Japan 'must overhaul corporate culture'

Radical change is needed if Japan is to rid itself of its reputation for corporate insularity and a major lack of diversity, experts have claimed.

Japanese companies have become notorious for their conservatism, with women and foreign executives a rare sight in the nation's boardrooms, the Irish Times reports.

In a survey published last year, the Japan Association of Corporate Executives called for the country to permanently alter its business culture or risk losing out to other economies.

"Japanese firms are terribly behind in accepting diversity," the association's vice chairman Yasuchika Hasegawa told the newspaper.

"They should transform their corporate culture radically to provide the same opportunities to employees all around the world."

Business publisher Toyo Keizai has estimated that just 1.2 per cent of top executives are female in Japan, while the presence of foreign bosses at Sony and Nissan does not hide the lack of overseas executives in Tokyo's boardrooms.

At last year's Japan Investment Summit hosted by Reuters, speakers claimed a scarcity of independent directors has also harmed corporate governance in the country.