Yoshiaki Murakami's arrest was one of the biggest financial scandals of 2006, but the nation's best-known shareholder activist has played a pivotal role in persuading Japanese managers to be more attentive to shareholder interests, according to Marc Goldstein, head of Institutional Shareholder Services K.K.
"He was really one of the first, if not the first, investor to focus on undervalued companies," said Goldstein, who analyzes management proposals for shareholders' meetings and provides vote recommendations to institutional investors similar to the Murakami fund.
As representative director of ISS, Goldstein pushes Japanese companies to work in the interest of shareholders. He said there are many firms in Japan that are trading below book value, meaning they would make more money by liquidating their assets than by being traded on the open market.