(6 December 2017) The Japan Exchange Group, Inc. (JPX) signed on 6 December 2017 a commitment letter announcing its partnership with the United Nations Sustainable Stock Exchanges (SSE) initiative. JPX now joins nearly 70 stock exchanges worldwide committed to sharing information and working with stakeholders to promote the sustainability and transparency of capital markets.
Akira Kiyota, Group CEO of JPX said, “We are delighted to join the SSE initiative today. JPX has promoted sustainability initiatives on several fronts in Japan. We formulated Japan’s Corporate Governance Code, offer ESG-related indices and ETFs, and launched an infrastructure fund market. JPX also selects listed companies in recognition of outstanding efforts in promoting women empowerment and employee health and productivity. By joining other exchanges working on sustainability issues in the SSE initiative, JPX will share its experiences and other positive developments in Japan, and work together with like-minded peers to contribute to building a sustainable future.”
“We are pleased to welcome the Japan Exchange Group as a member of the Sustainable Stock Exchanges initiative,” said James Zhan, UNCTAD Director of Investment and Enterprise and Editor-in-Chief of the UN World Investment Report. “As one of the largest stock exchanges in the world, Japan Exchange Group is sending an important message to market participants through its commitment to promote improved ESG performance among issuers.”
JPX was recently highlighted in the PRI Japan Roadmap as enabling enhanced corporate disclosure and transparency through its sustainability index and through the JPX/Nikkei 400 index that has proved influential with its focus on return on equity and corporate governance. JPX was also noted as having advanced corporate transparency through the Corporate Governance Code.
Fiona Reynolds, Managing Director of PRI said, We are pleased to welcome JPX, Japan’s primary stock market, to the SSE. Japan has made considerable progress in recent years to strengthen its financial system from a sustainability perspective, which is very significant, given that they are one of the world’s largest and most important economies. In his remarks at the launch of the SDGs at the United Nations Headquarters, Prime Minister Shinzo Abe committed the government pension fund GPIF (the world’s largest asset owner) to the UN’s Principles for Responsible Investment. Additionally, Japan’s financial services regulator (FSA), has introduced corporate governance and stewardship codes which have been widely adopted by domestic and foreign companies and investors. We look forward to working with JPX to further enhance their work on promoting sustainable and transparent capital markets, including in the areas of reporting guidance, green finance, gender equality and sustainable economic development.”
The SSE initiative works with stock exchanges alongside key capital market stakeholders, including capital market regulators, investors, issuers and policymakers, to collaboratively develop and promote long-term sustainable investment and improved environmental, social and corporate governance disclosure and performance of listed companies. JPX is the SSE’s 68th Partner Exchange. Together, the SSE’s Partner Exchanges represent US$62 trillion in market capitalization from over 40,000 listed companies.
