This post first appeared on 8percentpa.substack.com and is now the #1 most read post on our substack. Since we started to talk about shareholder activism, the biggest hotbed has been Japan. There are now a few hundred Japanese names owned by activists today. Shareholder activism in Japan started around 2005 when the activist pioneers targeted Japanese broadcasters and food sauces*. It did not end well. Foreigners were labelled as arrogant gaijins (i.e. aliens) who didn’t know Japanese ethics and were just vultures, barbarians at the gates, greedy capitalists and enemies of corporate and basically the whole of Japan. Activists were mocked, fined, thrown in jail and chased out of the country. The Japanese activist pioneer, Murakami Yoshiaki, founder of the eponymous Murakami fund, was imprisoned, taking one for the global activist teams trying to transform corporate Japan during trying times. He now lives in Singapore. Together with...