Japan Investor Relations Association Announces Trends in ThisYear’s Annual Shareholders’ Meetings and Investor Relations

Over 60% of Listed Companies Explain Influence of the Great East Japan Earthquake, 30% Consider
Reporting on Director Income

The Japan Investor Relations Association (JIRA, Chairman: Hajime Sawabe, TDK Chairman), theonly privately-run non-profit organization working for the proliferation and improvement of investor
relations (IR) activities in Japan, has released the results of a “Survey on Changes in AnnualShareholders’ Meetings, Investor Relations, and Disclosure.” 169 companies (139 companiesending their fiscal year in March, and 30 ending their fiscal year in other months.) of the 548
publicly traded companies that are members of JIRA responded to this survey, which wasconducted between June 29 and July 7, 2011 for a response rate of 30.8%.
Overview of Survey Results
Looking at the IR activities associated with the most recent round of annual shareholders’meetings, JIRA found that 60% of companies participating in the survey devoted time toanswering questions about and explaining the influences of the Great East Japan Earthquake.
Furthermore, 60% of companies disclosed shareholder voting results and the percent passage
rates (extraordinary reports) of resolutions presented during annual shareholders’ meetings ontheir corporate IR websites, 40% conducted analysis of resolutions that had a large percentage ofdissenting votes in the previous year, and 14% expanded the amount of time for question andanswer sessions to explain various topics to shareholders.
Influence of The Great East Japan Earthquake
In response to questions about the influence of the Earthquake during annual shareholders’meetings, the most common responses included explanations about “fortifications of responses tothe disruption of transportation and electricity,” “detailed information about the various influencesof the Earthquake,” and “detailed information about crisis management in the aftermath of theEarthquake,” which accounted for 69.5%, 62.2% and 29.3% of all respondents respectively.
Shareholder Voting Results Disclosure and Preparation
The activities related to disclosure of shareholder voting results gathered from extraordinary
reports included “analysis of resolutions that saw a high rate of dissenting votes in the previousyear” (43.8% implemented, 18.3% considering implementation), “expansion of the time allotted toquestion and answers to explain various topics” (13.6% implemented, 29.0% considering
implementation), “disclosure of the value amount and determination process of director
compensation ahead of the annual shareholders’ meeting via reference materials” (11.2%implemented, 23.7% considering implementation), and “disclosure of the value amount anddetermination process of director compensation during the annual shareholders’ meeting,” (5.3%implemented, 27.8% considering implementation). While the number of companies surveyedthat actually “filed financial reports ahead of the annual shareholders’ meeting” is low, 35.3%
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responded that they are considering filing their financial reports ahead of the meeting in the future.
Future Investor Relation Information Disclosure
In the aftermath of the Earthquake, the announcement of earnings estimates for the coming fiscalyear 2011 became widely varied. However 84.6% of respondents indicated that they “willannounce their earnings estimates for the fiscal year 2012 along with their announcement ofearnings results for fiscal year 2011.” Moreover, in response to delays in the mandatory
implementation date of International Financial Reporting Standards (IFRS), 46.5% of respondents
replied that they are “making preparations to implement IFRS standards on a voluntary basis
ahead of the mandatory implementation date,” 22% indicated that they “are not currently
considering any actions,” 16% answered that they “will begin preparations after the mandatory
implementation date is officially determined,” 13% replied that they are adopting “other responses,”and 2.4% did not respond.
For more details of the survey results, please check JIRA website at:https://www.jira.or.jp/jira/jsp/usr/english/en5.htmlAbout JIRA:The Japan Investor Relations Association is a non-profit association founded in 1993 for thepurpose of promoting investor relations in Japan. The association is comprised of 629 members(As of July 13, 2011) and conducts various educational and research activities on behalf of its
members and the investment community in general. URL：https://www.jira.or.jp/
Contact: Japan Investor Relations Association
Yoshiko Sato, Chief Research Fellow
Asuka Kuzukubo, Research Fellow+81-3-5259-2676
Fax: +81-3-5259-2677

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