In a promising development for corporate governance in Japan, Prime Minister Shinzo Abe has charged officials with making new rules for the uniquely-Japanese phenomenon of "listed subsidiaries"--- publicly-traded companies controlled by a dominant shareholder.
The new regulations, due to be unveiled later this summer, will be a revealing test of the Abe Administration's commitment to real corporate governance reform -- not least because the government itself is the controlling shareholder of some of Japan's most prominent listed subsidiaries.
