Japan's latest rush of annual general meetings coincides with a few tantalizing firsts.
Olympus this month became the first corporate icon to add an activist U.S. fund to its board. Toshiba is naming the first non-Japanese directors in eight decades. The CEO of Sojitz, the trading company, submitted himself to a first-ever shareholder forum. And Mitsubishi UFJ Trust, the bank, calculates that a record 54 companies faced reform proposals from shareholders, up from 42 in 2018.