Proxy advisory firm Institutional Shareholder Services recommended that investors vote for all ten directors at Canon later this month, a reversal from last year when it opposed the CEO’s reappointment because of a lack of female representation on the board.
In 2023, ISS had urged shareholders to vote against the Japanese company’s 88-year-old Chief Executive Officer Fujio Mitarai, in part due to the board’s lack of female representation. Mitarai only narrowly kept his place on the camera and printer maker’s board along with four other male appointees, with 50.59% of votes last year.
In September, the Tokyo-based company nominated Akiko Ito, former commissioner of Japan’s Consumer Affairs Agency, to be its outside director. If approved at Canon’s general shareholders’ meeting on March 28, she will become the first woman ever to join Canon’s board in its 87-year history.