Jul 02, 2021 (Nikkei) - A statistical analysis of outside directors at Japanese listed companies confirms what the eye sees -- the same old faces keep reappearing in multiple and overlapping boards like Wally in the Where's Wally series.
Data gleaned through the GoToData database of the nonprofit Board Director Training Institute show that there are at least 342 directors who hold board seats at three or more companies, of which 100 sit on at least one company among the 100 largest by market capitalization. This is the pool of big-league repeaters with heavily subscribed dance cards.
In turn, the 342 repeaters sit on the same boards with their fellow members of the same pool. Of the 342 board seats, 137 occupants overlap with two or more repeaters, just as the same roster of high society guests are repeatedly invited to the same parties given by different hosts.
To illustrate the phenomenon, consider the following five companies: Japan Post Holdings, Japan Exchange Group (JPX), Mitsui & Co., Omron and Tokio Marine. Now also consider the following five names: Akio Mimura, Nobuhiro Endo, Eizo Kobayashi, Izumi Kobayashi and Masako Egawa.
Some combination of two or more of these five individuals sit as outside directors on the boards of all five companies.
Just who are these popular repeaters? The answer is not surprising when one considers the required conditions on the demand side and capacity constraints on the supply side. The repeaters tend to be either elderly corporate statesmen or women recruited to satisfy the now mandatory diversity quota.
Three of the five individuals are archetypal corporate statesmen: Nippon Steel chairman Akio Mimura, 80; Itochu emeritus director Eizo Kobayashi, 72; NEC chairman Nobuhiro Endo, 67.
