Japanese regulators urge listed companies to use cash for business investment rather than increasing shareholder returns.

The Japanese financial regulatory authority is urging domestic listed companies to allocate more cash reserves for long-term business investments, rather than returning capital to shareholders through stock buybacks and dividend increases. Tatsufumi Shibata, a senior official at the Financial Services Agency, stated that executives should also consider using cross-shareholdings and real estate to achieve growth in addition to cash. He said that Japanese companies often prioritize distributing dividends to shareholders regardless of their growth stage. "I don't think investors would make such demands on companies in a rapid growth phase," he said in an interview.