The main issues raised by the FSA at opinion exchange meetings withtrade associations[held on February 16, 2021, with the Japan Securities Dealers
Association]
1. Financial Measures in Response to the 2021 Earthquake Occurred off Fukushima
Prefecture○ We express our condolences and sympathies to victims of the earthquake that
occurred on February 13.
○ The Disaster Relief Act is applied to Fukushima Prefecture in relation to the latest
disaster and the FSA issued a notice requesting financial measures to relevant
financial institutions, etc.
○ We understand that securities companies in the disaster-afflicted areas have been
making efforts to continue offering required services while taking infection control
measures amid the COVID-19 pandemic, but we must further ask you to fully
ascertain opinions and needs of disaster victims and provide support meticulously
from their standpoint, based on the notice we issued recently.

2. Continuation of Required Services under the Declaration of a State of Emergency○ On January 7, in response to the issuance of the declaration of a state of emergency,
the Minister for Financial Services delivered a statement to request financial
institutions to continue offering required services to customers while making theutmost efforts to prevent the spread of infection, not only in areas subject to thedeclaration.
○ In particular, securities companies in areas subject to the declaration are requested to・continue required financial services while making the most of remote functions,and・take sufficient measures to prevent infection for continuing face-to-face services,such as the introduction of an advance reservation system, based on customers'requests.
○ We ask for your continued efforts for preventing the spread of infection andcontinuing required services in response to customers' needs and requests under thecurrent serious situation.

3. Efforts for Achieving the Status of an International Financial Hub○ The national government's financial measures decided at a Cabinet meeting on
December 8, 2020, include a policy package concerning the initiative to make Japanan international financial center○ This January, the FSA and Local Finance Bureaus jointly established the "Financial
Market Entry Office" to handle all procedures from registration to supervision as asingle point of contact by developing and reorganizing the "Financial Market Entry
Consultation Desk."○ The FSA will commence a model program, etc. to partially ease statuses of residence
in collaboration with the Ministry of Justice and offer support for foreign nationals'
business start-ups and daily living also with cooperation of private companies.
○ The FSA will endeavor to steadily implement the compiled policy package incooperation with the securities industry with the aim of increasing the appeal ofJapan's financial and capital markets.

4. Review of Procedures Requiring Documents, Seals and Face-to-Face Contact○ The Registration-Electronic Certification System of the Ministry of Justice wasrenewed and a mechanism to link and share registration information among national
government administrative organs was launched last October.
○ The mechanism permits the omission of a certificate of registered information to beattached upon applications, etc. under laws and regulations, and the FSA also started

to accept applications, etc. without the certificate. We would like to take thisopportunity to disseminate that information.

5. Promotion of People's Acquisition and Use of Individual Number Cards○ Based on the "Policy on Diffusion of Individual Number Cards and Promotion ofUtilization of Individual Numbers," which was decided at the Digital Government
Ministers' Meeting held on June 4, 2019, the national government has beenencouraging people's positive acquisition and use of individual number cards.
○ On February 10, 2021, the FSA issued a notice requesting financial institutions'cooperation for disseminating information on sending of application forms with a QR
code, which enables easy online applications for individual number cards. We would
like to take this opportunity to further ask for your cooperation.
6. Topics Scheduled to be Discussed at This Year's International Conferences○ In November 2020, the Financial Stability Board (FSB) published a report titled“Holistic Review of the March Market Turmoil”, analyzing the market turmoil
brought about by the COVID-19 shock. Standard setting bodies, including the FSB
and the International Organization of Securities Commissions (IOSCO), arecontinuing to discuss matters regarding the non-bank financial intermediation(NBFI) sectors

this year as well.

○ It was decided that the work concerning money market funds (MMFs) be carriedout from the perspective of overviewing the entirety of the short-term fundingmarkets.
○ In addition to the work concerning MMFs and open-end funds, other diverse topics,
such as the market

microstructure and liquidity provision in corporate bondmarkets during COVID-19 pandemic, are being discussed.
○ At the IOSCO Annual Meeting held last November, IOSCO members discussed
priority issues to be addressed in 2021 and decided to focus on issues that may arise
from COVID-19 pandemic.

