While leaders in other industries are incorporating changes to improve better shareholder participation in managerial decisions, the shareholders' meeting held Wednesday by Mizuho Financial Group, Inc. indicates change is slow to come to the banking sector.
The nation's largest banking group seated male bankers with loud voices in the front two rows of a hall in the Tokyo International Forum in Chiyoda Ward. Hearty applause and cheers met Mizuho Financial Group President Terunobu Maeda's witticisms and management proposals, while shareholders' proposals were shouted down.
The bank for the first time announced gross compensation paid to board members, which came to 189 million yen -- which averages 17.2 million yen per board member -- for the business year that ended March 31, but refused to approve shareholders' demands that it disclose payments to individual directors.