The world’s largest sustainable investment industry body wants pension funds to help catch up for Japan, which is slow to integrate environmental, social and governance factors into investment decision-making .
Such investors, including behaviour is likely to influence other fund managers, have been slow to adopt the UN-supported system Principles for responsible investment, according to Michiyo Morisawa, head of PRI in Japan. The government must push public pension funds to commit to ESG in order to spur a global shift towards sustainable investment in the country, she said.
PRIs are the leading globally recognized standards for ESG investing, and a country’s adoption of these principles reflects its commitment to embrace greener finance and help solve the pressing global problem of reducing emissions. of carbon. PRI signatories undertake to comply with reporting obligations regarding their assets.
More fund managers would likely follow pension funds, and government involvement could be a game-changer, Morisawa said in an interview.
Responsible investment
The number of PRI registrations in Japan is low
Source: PRI
With only 92 registrations, Japan is far behind the United States, the United Kingdom and Ireland, France and Scandinavia. Even though the Government Pension Investment Fund, the world’s largest pension fund, adopted the principles in 2015, with Japan’s three largest public pension funds yet to join. The PRI has nearly 4,000 signatories worldwide and collectively represents approximately $ 100,000 billion in assets under management.
“Japan has made little progress in involving public pension funds to engage, which is different from other countries,†Morisawa said. As funds in Japan delegate the investment management power of their assets to trusted banks and fund managers, their actions are likely to have a positive ripple effect on the industry, she said. .
– With the help of Issei Hazama