How Shareholder Activism in the U.S. and Japan Converged

By Nobuhisa Ishizuka June 22, 2026 by renholding

In a recently published paper I argue that the recent surge in shareholder activism in Japan is not simply the product of Japanese policy reforms. Rather, it results from a convergence of two parallel historical trajectories: a decades-long evolution of …

Asia’s Corporate Governance Shift Is Less Than Meets the Eye

By Gen Goto and Dan W. Puchniak December 9, 2024 by renholding

Asia appears to be rapidly embracing Anglo-American corporate governance models – but looks can be deceiving. Our recent research reveals a striking paradox: While Asian jurisdictions widely adopt Anglo-American governance mechanisms in form, they often use these tools for remarkably …

The Challenges and Opportunities of Pre-Packs as a Restructuring Tool

By Aurelio Gurrea-Martínez April 24, 2024 by renholding

In recent years, many countries have adopted some form of pre-packaged reorganizations (“pre-packs”), inspired largely by pre-packs popularized in the United Kingdom and the United States. By shortening insolvency proceedings, pre-packs can reduce the costs of financial distress and especially …

Are Financial Firms Ready for Climate Regulation?

By Ben Brown and Nick van Baal April 8, 2024 by renholding

Regulators globally are requiring companies to disclose their greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions. For companies in some industries, Scope 1 and 2 emissions – covering, respectively, emissions from direct fuel use and from acquired energy – will cover most relevant emissions …

Is Regulating AI an Impossible Task?

By Georges Ugeux November 8, 2023 by renholding

To regulate artificial intelligence, or AI, it is important to look at the various, and often contradictory, settings where AI operates – and how it is treated there. For example, data privacy generally and in particular open banking, in which …

Why the Poison Pill Is Still Relevant After All These Years – Even in Japan

By Curtis J. Milhaupt and Zenichi Shishido February 23, 2023 by renholding

More than 40 years after its invention by lawyer Martin Lipton, the poison pill remains the subject of important judicial decisions and academic debate over corporate governance questions, in both the United States, its country of origin, and Japan, its …

Paul Hastings Discusses Japanese Poison Pills Without Shareholders’ Blessing

By Toshiyuki Arai July 8, 2022 by renholding

In many jurisdictions, poison pills are devised and implemented by the board of directors without shareholders being involved. Since the 2007 Supreme Court case^[1] (in re Bulldog Sauce) in Japan, however, courts have largely relied on the …

ISS Discusses Japanese Board Independence and Diversity

By Taketoshi Yoshikawa April 28, 2022 by renholding

A recent ISS analysis of Japanese board composition finds a marked uptick in board independence and female board representation. At the close of Japan’s March 2022 “mini-season”, ISS found a 13percentage point jump in companies with at least a one-third

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SEC Commissioner Peirce Speaks on Corporate Governance

By Hester M. Peirce August 28, 2020 by renholding

We are here today to talk about excellence in corporate governance. Before I begin, I have to remind you that the views I represent are my own and not necessarily those of the Securities and Exchange Commission or my fellow

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Long-Run Short Selling

By Joshua Mitts December 9, 2019 by renholding

On December 3, 2019, Japan’s Government Pension Fund (GPIF) announced that it would suspend share lending to short sellers. This is the latest development in a growing global regulatory skepticism of shorting, with Reuters recently reporting that short selling …

SEC Commissioner Peirce Addresses the American Chamber of Commerce in Japan

By Hester M. Peirce August 12, 2019 by renholding

It is an honor to be with you today [August 7, 2019]. I have long wanted to visit Japan. Indeed, one of the options I explored following college was coming to Japan to teach English. Instead I ended up in

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The Quality of Integrated Reporting Around the World

By Robert G. Eccles, Michael P. Krzus and Carlos Solano April 23, 2019 by renholding

Integrated reporting is a business process that culminates in the publication of a report that explains how an organization creates value over the short-, medium-, and long-term. In terms of content and time horizon, an integrated report is similar to …

Land of the Falling Poison Pill: Understanding Defensive Measures in Japan

By Alan K. Koh, Masafumi Nakahigashi and Dan W. Puchniak April 17, 2019 by renholding

The advent of the “shareholder rights plan,” more popularly known as the “poison pill,” fundamentally altered the trajectory of American corporate governance. Intended to defend vulnerable boards from corporate raiders, the poison pill was embraced by U.S. managers in the …

The Rise of Asian Equity Markets and the International Corporate Governance Dialogue

By Mats Isaksson December 11, 2018 by renholding

While there is a growing debate in the United States about a shift from public equity markets to private ownership models, Asian stock exchanges are steaming ahead. Last year a record 1,074 companies got listed in the region, and 43 …

Comparative Corporate Governance

By Ilir Haxhi September 7, 2018 by renholding

By adopting a systematic cross-national comparative approach, my recent study provides an overview of corporate governance (CG) around the world. It takes stock of what we know about the two main CG models, the variations within and across these models, …

The Third Stage of Corporate Governance

By James P. Hawley and Jon Lukomnik May 22, 2018 by renholding

The recent announcements from major institutional investors about issues such as gender diversity and climate change seem like reactions to social ills. But they are not unmoored from investing. They are logical expressions of a relatively newly empowered, third phase …

Morrison & Foerster Discusses What Global Investors Think About Brexit

By Morrison & Foerster attorneys January 2, 2018 by renholding

Amid the uncertainty Brexit has created, foreign investors are assessing their existing and prospective investments in the UK, with particular focus on Brexit’s potential impact on EU-UK trade and labor mobility. No one has a crystal ball but our MoFo …

The Globalization of Securities Litigation

By John C. Coffee, Jr. September 19, 2016 by renholding

Europe (and much of the rest of the world) have long been skeptical of American-style opt-out class actions in which the plaintiff’s attorney defines the scope of the class. Similarly, they have prohibited the contingent fee, discouraged punitive damages, insisted …

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