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ESG investing gains ever more momentum in Japan
ESG Talk
TOMOKO KAICHICONTRIBUTING WRITER

While working for the Ministry of Finance,
Hideki Takada launched the Green FinanceNetwork Japan in September 2018. Startingwith just a few members, the group’s activities grew fast as interest in green financeand ESG (environmental, social and governance) investing grew.
It now includes over 250 members frommore than 130 private and public entities, including central government bodies
such as the Ministry of Finance, the Financial Services Agency and the Ministryof the Environment as well as financial
institutions, institutional investors andbusinesses.
“Green finance” refers to efforts to promote financing or investing activities aimed
at realizing sustainable economies andsocieties. Although the GFNJ is often discussed today, at the time it was launchedthere were few frameworks giving people
in the public and private sectors, or thosein Japan and abroad, opportunities to work
together, according to Takada.
Determined to create such a framework,Takada, who also has been involved ingreen finance at the Organisation for Eco-ESG Talk interviews are held at The Japan Times
offices and hosted by its chairperson and president, Minako Suematsu. HIROMICHI MATONO

nomic Co-operation and Development’s
secretariat since 2015, started to seek potential members to form what would become
GFNJ. He successfully brought on board
the leading figure in green finance in Japan,
Takejiro Sueyoshi, and his former boss at
the OECD, Rintaro Tamaki, a former viceminister of finance for international affairs.

GFNJ spreads the word

GFNJ is an “informal gathering” of peoplecommitted to the cause who participate“in their capacity as a private person,”according to Takada. Exchanging information between members and organizing
events are the main activities of the group.
Symposiums it organized in 2018 and 2019each attracted about 200 participants.
Environment Minister Shinjiro Koizumi
sent a video message to another symposium in 2020, which was held online amid
the coronavirus pandemic.
GFNJ has worked with stakeholders
around the world. In 2019, for example,
it helped organize an event cosponsoredby the Tokyo Metropolitan Government
and the British Embassy in Japan. It also
cosponsored a seminar with the Climate
Bonds Initiative.
In Japan, “there are increasing moves
among institutional investors, such as pension funds, to promote ESG investing,”
according to Takada. This has been driven
by a 2020 revision to the basic policy forpension reserves making it “mandatory, ina sense, (for public pension funds) to commit to ESG investing,” Takada said.
The Finance Ministry has called on
the Federation of National Public Service
Personnel Mutual Aid Associations, also
known as KKR, to commit to ESG investing. KKR has said it will ask all its asset
managers to weigh ESG factors in investment decisions and will study the possibility of becoming a signatory of theU.N.-supported Principles for Responsible
Investment (PRI). The federation also said
it will start preparing to endorse the infor-Hideki Takada, secretary general, Green Finance Network Japan HIROMICHI MATONO

mation disclosure recommended by theTask Force on Climate-related Financial
Disclosures (TCFD). “If the asset owner(KKR) takes action, it can create a chance
for Japan’s investment chain (flow ofmoney) to change,” Takada said. “In particular, moves by a public pension fund havea strong potential to influence the market.”‘Awareness shift’ in 2015

Takada said there was an “awareness shift”
in the world in 2015 in which financial
authorities and institutions started to consider climate change as an economic issue.
In September of that year, Mark Carney,at the time the governor of the Bank ofMonthly Times Gallery

England and chairman of the Financial Stability Board, warned about the risk posedby climate change to financial markets ina speech to financial industry insiders, andthe United Nations adopted the Sustainable
Development Goals (SDGs).
In December, the Financial Stability
Board established the TCFD, and the Paris
Agreement was reached at the 21st Conference of the Parties to the U.N. Framework
Convention on Climate Change (COP21).
At the finance track of the Group of 20 in2016, host country China set up the Green
Finance Study Group. This has “left nochoice” for financial and monetary authorities — as well as central banks, which had

Dancing the cycle of birth anddeath at Kiyomizu Temple
Satoyama~AuthenticJapan

Indonesian Foreign Minister Retno Marsudi and Defense Minister
Prabowo Subianto with Japanese Foreign Minister Toshimitsu Motegi
and Defense Minister Nobuo Kishi at their meeting in Tokyo on March
30 EMBASSY OF INDONESIA

