TOKYO (Reuters) – Norges Bank Investment Management, operator of the Norwegian government pension fund, will oppose the appointment of a board chair of Japanese companies that do not have female board members, the Nikkei business daily reported on Wednesday.
The voting stance of the world’s largest sovereign wealth fund, with $1.26 trillion in assets under management, could affect about 300 Japanese companies, the Nikkei reported.
The Norwegian fund’s policy will put pressure on Japanese businesses to step up the diversification of their boards, which are usually made up largely of older men.
Although three-quarters of Japanese firms have one or two female directors, only 5% have three or more, according to index data from MSCI.
By contrast, two-thirds of companies in the United States, 85% in Britain and 100% in France have at least three female directors.
The Norwegian fund’s policy is to have a minimum 30% of each gender represented on the board in companies it invests in, or with a minimum of at least two members of each gender.
The fund told Reuters in February that it was considering expanding its existing policy beyond Europe and North America.
“We extended it to smaller caps for this past season – this season we will also look at other markets such as Japan and see if we are going to make any changes there,” a senior fund official said at the time.
(Reporting by Satoshi Sugiyama, additional reporting by Gwladys Fouche in Oslo; Editing by Louise Heavens, Robert Birsel)
