2017년 개정 일본 스튜어드십 코드와 운용상의 쟁점

The Financial Services Agency (FSA) in Japan released the revised Stewardship Code on May 29, 2017. The revised Code highlighted the major revisions on the following issues: (ⅰ) Effective oversight by asset owners; (ⅱ) Asset managers’ governance and management of their conflicts of interest; (ⅲ) Engagement in passive investment; (ⅳ) Enhanced disclosure of voting records; and (ⅴ) Self-evaluation of asset managers. Of these, enhanced disclosure of voting records, or disclosure of voting records for each investee company on an individual agenda basis, is one of the main features. The focus of 2017 Revised Code is on the medium - to long-term horizon, with the goal of encouraging sustainable growth. To effect this change, the code simply prescribes that institutional investors participate in constructive engagement with investee companies in order to arrive at a common understanding. But for the most part, the specifics of what this all means is left out in what the document terms a principle's approach - investors are expected to conduct their actions in the spirit of the code, but are otherwise left to themselves to define the details of what that means. This paper, also, provides a legal and practical overview of the revised Japan’s stewardship code comparing with the Korean stewardship code of 2016. Also it provides some implications for the Korean stewardship code by analysis and interpretation of the revised Japan’s code.