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June 19, 2003
The Sun is Rising on SRI in Japan
by William Baue
A major Tokyo public pension fund commits to socially responsible investing, an indication of
Japan's growing interest in SRI (part one of a two-part article.)
SocialFunds.com --
In March 2003, the Mutual Aid Association for Tokyo Metropolitan Teachers and Officials launched
the first socially responsible investing (SRI) pension fund in Japan. Japan has been much slower
to adopt SRI than European and North American countries for a number of reasons; these include
Japan's recent economic woes as well as its different cultural values (see part two of this article
for more on Japanese attitudes toward SRI.) However, a number of SRI vehicles do exist, and
informed observers agree that SRI will only grow.
 "The Association's leadership on SRI is very
significant--their policies are definitely raising the profile of SRI and its significance to
pensions investment," said Tessa Tennant, executive director of the Association for Sustainable & Responsible Investment in Asia
(ASrIA). "It's a fair bet that other pension funds will soon adopt SRI policies or invest at least
some of their portfolio in SRI funds."
The Association, which serves about 112,000 public
school teachers and officials in the Tokyo metropolis, committed two billion yen of its 84 billion
yen pension portfolio to SRI strategies. The Association is similar to the California Public
Employees Retirement Pension System (CalPERS) in the US and the University SuperAnnuation Scheme
(USS) in the UK, two other public pension funds that employ SRI strategies. And as with many SRI
institutional investments, separate firms provide research and fund management services.
"The Good Bankers provides the
Association with tailor-made SRI research, covering environmental as well as social performance of
each company focusing on three aspects, namely employee and community education, promotion of
females, and contribution to the community," said Sho Ikeda, director of the Good Bankers.
About 100 companies passed the Good Bankers SRI screens, which also covered environmental
issues such as environmental accounting and waste reduction.
"Nikko Asset Management provides fundamental
financial research and serves as the fund manager," Mr. Ikeda told SocialFunds.com.
Collaboration was not foreign to Nikko and the Good Bankers, which jointly launched the first
SRI mutual fund in Japan in August 1999, the Nikko Eco Fund.
"When we established the
Eco Fund, we focused on ecology and the environment," said Eiichi Takeda, a corporate planning
official with Nikko. "Japanese are keen on the environmental issue, because Japan faced serious
environmental pollution in the 1960s and 1970s."
"Then we aimed at women, young people,
and new investors, who are interested in ecology and the environment very much," Mr. Takeda told
SocialFunds.com.
The Eco Fund, which focuses more on positive than negative screening,
quickly attracted more than 100 billion yen in sales not only through brokerage firms, the
traditional channel for fund sales in Japan, but also through banks.
"Observing the
success of the fund, about ten similar retail funds were put into the market by various investment
trust companies," Mr. Ikeda told SocialFunds.com. "However, since then, Japanese stock market has
been terribly bad and no other SRI fund had been launched until recently."
Also in 1999,
Asahi Life Asset Management Company (ALAMCO) launched an SRI fund named Asunohane, or "Feather of
the Future." In January 2003, ALAMCO contracted the Ethibel Group, a Belgium-based SRI research and consultancy
agency, to provide SRI screening services.
"ALAMCO came to us for our capacity to examine
Japanese companies beyond Japan's borders," said Kyoko Sakuma, project manager for Ethibel's
Pacific Project.
Ethibel evaluates Japanese companies' international presence throughout
their consolidated groups and supply chains, examining overseas sales and employment practice.
Ethibel also conducts dialogue with relevant stakeholders throughout the world.
The
proliferation of Japanese SRI vehicles, both at the individual and institutional levels, as well as
the spread of SRI research beyond Japan's borders, bodes well for the growth of SRI in Japan.
"There is now a critical mass of individuals and funds involved with SRI for the industry to be
self-perpetuating," Ms. Tennant told SocialFunds.com. "There is much discussion about the
contribution SRI can make toward helping Japan out of its current problems and toward a sustainable
economy."
Part Two of this article
will explore the Japanese attitudes toward SRI that may influence SRI's future growth in Japan.
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SRI World Group, Inc. All Rights Reserved.
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