Japanese National Advisory Board (the "GSG-NAB Japan ") of the Global Steering Group for Impact Investment (GSG) released “The Current State and Challenges of Impact Investing in Japan(FY2021 Survey)”.

▶The report is available for download here.

This report summarizes the current state of impact investing in Japan. It has been published under the supervision of GSG-NAB Japan every year since 2016. The main part of the report presents the impact investment balance in Japan based on Questionnaire Survey results. It also provides examples of institutions engaged in impact investing, along with trends in Japan as derived from the questionnaire.

Highlights

• 1. Impact investment balance in Japan confirmed through this year survey is JPY 1,320.4 billion(*).
• 2. Major domestic and international developments in impact investing in 2021

• <Global movements>

  • - IFRS Foundation established the International Sustainability Standards Board (ISSB)
  • - G7 set up the Impact Taskforce within its framework
  • - The Impact Management Project was developmentally dissolved and the Impact Management Platform was set up

• <Actions by governments of other countries>

  • - The British government announced a roadmap to sustainable investing
  • - The EU published its sustainable finance strategy
  • - The US government changed its stance on sustainable investing

• <Actions by the Japanese governments and other Japanese public bodies>

  • - Movements of the Financial Services Agency, the Ministry of the Environment, and the Bank of Japan for sustainable investing
  • - Prime Minister Kishida mentioned impact investing in his first policy speech

• <Actions by Japanʼs private sector>

  • - Diversification of investees in impact investing
  • - Diversification of investors engage in impact investing
  • - Financial business operators and institutional investors signed the Japan Impact-driven Financing Initiative

For details, please refer to this report.

(*) The above AUM are not necessarily the actual size of the impact investment market in Japan as a whole, as they were confirmed based on questionnaire responses. The fiscal year above is the year in which the report was released, and the impact investment AUM are the sum of the figures from each respondent organizations as of the end of the preceding fiscal year.