RI Tokyo 2021 | Responsible Investor | 20 April 2021 | Tokyo Midtown, 9 Chome-7-1 Akasaka, Minato City, Tokyo 107-0052, Japan

ESG investment has become widely known as an investment method that incorporates corporate efforts concerning environmental considerations, social issues, and internal governance into the assessment process. However, when returning to a practical position, how much profit will actually be gained by considering “contribution” to social and environmental issues? Supporting corporate “do-goodery” is not an investor's primary responsibility, and it is understandable that investors may find it difficult to incorporate ESG without clear evidence that ESG investments will contribute to raising returns.

ESG investment, on the other hand, can be utilised as a risk management approach. In order to avoid risk and therefore expand the investment returns, investors may take into account the economic impact that internal governance structures, as well as environmental and social climates surrounding the business activities may have.

Understanding trends in society and considering possible risks is what many Japanese investors have done, including examining the impact of declining birth rates and an aging population. The only difference between these and issues such as climate change and human rights which are commonly raised as key E and S issues is that they are large in scale and seemingly unrelated to daily life and work. However, such large scale global issues are all the more likely to have an impact on companies throughout an investor’s portfolio.

2020 Sponsors and Partners

SAKURA:
• MUFG
• First State Investments

UME:
• ifm

SUISEN:
• RepRisk

AYAME:
• CSR Design
• EY

PARTNERS:
• JPX
• PRI

ASSOCIATE PARTNER:
• Keidanren