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) on February 27, 2014.
Also, 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)).
The FSA publishes the list of institutional investors who have notified the FSA of their intention to accept the Code. The FSA will update the list any time when it receives the notification of acceptance of the Code from institutional investors.
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:
| 13. To make institutional investors’ acceptance of the Code transparent, the Council expects 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 thier website (the URL) used to disclose the information above. The Council also expects the Financial Services Agency to publish the information about the institutional investors who have made the disclosure in a tabular form. |
As of December 14, 2018, there are 239 institutional investors in the list, classified as follows;
- Trust banks (Shintaku Ginko) : 6
- Investment managers (Toshishintaku/Toshikomon Gaisha) : 172
- Insurance companies : 22
- Pension funds : 32
- Others (service providers, etc.) : 7
(Total) : 239
(Appendix)
List of institutional investors who have signed to the “Principles for Responsible Institutional Investors” «Japan’s Stewardship Code» – To promote sustainable growth of companies through investment and dialogue – (PDF:764KB) (As of December 14, 2018)
(Reference)The list highlighted the institutional investors who newly announced their acceptance of the Code and other updates (PDF:761KB) (As of December 14, 2018)
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 ([email protected]) of their intention as well as the institution’s name, name of the person in charge, contact information (email address) and the URL where the announcement of the acceptance of the Code and the disclosure items described in the Code have been released. Please also notify the FSA whether you disclose the voting results and the reasons for against votes, whether you disclose the stewardship activity reports and its wedsite address. For details of disclosure items, please see 
Additional information expected to be disclosed along with the revision of Japan’s Stewardship Code, which was published when the Code was revised.