7. International Trends Regarding Sustainable Finance○ This year, each country is expected to accelerate their climate change actions towardthe 26th UN Climate Change Conference of the Parties (COP26) to be held in theUK in November. Climate finance will further attract international attention,centered on such viewpoints as the mobilization of private funds to achieve
decarbonization, promotion of disclosure of climate-related information, andfinancial institutions' management of climate-related risks. European countries havebeen taking the lead in this field. Also the Financial Stability Report published bythe Federal Reserve Board (FRB) picked up climate change as one of the risks forfinancial stability for the first time and the Biden Administration made climatechange a priority and has already signed a document to rejoin the Paris Agreement
and to put the United States on a path to achieve net zero emissions by 2050. In the2020 Democratic Party Platform, Democrats had advocated that they will require
public companies to disclose climate risks and greenhouse gas emissions.
(IOSCO's Sustainability-related Initiatives)○ IOSCO has also been positively carrying out initiatives concerning sustainablefinance. In April 2020, the IOSCO published a report titled "Sustainable Financeand the Role of Securities Regulators and IOSCO," in which it analyzes thesustainable finance issues, including improvement of comparability of companies'
sustainability-related disclosure and investor protection concerns such as
greenwashing. In order to address these issues, the Sustainability Task Force(STF)
was established within IOSCO in June, 2020, and working groups have been
engaged in discussions under such themes as companies' sustainability-related
disclosure, greenwashing and investor protection, and ESG ratings, respectively.
The FSA serves as a co-leader of Working Group III (ESG ratings) together with theEuropean Securities and Markets Authority (ESMA).
○ With regard to the companies' sustainability-related disclosure, IOSCO, aiming atworking together with the IFRS Foundation and five major private standard setters,presented its intention to support the establishment of a new standard setter and tomaintain collaboration with the Foundation for building a comprehensive system ofcorporate reporting in its comment letter in response to last year's consultative
discussions on the Foundation's report on sustainability. IOSCO's comment letter isconsistent with the content of the comment letter of the IFRS Council of Japan, in
which the Japan Securities Dealers Association also participated.
○ Sustainable finance is a field where international developments are moving veryrapidly. The FSA would like to positively participate in international discussions tohave Japan's opinions reflected thereon. We hope that we can closely collaborate
with you and exchange opinions and information for that purpose.

8. IOSCO Report on Impact of Pandemic on Retail Market Conduct○ In December 2020, IOSCO published a report titled "Initial Findings andObservations About the Impact of COVID-19on Retail Market Conduct."○ The report compiles case studies of the past crisis and COVID-19 in 2020 and, seeks
to assist regulators in responding to the retail market conduct issues caused by stressevents such as the current COVID-19 pandemic.
○ Please access the FSA website or IOSCO website to read the report.

9. IOSCO Report Titled "Investor Education on Crypto-Assets"○ In December 2020, IOSCO published a report titled "Investor Education on CryptoAssets."○ Considering that the issue concerning crypto-assets is one of the top priorities ofIOSCO as a whole, the report was compiled as a part of a project commenced by theCommittee on Retail Investors (Committee 8), in which the Japanese Securities
Dealers Association also participates as an observer. In order to prepare the report,a fact-finding survey among its members was conducted.
○ The report includes several examples of investor education materials that IOSCO
members have already used and offers

four areas of guidance: developing

educational content about crypto-assets, informing the public about unlicensed orfraudulent firms, using a variety of communication channels to inform investors,
and forming partnerships to develop and disseminate educational materials.
○ Please access the FSA website or IOSCO website to read the report.
○ The FSA will fully utilize these opinion exchange meetings and other opportunities
to broadly introduce the trends of international discussions. We hope that theinformation we provide is helpful for financial institutions' daily operations.