Japan Food Sector "Governance transformation through the lens of CEO..."

Research evidence excerpt

Japan Food Sector "Governance transformation through the lens of CEO..."

Global Research

2 July 2026ab

Japan Food Sector Equities

JapanGovernance transformation through the lens of

CEO approval ratings Food & Beverage

Rei Ihara

Analyst

rei.ihara@ubs.com

Companies with lower director approval ratings tend to take more concrete +81-3-5208 6227

action

Ryunosuke Watanabe

As the voting results from annual general meetings of shareholders have been released, Associate Analyst

we analysed trends in CEO approval ratings at the 24 food sector companies under our ryunosuke.watanabe@ubs.com

coverage. We conclude that companies with lower director approval ratings are more +81-3-5208 6243

likely to perceive a sense of management urgency and take concrete action. We have

Buy ratings on the three companies with the lowest director approval ratings in our

sector coverage: Ariake Japan, House Foods and Coca-Cola Bottlers Japan (CCBJH).

About 60% of companies with low approval ratings in 2025 acted

CEO approval ratings are influenced by the presence of major shareholders, so a high

approval rating does not necessarily mean minority shareholder views are appropriately

reflected in management decisions. On the other hand, a low approval rating is more

likely to indicate underlying issues. At the 2025 general meetings of shareholders, the

companies with the lowest approval ratings were, in order, CCBJH at 69.6%, Ariake

Japan at 79.4%, Yamazaki Baking at 82.6%, House Foods at 84.9% and Suntory

Beverage & Food at 84.9%. Among them, the companies where management appeared

to have a sense of urgency and took concrete action in FY2025 were CCBJH, Ariake

Japan and House Foods. (1) CCBJH announced Vision 2030 in H1 FY12/25, presenting