Amid the scandals involving the nation's top companies, demands for better corporate governance have been mounting not only from the public but from business circles, according to a member of the ruling Liberal Democratic Party.
"A desire to tackle the issue of how to improve corporate autonomy has rapidly grown among businesses following the blunders," said Seiichi Ota, head of the judicial affairs division subcommittee on the Commercial Code under the LDP's policy research council. "Now is the time to carry out reforms to rebuild the nation's business society and culture based on an internationally acceptable sense of ethics and a sense of social justice," Ota said in an interview with The Japan Times.
The subcommittee last month resumed research to draft a report on review of the current legal framework to better watch corporations' behavior, Ota said. Based on a previous report compiled by the subcommittee, the law was revised about four years ago to make it obligatory for firms with capital of 500 million yen or more to have one outside auditor.