On the occasion of the 100th anniversary of friendship between Latvia
and Japan, on April 6, Ambassador of Latvia Dace Treija-Masi opened aphoto exhibition by Latvian photographer Andris Zegners called“Secrets of Amber” at Bunkyo Gakuin University. EMBASSY OF LATVIAReception at the Tunisian Embassy. From left: Mutsuo Iwai, deputy chairman of the board of Japan Tobacco; Mohamed Elloumi, ambassador ofTunisia; Seiji Tanabe, CEO of Fuji Imvac, Inc.; and Tomoo Nakayama,chairman and director of ITC-AeroLeasing, Inc. EMBASSY OF TUNISIA

Kosovo Charge d’Affaires ad interim Arber Mehmeti has his phototaken for the free magazine Lunch Map published by the production
committee Come-on-Toranomon at the company Goo Choki Partners.

Serbian evening event at the Serbian Embassy with representatives ofTop Connect Co., Makoto Investments Ltd. and embassy’s staff

Colombian Ambassador Santiago Pardo with officials of the commercial
section of the embassy and executives from Yokohama Reito hosted aColombian shrimp tasting event on April 9. EMBASSY OF COLOMBIAEMBASSY OF SERBIA

not been directly
involved in environmental and climate issues — but
to be involved indiscussion of theseissues, Takada said.
Moves to regard
climate change as
an economic andfinancial issue havegained momenNumber of TCFD Supporters per country and industry, as of 22 Marchtum in the past few
2021 MINISTRY OF ECONOMY, TRADE, AND INDUSTRYyears. The information disclosure recommended by the TCFD
been awakened,” Takada said.
had been endorsed by over 1,700 entities
After this, there were few notable moves
around the world by the end of January.
until 2017, when new initiatives began to
Notably, the number of such entities inemerge. The Tokyo Metropolitan GovernJapan was the largest, totaling over 300.
ment issued green bonds, becoming theThe European Union has been working tofirst Japanese local government to do so.
develop a “sustainable finance market” andJapan’s Financial Services Agency joinedin 2020 announced the “taxonomy,” a clasthe network of central banks and financialsification system to determine whether
authorities around the world in 2018, folan economic activity is environmentally
lowed by the Bank of Japan in 2019.
sustainable.
“The Japanese are not good at taking
The rest of the world now faces the difthe first step, but we have the potential to
ficult choice of whether to follow the EU,change quickly, like an avalanche, once wewhich leads the way in introducing regulastart to move,” Takada said. “In Japan, develtory systems, or create their own standards,
opments in the green finance market haveaccording to Takada.
happened quickly in the past few years
compared to the global standards.”
In late 2020, Prime Minister Yoshihide
Japan’s potential
Suga said Japan aims to become a carbonJapan is host to financial assets whose total
neutral society by 2050, and this policy
size is one of the world’s largest and has aspeech may give momentum to policies tomature financial market, but the country
promote green finance.
was undeniably behind Europe and theA major question for the global comUnited States in terms of green financemunity ahead of the 26th U.N. Climate
awareness and commitment. But this may
Change Conference of the Parties (COP26)
also mean the country’s significant potenin November is “whether Japan can present
tial has yet to materialize.
a persuasive goal and drive forward discusIn 2015, when the Japanese Governsions about it,” Takada said.
ment Pension Investment Fund, one of
the world’s largest pension funds, became
The ESG Talk series are intera signatory to the Principles for Responviews to business leaderssible Investment, the news was perceived
who are active proponents
by people involved in promoting greenof ESG investing and pracfinance around the world as “the first steptices in Japan.
taken by the sleeping lion (Japan) that has

TETSUHITO ISHIHARAERI KARATSUDANCE BASE YOKOHAMA, ARTISTIC
DIRECTOROn March 11, 2021 — exactly 10 years after
the Great East Japan Earthquake and a year
after the day when the World Health Organization declared COVID-19 a pandemic —“Re:Incarnation,” a performance offering by
young Japanese creators, took place at Kiyomizu Temple in Kyoto. Mirai Moriyama, who
has been involved in the creation of numerous works around the world, led the performance as the general director.
It was 6:30 in the evening and the temple
was already in twilight. A small audience ofapproximately 20 people walked throughthe temple’s mountainside grounds, led by
a guide. Paper lanterns were lined up about
a meter apart along the long narrow staircase, dimly lighting our footsteps. Proceeding a little further, a figure dressed in a white
costume appeared on the opposite side ofa stream. Faint sound from the speakers(designed by Jukan Tateisi) overlapped with
the natural sounds of the wind and trees,
as well as Moriyama’s voice reading a text.
Proceeding to the next area, another man
dressed in the same costume was croucheddown and nestled close to a round rock. His
body, inhabiting the darkness, twisted as if
attempting to have a dialogue with nature,
which changed the mood of the place. Alongwith Moriyama, nouseskou and Daisuke
Omiya partook as performers. They weredressed in the same costume, designed byTamae Hirokawa, but with their faces covered by masks, anonymity was maintained
throughout the performance.

