A House of Representatives committee on Wednesday approved revisions to the Commercial Code that will make it easier for companies to spin off unprofitable divisions.
The revisions, the last in a series aimed at facilitating corporate realignments, follow the 1997 lifting of a ban on holding firms and last year's introduction of a stock-swap system to streamline mergers and acquisitions of subsidiaries by parent companies.
The bill, which contains amendments jointly submitted by the ruling coalition and the opposition Democratic Party of Japan and the Liberal Party, was approved by the Judicial Affairs Committee.