Press Conference by Taro Aso, Deputy Prime Minister, Minister of Finance, and Minister of State for Financial Services

(Excerpt)

(Friday, June 14, 2013, 10:02 am to 10:13 am)

[Questions and answers]

Q.

This question relates to the issue of the merger of Kawasaki Heavy Industries and Mitsui Engineering & Shipbuilding.  And this relates to timely disclosure and information disclosure by corporations, an announcement made yesterday by Kawasaki Heavy Industries stated that a previous announcement that the companies were not engaged in merger talks should be revised to one stating that while merger talks were in progress nothing had been decided. I would therefore like to ask for your views, either in relation to this incident or in general terms, concerning the statement that the companies were not engaged in merger talks, even though they were, as an approach to information disclosure by corporations.

A.

I will not comment on individual cases. In general terms, disclosures should obviously be directed at investors. Timely disclosure is basically something for securities exchanges to address, so I think perhaps securities exchanges should talk about that before the Financial Services Agency.

(End)