The Government Pension Investment Fund (GPIF) of Japan is calling for its external asset managers to reveal more of their voting records.
The fund, which has about $1.3 trillion under management, already requires its managers to disclose proxy voting records exercised on behalf on GPIF. Now, the fund says it “strongly requests” managers disclose details of voting records exercised on behalf of all clients.
“GPIF believes that disclosure of the details of proxy voting records is very much essential for institutional investors to fulfil own stewardship responsibilities in order to deepen Corporate Governance reform and move its focus from 'form' to 'substance' as Japan’s Stewardship Code revised on May 29, 2017 indicates,” said Norihiro Takahashi, president of the fund, in a letter posted on the fund's website.
Improving corporate governance is a key part of Abenomics, the economic strategy named after the Japanese prime minister Shinzo Abe.
GPIF, which is a major shareholder in Japan's listed companies, is seen as an important tool to influence better governance standards.
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