Over the past several weeks, company executives have been beating a path to Pension Fund Association's door, trying to get the investment manager to agree with proposals they plan to submit at their shareholder meetings.

"The number of visitors we get has been doubling every year," said Taku Yamamoto, who oversees PFA's investments. "Recently, we have been extremely busy meeting with corporate leaders."

Officials at the association, one of the nation's biggest institutional investors, have been listening to details of the resolutions and, at times, asking them to change parts of the proposals to "better reflect PFA's views."