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The craze for ethical investment has reached Japan
Key Excerpts from Article on Website of The Economist
Posted: December 11th, 2017
https://www.economist.com/news/finance-and-economics/2173163...
Japan is prone to fads. One has hit finance: investing in assets screened for ESG (environmental, social and governance) factors. In 2014-16 funds invested in ESG assets grew faster in Japan than anywhere else. Today Japans sustainable-investment balance is $474bn, or some 3.4% of the countrys total managed assets - low compared with Europe or America, but high for Asia. The shift is driven from the top down, rather than, as elsewhere, by ethically minded individual investors. The big boost for ethical investing in Japan came from the Government Pension Investment Fund (GPIF), the worlds biggest public-sector investor, with $1.3trn of assets under management. In 2015 GPIF signed the UNs Principles for Responsible Investment. This year it invested 3% of its holdings in socially responsible assets, using three ESG indices. Smaller investors have started to follow suit. Hiromichi Mizuno, GPIFs chief investment officer, says the decision to invest in three ESG indices is for the long-term future, rather than with an eye on short-term returns or to support government policy: The more companies pay attention to the sustainability of the environment, society and governance, the more likely investors are to find investment opportunities in them. Analysts say GPIF is setting a trend for sustainable investing not just in Japan but globally. It has said it wants to increase its allocations in ESG funds to 10% of its assets.
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