The Council of Experts Concerning the Japanese Version of the Stewardship Code (Chairman: Professor Hiroyuki Kansaku, University of Tokyo Graduate Schools for Law and Politics) published the Principles for Institutional Investors (Japan’s Stewardship Code, hereinafter referred to as “the Code”) on February 26, 2014.
The Council of Experts on the Stewardship Code (Chairman: Professor Hiroyuki Kansaku) revised the Code on May 29, 2017(Finalization of the Japan’s Stewardship Code (Revised version)(May 29, 2017)).
Also, the Council of Experts on the Stewardship Code (FY2019) (Chairman: Professor Hiroyuki Kansaku) revised the Code on March 24, 2020(Finalization of the Japan’s Stewardship Code (Second revised version)(March 24, 2020)).
The FSA publishes the list of institutional investors who have notified the FSA of their intention to accept the Code. The FSA updates the list at every quarter.
The revised Code describes in its preamble the recommended process of the publication of the list of institutional investors who accept the code as follows:
15. To make institutional investors’ acceptance of the Code transparent, the Councils expect institutional investors who accept the Code to:
・publicly disclose on their website:
– thier intention to accept the Code; and
– disclosure items based on the principles, including guidance, of the Code, as below
(i) specific information that is required to be disclosed by the principles, including guidance, of the Code, such as the policy on how they fulfill the stewardship responsibilities, and
(ii) if they do not comply with some of the principles, including guidance, an explanation of the reason;
・annually review and update the disclosed information and publicly disclose such update if it takes place; and
・notify the Financial Services Agency of the address of their website (the URL) used to disclose the information above.
The Councils also expect the Financial Services Agency to publish the information about the institutional investors who have made the disclosure in a tabular form.
As of September 30, 2023, there are 329 institutional investors in the list, classified as follows;
Trust banks (Shintaku Ginko) : 6
Investment managers (Toshishintaku/Toshikomon Gaisha) : 206
Insurance companies : 24
Pension funds : 82
Others (Service Providers for Institutional Investors, etc.) : 11
(Total) : 329
(Appendix)
(The second sheet is the list highlighted the institutional investors who newly announced their acceptance oh the Code and other updates.)
In consideration of the discussion in the 16th “Council of Experts Concerning the Follow-up of Japan’s Stewardship Code and Japan’s Corporate Governance Code”, the FSA newly added the following column for Trust banks, Investment managers and Insurance companies in the list of institutional investors who have signed up to the Principles for Responsible Investors : “Disclosure of Voting Results”, “Reasons for Votes”, “Stewardship Activity Reports”, “Website address which disclose Stewardship Activity Reports”.
Please also refer to “Stewardship Code: Message from the FSA”, which was published on September 2, 2014.
Those who newly intend to accept the Code are invited to notify the FSA (jstewardship[at sign]fsa.go.jp *) of their intention as well as the information below. For details of disclosure items, please see the latest Code (revised on March 24, 2020) Principles for Responsible Institutional Investors ≪Japan’s Stewardship Code≫ -To promote sustainable growth of companies through investment and dialogue-.
* Please change [at sign] to @
– the institution’s name:
– name of the person in charge:
– contact information (telephone number and email address):
– the URL where the announcement of the acceptance of the Code have been released:
– the URL where the disclosure items described in the Code have been released:
（Only institutional investors classified as trust banks (Shintaku Ginko), investment managers (Toshishintaku/Toshikomon Gaisha), and insurance companies are requested to provide the following information.）
– whether you disclose the voting results, and its website address (if disclose):
– whether you disclose the reasons for votes
– whether you disclose the stewardship activity reports, and its website address (if disclose):
For institutional investors who do not have their own website, sending the above “the announcement of the acceptance of the Code,” “the disclosure items described in the Code,” and “stewardship activity reports” in PDF format to the FSA (jstewardship[at sign]fsa.go.jp *) can be substituted for publication on the website.
* Please change [at sign] to @
Please also notify the FSA (jstewardship[at sign]fsa.go.jp *) if there are any changes to the above items.
* Please change [at sign] to @
Contact
Corporate Accounting and Disclosure Division, Policy and Markets Bureau, Financial Services Agency
Tel +81-(0)3-3506-6000 (Ex. 3659, 3849)
