Financial Services Agency and Japanese Firms

independent: These firms each had only one such member as of last July, according to The Japan Times. The proportion of companies that have or are planning to have at least one independent outside director rose to 96.2 percent from 87 percent. The survey, released Friday, suggested that an increasing number of Japanese firms are having multiple independent outside board directors a year after the introduction of a corporate governance code aimed at boosting management transparency, which was compiled by the Financial Services Agency and the TSE. Of the 1,958 first-section companies, 889 each have multiple independent outside directors at present, according to the TSE. The number of such board members stands at two at Honda Motor Co., mobile phone carrier NTT Docomo Inc. and electronics parts maker Kyocera Corp., and at five at furniture retailer Nitori Holdings Co. Among all 3,500 companies listed on the TSE, including those on the second section and the Mothers market for startups, 87.7 percent have or plan to have at least one independent outside director, up from 73.4 percent, and the proportion of companies having or planning to have multiple independent outside members stands at 58.4 percent, up by 25.8 points. In the wake of a series of corporate governance-related problems, including accounting irregularities at machinery giant Toshiba Corp., the TSE said it is important for companies to actually utilize outside board directors to improve their governance. (news.financializer.com). As reported in the news.