Shareholder Meetings

Shareholder Meetings in Japan


In Japan, like most other countries, a general meeting of shareholders is held once a year. If you invest in Japanese stocks, you've likely received a letter giving information about the meeting. There's not much information about what goes on during a meeting in English, so this article is to let you know what to expect.


I've been to a few of these and they all mostly follow the same format so I will assume that it applies to most of them. It's possible that some companies do things differently.


Information and Voting

At the closing of the fiscal year, people who hold the stock on the rights date (same date that would give you perks or dividends) will receive a letter explaining about the shareholder meeting. Most companies have a fiscal year from April to March, but there are plenty which have them for different periods. Usually you will receive the letter in a similar timing to when you would receive your perks, so a fiscal year ending in March would send you the notice in late May or early June. The letter sometimes includes your stock perks and dividend receipt, but not always. I'd say it's around 50/50 based on my experience, and you can often get the perks or dividend receipts after the meeting is held.

The information will be a document which will go into details about what the company will discuss at the meeting and any issues that will be voted on. There is also usually a list of the board of directors and some general company performance information for the past fiscal year. There will also be information on the date, time, and location of the meeting, usually at the back with a map to the venue.

Some companies give presents (omiyage) to people who attend the meeting, although this is not as common as it used to be. You used to be able to get things like sweets, company products, or coupons. Once COVID hit, companies discouraged the shareholders from attending in order to prevent infection, and it provided a convenient reason to stop the practice of distributing gifts. Some still do so, but it's much rarer than pre-COVID. It is not uncommon for the information packet to specifically say that no gifts will be distributed, so if you see that then there's no chance at all of getting anything. If this warning is not listed, then they might still give you something, although from my recent experiences it's going to be something of barely any value like a bottle of water.

Along with the information, you will also receive a voting card. You have the option of marking your vote on the card and either mailing it to the company, or just give it to them during the meeting to record your vote. Almost every company lets you vote online now, and many of them provide a QR code on the card which will bring you to the voting page with all of your information already preloaded, so it's very convenient. Some companies also provide incentives for voting online, and if you do a simple survey about your demographic and reasons for investing in the company, you can be entered into a drawing to win something, usually a QUO card.

Attending the Meeting

One thing to note is that most companies will stream their meeting online these days, and the information pack will explain how to access it. Almost every company provided this option when COVID came around, and have continued to do so even after things became stable again. There's no difference in content, and the only real advantage of attending in-person is if you want to ask a question.

If you do decide to attend the meeting, make sure to bring your voting card. Even if you voted online, you'll need the card to get into the meeting. If you do vote online then don't bother actually voting on the card itself as the online vote will take priority.  Usually you can enter from around an hour before it starts. Many of them will be held in hotels or other rented spaces, so once you arrive at the venue there will usually be signs guiding you to the room the meeting will be held in. Once you reach the right spot, there will be a reception desk. You will give them your voting card and they will give you a number card which you will use if you want to ask questions. They may also give you some documents, or they will be in some other location such as a table you can pick them up at. The documents you receive at the venue will be very similar to the ones which were mailed to you, there might be some small changes but you'll also be able to download that version at the IR site.

If you forgot your card or mailed your vote, then supposedly they can confirm your eligibility to enter if you give them some personal information. I've never tried this before so I can't comment on how much of a hassle that would be.


Meeting Flow

From my experiences, the shareholder meetings follow the following pattern:

The only really interesting part of this are the shareholder questions. If you want to ask a question you raise your hand and hope they call you (the seats are arranged in different blocks), then you go up to the microphone, state the number on the number card you received when you entered, and give them your question. The CEO will answer most questions, but can also pass it to a different board member or executive that has the most relevant expertise for the question, I've also seen meetings where the board member can volunteer to answer a question without being nominated by the CEO.

There are some companies where the shareholders will submit their question online in advance and they will answer them from that pool, but at the moment this is not very common at all.

There are usually a wide variety of questions asked. You'll hear people asking for more details about performance, questions about future plans, employee welfare, and other things by people who have done their research. You'll hear questions from people asking for more perks and higher dividends, people who want to give the board some business advice, and expect plenty of complaints if the stock price is on a downward trend. Meetings for entertainment-related companies such as videogames and anime often have cosplayers and people just giving comments and questions related to the media properties. The atmosphere is also different at different companies, some will have the CEO give no-nonsense business focused responses, while other ones will be a bit more casual and have fun answering them.

There is a time limit for questions, so once that's finished they'll quickly announce the vote results and that'll be the end of the meeting. Some companies will have a second event after a break. The ones I've seen include going into more detail about the business performance, explaining more about what the company does, and an additional question segment. Usually it's just repeating information that is in the IR reports.


Are they worth attending?

Whether or not they are worth attending is up to how interested you are in the company, but from my experiences there's no real reason to go unless you want to ask a question to the board. One of the biggest obstacles is that they are held on weekdays during business hours, so you'll likely have to take a day off if you want to attend them and I feel like for most people there are probably better things to do with your PTO. All of the information is just going to be a repeat of IR material, and since these are streamed online you can get the same experience and listen to the question segment by logging into the stream. I used to attend a couple of meetings every year just for the experience, but especially after COVID I've gotten out of the habit and don't feel like I'm missing anything, especially since you usually don't get gifts anymore.

It might be worth attending one for a company that you like just for the experience, you may end up enjoying it and making a habit of going to others!