The Japanese government explained that the goal of Valueham’s policy is to create a virtuous cycle.

On January 28, the Korea Financial Investment Association will hold the “International Capital Market Value Growth Seminar.”

The Japanese government has explained that the aim of Valueham’s policy is to create a virtuous cycle in which business growth increases household assets, and this increased fund is reinvested in companies through the stock exchange for business growth.

This is the content emphasized by a person from the Japan Financial Services Agency in relation to the “Asset Management Market Entry Policy” (hereinafter referred to as the Entry Plan), the Japanese version of the valuation policy that is the source of the “value enhancement program”.

To this end, he added, the Japanese government is directly communicating with foreign investors and providing various political support.

Yoshio Horimoto, director of the Japan Financial Services Agency, who presented on Japan’s value enhancement policy at the “Capital Market Value Up Up International Seminar” organized by the Korea Financial Investment Association at the Conrad Hotel in Yeouido, Seoul on January 28, said: “After announcing the management improvement program (of listed companies), the stock index, which was around 32,000 yen, rose to 40,000 yen.”

“Thanks to the Kishida government’s new capitalist policies, investors around the world have rapidly increased their interest in Japan as an investment destination over the past year,” he explained.

The seminar was attended by lawmakers such as National Assembly Political Affairs Committee Chairman Kim Joo-hyun, Financial Services Commission Chairman Lee Bok-hyun, and CEOs of related institutions and securities and management companies.

Director Horimoto explained that various entry plans were underway as part of the “new capitalist policy” that Kishida’s cabinet focused on.

“We have been pushing for comprehensive structural reforms, including corporate governance reforms, to shift the overall wage flow of Japanese workers away from existing deposits and towards investment,” he said. “The reform covers financial institutions, asset managers, asset ownership and investee households.”

He also cited as an example of a successful policy the fact that the Prime Minister and other senior government officials provide various opportunities, such as organizing roundtable meetings, to communicate closely with domestic and foreign investors.

Director Horimoto introduced: “Last fall, global investors and Prime Minister Kishida held a roundtable event called Japan Week, with total assets exceeding 3,000 trillion yen.”

He also emphasized that, above all, various policy efforts have been made to ensure that Japanese households can taste the fruits of their investments.

He emphasized: “We set ourselves the goal of creating an investment market where every family will be able to create stable and long-term funds without spending a lot of time on investments.”

He explained: “Thanks to the Small Investment Savings Scheme (NISA) (Japan’s version of ISA), the tax-free allowance limit has been increased to 18 million yen, which allows long-term continuation of small investments from an early age.”

“There are currently around 20 million accounts registered with NISA and one in five citizens over the age of 18 invests, and we will increase this to 37 million in the next five years.”

Stressing the importance of strengthening financial education to improve the investment culture, he added that in August he would run a professional educational organization for this purpose.

Director Horimoto said: “It is desirable that households can taste the fruits produced by Japanese companies, and the government will work hard to achieve this.”

사진 확대
Yoshio Horimoto, director of the Japan Financial Services Agency.

During the question-and-answer session that followed, Japan reorganized its trade from four to three sectors, and questions were raised about whether small and medium-sized enterprises would be excluded from the process.

In response, director Horimoto said: “On the contrary,” and added: “There are many small-scale listed start-ups in the home market of Japan. Prime Market is supported by the government to help major companies that can raise funds from around the world,” he explained.

When asked if he thought the Korean stock market was undervalued and why, he replied: “We have to approach it from the perspective of global investors,” adding: “From their point of view, Japan was just one of many markets in the world.” “I thought that if Japan adopted similar policies to Singapore and Hong Kong, it would not attract their attention,” he explained.

He added: “The entry plan started by examining why (foreign investors) would choose Japan among countries around the world and how to highlight Japan’s strengths to investors and find strengths (only on the Japanese stock exchange).”

Jeon Eun-jo, senior partner at McKinsey & Company, who announced the Korea value enhancement policy for the second time, said: “More efforts appear to be being made to repair the Korea discount. Increasing enterprise value (ultimate goal) is still homework, we need to discuss social issues specific to the Korean market, such as improving governance and taxation, which are important but may be difficult to address in the short term.”

After the presentation of the topic, officials from the Financial Services Commission, representatives of industry, academia and associations participated in a discussion on “suggestions to enhance the value of the Korean capital market.”

Kim Ji-san, managing director of Kiwoom Securities, who participated in the discussion, said: “For the value business, investors also need carrots, such as providing income deductions for long-term investments,” he added: “During the financial crisis in 2008 .crisis, tax-free long-term equity funds achieved significant results.”

Regarding the recent revision of the Commercial Companies Act, which imposes liability on minority shareholders of the board of directors, Chung Woo-yong, vice president of policy at the Korea Association of Listed Companies, suggested that “a system that exempts directors from liability when making decisions by them should also introduce normal courts.”

Seo Yoo-seok, president of the Korea Financial Investment Association, said in his opening speech: “The capital market value industry is a favorable economic cycle policy that can make a breakthrough in the era of low growth, low birth rate and aging by revitalizing the Korean economy beyond issues corporate and investor”.