The 2nd "Impact Investing Roundtable" was held on September 3rd. The aim of the roundtable is to deepen the understanding among these leaders on impact investing, together with the significance and challenges of addressing social issues through impact investing in Japan and beyond.

The members of "Impact Investing Roundtable"

At the first roundtable held on June 18, the diversity of the positions on impact investing efforts was unveiled, and the differences in the attitudes and positions stemming from financial products were highlighted. A survey to the all roundtable members was conducted with the aim of gaining a more comprehensive view of a snapshot of Japanese impact investing markets as of today, what kinds of impact investing are being in practice, what kind of positions exist, why there are so wide varieties in the philosophy and positions into impact investing.

Based on the survey results, the roundtable members had a heated discussion on how we should think about the relationship between risk, return and impact, whether Japan's efforts should be consistent with international efforts, or whether Japan should pursue its own efforts regarding impact investing and measurement. We also discussed issues such as what are the future challenges for promoting impact investing and what are the industry-wide efforts to promote impact investing.

Dr. Takeshi Mizuguchi, the Chairman of the roundtable and the Professor of Faculty of Economics at the Takasaki City University of Economics, and Mr. Satoshi Ikeda, the Vice Chairman of the roundtable and the Chief Sustainable Finance Officer, Financial Services Agency first gave opening remarks. Then Ms Yuka Ogasawara, Impact Officer of the Social Innovation and Investment Foundation (SIIF) presented the highlight of the survey result. After that, there was a lively exchange of opinions from the roundtable members.

Key questions around which the discussions were held were :(1) how to think about the relationship between risk, return, and impact, (2) whether Japan's efforts should be consistent with international efforts, or whether Japan should pursue its own efforts regarding impact investing and measurement, (3) what are issues and challenges in impact measurement and management, and (4) what are the future challenges for promoting impact investing and what kind of the industry-wide efforts and initiatives are to be made to promote impact investing.

In addition, CEO / co-founder of Global Impact Investment Network, or GIIN, Mr. Amit Bowli sent a video message to the Roundtable, in which he explained the definition of impact investing and dispelled some of the myths and common misperceptions about impact investing, and emphasised how impact investing can make a difference on our biggest global challenges such as SDGs and pandemic. GIIN's Director of Research, Dean Hand, followed Amit by providing an overview of the 2020 Annual Survey of Impact Investors Globally, published in June.
Ms Fumi Sugeno, Head of Business Development Department, SIIF, explained the main points of the GIIN's video message, taking into account the questions asked by the committee members.

All of the 35 members, including those involved in finance and markets, businesses, and industry, attended, and about 100 observers, including related ministries and agencies, participated.

The next event is scheduled to be held in November.

* GIIN: The Global Impact Investing Network (GIIN) is the global champion of impact investing, dedicated to increasing its scale and effectiveness around the world. It is a non-profit organization established to increase the scale and effectiveness of impact investing. It operates the world's largest network of impact investors, with more than 330 organizations (asset owners, asset managers, service providers, etc.) in 49 countries and a network of more than 30,000 people worldwide.