It is mid-June and the season when hydrangeas and jacarandas that I see once in a whole are beautiful. The start of the rainy season in Kinki district is said to be June 6 in a typical year, but it is far behind right now, and hot and sunny days are continuing.
By the way, poor harvest due to bad weather, growing demand in Asia and weak yen bring an increase in coffee beans prices, and the price of coffee at a coffee chain and a convenience store is rising and even the price of instant coffee is rising. The price increase of other foods is also conspicuous, and recently, I don’t see many lunch boxes sold at railroad stations under 1,000 yen. According to a survey about “weak yen”, one of main factors, for general consumers, 90 % of people say it is “undesirable” and they mention “the rise of food prices” as the reason for this.

■■What I have recently thought and focused on:
■M&A, MBO and TOB:
Recently, even in Japan, I began to listen to words such as M&A, Merger and Acquisition, MBO, Management Buyout, and TOB, Takeover Bid, frequently and closely. I think there are people who are in the middle of them now.
I saw these corporate strategies almost every day in the United States when I spread the Wall Street Journal, economic-focused newspaper, in around 1980 when I worked in New York. At the same time, White Knight, one of anti-takeover measures, and Poison Bill, defense against a hostile takeover, were also daily business terms.
On the other hand, in Japan, there has been an image of “hijacking” in the word of M&A until recently. However, in the United States, corporates, especially listed companies, were always the targets of M&A, in other words, “buying and selling” from a long time ago, and M&A is an important corporate management strategy. Thus, capitalist market economy in the United States has kept dynamism and the metabolism of the companies has been progressing.
By the way, in Japan, business strategies of selling the entire company, the part of the company or subsidiary, in other words, “decluttering” has not been popular until recently. You could say that this led to low profit margins for Japanese companies and an increase in Zombie companies. And the reality is that management has sit cross-legged on “cross-holding” or strategic-holding with a main bank and client as stable shareholders and continued to manage its business in a self-defensive way that lacks a sense of tension.
However, an opportunity to molt from such Japanese management or something like the arrival of the black ship is as follows. ①“Japan’s Stewardship Code” drawn up by the Financial Serves Agency 10 years ago, ②“Corporate Governance Code” established by the Tokyo Stock Exchange three years ago, ③“A measure corresponding to the realization of management that is conscious of cost of capital and stock price” published by the Tokyo Stock Exchange in March last year, ④“Guiding principle for corporate acquisitions” drawn up by the Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry in August last year.
Because of these measures, domestic and overseas “activist shareholders” have appeared on the stage one after another and shareholder proposals are also rapidly increasing. The general shareholders meeting is outdated to be complacent about “no questions” as before, and is changing to the place to exchange opinions seriously between shareholders and management side aiming for improvement of corporate values. And we have to change it. It is correct that this change brought revitalization of the stock market in Japan that was far behind compared to overseas markets including the United States and stock price rises.

■Climate change and a possibility of the La Nina effect:
On June 5, the World Meteorological Organization, WMO, announced its report that the average temperature from 2024 to 2028 would be 1.1 ~1.9 degrees higher than industrial revolution time, from late 18 th century to early 19 th century. Due to an influence of global warming, sea ice in the Sea of Okhotsk and the Bering Sea around the North Pole is also said to be declining. The Paris Agreement, an international treaty on global warming countermeasures adopted in 2015 establishes a goal that the average temperature in the world will be kept to “1.5 degree” or less compared to before industrial revolution. Mr. Guterres, the Secretary General of the United Nations is warning that “climate change is a critical situation, and it is time to take action and deliver results”.
At the same time, WMO says that “the El Nino effect” continued from spring 2023 will end and after summer, it will be likely to migrate to “the La Nina effect”. In this effect, sea surface water temperature off the coast of Peru, South America, is lower than normal. It is pointed out that there is a trend to have an effect on harvesting grains for staple foods such as wheat, corn, soybean and so on. In addition to these, damage by frost occurred in Russia, an exporter of wheat, is also threatening grain supplies. On the other hand, the crude oil market has been calming down lately, but climate change will be the keyword in the future.

■There have been cases where heart transplants have been abandoned, because receiving hospitals  were under strain:
According to reports, it is said that cases where receiving hearts donated by brain-dead people have been abandoned in 2023 were 16 cases in total. It is said that the reason is that transplant surgery was not ready to be performed, because there were multiple requests of receiving organs. And it is said that among 16 patients who have been denied a transplant opportunity, 6 patients still can’t get a transplant and are waiting now.
As a matter of fact, 18 years ago from now, my heart was infected with a virus for some reason, and I had a disease that prevents blood from being pumped forward and flows backwards, because two valves on the left side among four valves, mitral valve and aortic valve, were dysfunctional, in other words, two valves can’t be opened or closed. If it remained that way, it would surely lead to death. Therefore, I had an operation to open the chest like double doors and be in a state of apparent death and maintain my life using heart-lung machine and replaced dysfunctional two valves with titanium artificial valves. I spent 45 days in the hospital, and during that time I also worked on rehabilitation with all my might. Because of this, I don’t feel any abnormalities now and I also enjoy golf and alcohol and I live my daily lives just like normal people. I never forget to be grateful for modern medical science and a great doctor who conducted my surgery.
By the way, there was a space separated by frosted glass in the hospital where I was admitted. I heard that was the ward for patients waiting for heart transplants. They attach artificial hearts and wait for the provider to show up. I heard from the people at the hospital that “everyone seems to have mixed feelings, because in a sense, they wait for the death of others”.
According to Japan Organ Transplant Network (JOT), there are 842 patients waiting for heart transplants as of the end of May.
It is said that there are few organ donors in Japan compared to Western countries, and an opportunity to receive a transplant is being limited. I would like to develop human resources involved in transplantation and see more transplant facilities so that organs which have been donated all the way can be used appropriately and effectively.