnering with UC Hastings College of the Law in collaboration with the Pacific Pension Institute (PPI) in the production of the fourth international symposium on corporate governance which will be held on Friday, October 18, 2013.
As with our previous conferences, we are targeting an international audience with a strong interest in corporate governance practices in Japan. This includes individuals with oversight or fiduciary responsibility for investments in Japan, such as pension plan sponsor representatives and trustees, endowment and foundation professionals and trustees, and investment management specialists. M&A advisory employees interested in how Japan’s changing legal framework will affect merger and acquisition activities in Japan will also find the conference of great value. Professionals such as lawyers, consultants and accountants working with pension funds, endowments, investment managers and M&A advisors having a Japan – U.S. focus will also have much benefit from participation.
This conference will further appeal to company executives and to academics with an interest in global and Japan corporate governance practices. In addition, since the symposium will be at a law school, law students and practicing lawyers will be interested as well and it will also give an opportunity for students at local universities to find out more about this important topic.
For years, foreign investors have criticized the way that Japanese capital markets are regulated, arguing that corporate governance standards in Japan are weak compared to western standards, that the system needs a major overhaul. Foreign investors want to see greater returns to shareholders, and believe that this can be accomplished using provisions such as: increased use of outside directors, disclosure of executive pay, protection of minority shareholders, and the creation of a vibrant market for corporate control that will allow shareholders to take over and restructure publicly traded inefficient companies.
Japan can counter that its system has demonstrated strengths such as long-term planning, low income disparity between the top paid wage earners and the bottom wage earners, and that the western governance standards proved to be of little value in 2008 when western capital markets collapsed.
Yet, today, Japan is engaged in an aggressive macroeconomic experiment—printing trillions of yen in the hopes of creating two percent inflation (not more, not less). And, Prime Minister Abe has promised meaningful “structural reforms,” that will be the basis for Japan’s economic strategy for decades to come. Reforms to the Corporations Law are under consideration.
This conference will be a meeting between academics and practitioners that will discuss the legal reforms under consideration and the effects that they are likely to have.
Professor Hideki Kanda of the University of Tokyo, who is directly involved in drafting revisions to the Corporations Law will be making the initial presentation. We have assembled a group of leading expert practitioners in the area of Japanese governance. We anticipate deep substantive exchange between academics and practitioners at the symposium.
To view slides from the speakers’ PowerPoint presentations, please click here.
 

 
Speakers:
Bruce Aronson, Professor of Law, Graduate School of International Corporate Strategy, Hitotsubashi University; Advisor, Nagashima Ohno & Tsunematsu
Nicholas Benes, Representative Director, The Board DirectorTraining Institute of Japan (BDTI)
Richard A. Boswell, Associate Dean of Global Programs, UC Hastings College of the Law
Abe Cable, Associate Professor, UC Hastings College of the Law
Stephen Codrington, CEO, Codrington Japan
Marc Goldstein, Head of Research Engagement, ISS (Institutional Shareholder Services)
Keith Hand, Professor of Law, UC Hastings College of the Law
Sarah Ingmanson, Executive Director, Banking Strats, Investment Banking Division, Morgan Stanley
Hideki Kanda, Professor of Law, University of Tokyo
Seiji Kawazoe, Associate General Manager, Fiduciary Business Planning Department, Sumitomo Mitsui Trust Bank, Ltd.
Mangyo Kinoshita, Partner, White & Case LLP
Hiroshi Komori, Associate General Manager, Stock Transfer Agency Business Advisory Department, Sumitomo Mitsui Trust Bank, Ltd.
David Makman, Partner, Makman & Matz LLP
Atsushi Matsunaga, Manager, IR SR Research Unit, IR Japan, Inc.
Michael J. Mies, Partner, Skadden, Arps, Slate, Meagher & Flom LLP
Setsuo Miyazawa, Professor, UC Hastings College of the Law and Aoyama Gakuin University Law School
Eric Sibbitt, Partner, O’Melveny & Myers LLP
Jodi Short, Associate Professor, UC Hastings College of the Law
Kouji Yamada, Research Director, Mission Value Partners and Adjunct Professor, Hitotsubashi University
Additional speakers will be added as confirmed
NOTE: Attorneys attending may receive MCLE credit.
REGISTRATION FEES:

• General Admission:
  • Before midnight October 4 – $150
  • After  October 4 – $200

• Japan Society of Northern California Members (Individual &  Corporate):
  • Before midnight October 4  – $100
  • After October 4 -$125

The deadline to RSVP for this event is Thursday, October 17 at 12:00 p.m.
Refunds will not be issued after Friday, October 11, 2013.
To register please click here for more information.
 

This program is underwritten by Sumitomo Mitsui Trust Bank, Limited, Hibiya Station Law Offices, Makman  & Matz LLP

Conference Airline Sponsor

Supporters

Consulate General of Japan in San Francisco

Hastings Business Law Journal

in collaboration with  Pacific Pension Institute and UC Hastings College of the Law.