Oh-Ebashi English Newsletter 2020 Autumn Issue was published.

Please click HERE to view the English Newsletter back numbers.

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1. Electronic Contracts and Signatures in Japan by Takuya Uehara
Introduction
Amid the COVID-19 pandemic, more and morecompanies are realizing the need to telework. In Japan, however, its traditional paper-based business activitiesand practice of stamping documents with seals, known as hanko or inkan, have often been blamed for hindering the movement toward working remotely.1 This article will brief ly outline the Japanese civil evidence rules that support the hanko culture, introduce the di f ferent types of elect ronic signatures or e-signatures, which can be added to electronic contracts and which have recently been drawing attention as a successor to the hanko system, and explain their legal status as evidence in Japan.（Please click HERE to read the whole article.）

2. Insurance for Business Interruption Losses by Mami Kadono
Introduction
There is a wide variety of insurance products that cover the various risks that may arise from the business activities of an enterprise. For example, if its store premises are damaged due to a fire accident, then typically, the insured enterprise would expect to receive indemnification under a fire insurance policy for the damages. However, the losses that may be sustained if an enterprise's assets are damaged due to an accident are not usually limited to such direct losses or damages. In the example above, there may also be indirect losses, such as the loss of operating income during the closure of the business when the enterprise could not use its store premises, and rent, if it had to rent temporary store premises. What is now known as business interruption insurance is available to provide indemnification for any loss or damage arising from any loss of operating income that could have been realized if the accident had not occurred, or from the bearing of any additional expenses by reason of any interruption of the business activities due to the accident, as in the case of the example above. It is believed that we will see an increase in cases where businesses will have no other choice but to suspend their business activities due to the spread of the new coronavirus (COVID-19) in addition to the ever-increasing number of natural disasters that we have been observing in Japan recently, thereby resulting in the further rise in the importance of business interruption insurance. This article will provide an outline of business interruption insurance, which covers business losses that arise from accidents.（Please click HERE to read the whole article.）

3. An Overview of Hybrid Virtual Shareholder Meetings in Japan by Tomomi Fukutomi
Introduction
This year, many Japanese joint stock companies or kabushiki kaishas ("KKs") had to change their annual general meeting ("AGM") plans substantially given the COVID-19 pandemic situation. To mitigate the risk of infection and protect their shareholders' health, many of them downsized their meetings in terms of their location, meeting time and number of questions to be taken from the shareholders. They also cancelled social gatherings and adopted precautionary measures for such meetings, such as physical distancing and temperature checks of attendees. Such significant changes have encouraged more KKs to consider hosting virtual meetings. The Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry ("METI") also recently released the "Guidelines on Approaches to Hybrid Virtual Shareholder Meetings" (the "Guidelines"),1 which explain some approaches to hosting shareholder meetings with a combination of virtual and physical measures. This article provides an overview of the Guidelines and describes some cases of hybrid virtual shareholder meetings.（Please click HERE to read the whole article.）