Argentine Ambassador Guillermo
Hunt met with thechairperson andpresident of The
Japan Times, Minako
Suematsu, to discuss
ways of cooperation
on March 30.

Art collective teamLab brings two newartworks of flame tothe body immersive
museum teamLabPlanets Tokyo inToyosu; Universe offire particles fallingfrom the sky.

Mirai Moriyama performs an offering on thestage of Kiyomizu Temple. PERROTIN /MARIANGELES DEJEANTEAMLABKENRYOU GU

PAGE: 7For this Kiyomizu Temple project, Moriyama collected physical movements andsounds representative of eight selected
locations in Kyoto where he felt energies,
which were then remapped to eight locations within the temple, envisioning a newphysical map. Moreover, the performance
was inspired by traditional kusōzu paintings
depicting the nine stages of the decay of acorpse. Upon learning this inspiration andhaving walked around the temple grounds,
it seemed as if the performers’ bodies thatmetamorphosed into butoh dancers began
to overlap with decaying corpses fromkusōzu paintings. After visiting the eight locations within the temple grounds, including
the garden, the figures of arhats and the WestGate, Moriyama’s body was finally enshrined
as an offering at the stage of Kiyomizu.
Toribeno, the district surrounding Kiyomizu
Temple, is one of the three major funeralsites in Kyoto. During the Heian Period, whencommoners who died of plague or famine
were not allowed to build graves, they werelaid to rest by aerial burial that returned theirbodies to nature. The stage of Kiyomizu, aledge extending over the cliff overlooking
Toribeno, was built for the purpose of dumping those commoners’ corpses into the valley
beneath the stage. It is said that Kiyomizu
Temple was built to mourn the many dead
who were buried there.
As such, the stage of Kiyomizu was indeed
a place suited for conducting a rite that connects this life with the afterlife. Moriyama
stood tall in the middle of the stage, took adeep breath, then sat down to slowly movein all directions in a ritualistic manner, gradually drawing a circle with growingly intense
movements. Finally, when he took his mask
and costume off, Moriyama appeared ashimself, as a human being. Could this besignifying the return to life after reincarnation, or yet another death? Flowing lines
in fluorescent green that appeared over hiscollapsing or reviving body became thevery symbol connecting the past and thefuture, as if representing a soul that had gone
through repeated reincarnations.
There are two important points to beaddressed regarding this project. First,
despite Moriyama’s interest in the primordiality of the body that within the cycle oflife coexists with nature before the “bodythat is seen,” he has also taken layers ofhistorical and anthropological approaches,

A performance at the West Gate of Kiyomizu
Temple, one of the dance’s eight locations
PERROTIN / KENRYOU GU

along with geographical and climatic
research, which were then melded to createa strong contemporary work. Second, thereconsideration of the personal relationship between the subject and the audiencemust be mentioned. The experience ofimmersing oneself in nature, outdoors or in
the darkness, opens up our umwelt, which
had been closed off by the modern world.
Coincidentally taking place at a time whenlive performances were restricted due toCOVID-19, this experience reawakened ourbodily senses, invited us to experience theheightening of our five senses and reminded
us of the lack of the special communication that can only be achieved through live
performances.
Ruminating on the cycle of birth anddeath, and reconsidering the nature of life,
are exactly the way of life for dancers, whosince ancient times have been connecting
lives through the dedication of their bodies. The performance, which showed us thedetermination and strong will of Moriyama
and some of the best Japanese creators, wasreleased from Kiyomizu into the darknessof the universe, as a prayer for the world.
“Sustainable Japan,” features issues related
to the environment and asustainable society. For more
information, see https://sustainable.japantimes.com/
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