Block Trades Reach Record in Japan’s Drive for Corporate Reform

Japan’s stock market is witnessing a record wave of large private transactions known as block trades, stemming from companies reducing cross-shareholdings to improve corporate governance.

Such deals have reached at least ¥1.3 trillion ($8.3 billion) this year, the most according to Bloomberg-compiled data that go back to 2002. Toyota Motor Corp. and pharmaceutical firm Daiichi Sankyo Co. accounted for some of the biggest trades.