Promotion of Responsible Investment
We will clarify our stance of acting properly as a responsible institutional investor and endeavor to contribute to the realization of a sustainable and hopeful society by setting up “ESG Investment and Financing Policy” and “Policies for Fulfilling Our Stewardship Responsibilities” as our fundamental policies for Responsible Investment, on each of the ESG investment and financing and Stewardship.
In April 2020, we established a dedicated Responsible Investment Office, with the aim of upgrading our approach to responsible investment. In April 2024, the Responsible Investment Office was reorganized into the Responsible Investment Development to strengthen the structure for promoting responsible investment.
In addition, in July 2021, we have set new goals for reduction in CO2 emission towards our contribution to a sustainable society. We will endeavor to transfer to an investment and financing portfolio that will contribute to the realization of Carbon-Free Society, while paying attention to integrity with the goals of the Paris Agreement.
ESG Investment and Financing Policy(PDF 185KB)
Policies for Fulfilling Our Stewardship Responsibilities(PDF 174KB)
Our Structure for Promoting Responsible Investment
Priority themes for responsible investment
When promoting responsible investment, we are focusing on priority themes that have been set based on “the degree of impact on stakeholders” and “relevance to the business”.
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Decarbonization |
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Biodiversity |
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Social issues |
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Prolong healthy life expectancy |
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Vitalize regional communities |
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Our Approach to ESG Investment and Financing
Correspondence to Climate Change Risks
As an institutional investor, we will encourage our investees nationwide to reduce CO2 emissions via engagement and ESG investment.
We are promoting initiatives that contribute toward solving environmental issues through asset management as a responsible institutional investor. We aim to transition of our portfolio to support the realization of a decarbonized society, while ensuring alignment with the goals of the Paris Agreement. We actively engage in green bond investments, financing for renewable energy generation projects, and transition finance.
Furthermore, when dealing with high CO2 emitters among our investees, we are promoting initiatives toward decarbonization by not only engaging in activities on our own, but also collaborating with other investors, while understanding the transition plans such as coal-fired power projects. We are also requesting engagement activities to be carried out by our outsourced operators.
In our previous mid-term management plan (FY2021-2023), we set a financing framework of over 800 billion yen for ESG investment and financing, with 300 billion yen dedicated to decarbonization. By the end of FY2023, we had executed approximately 570 billion yen. In our current mid-term management plan (FY2024-2026), we will continue to promote financing that contributes to decarbonization, with a target of over 300 billion yen.
Targets
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FY2022 |
FY2030 |
FY2050 |
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Emissions |
-46％ |
-50％ |
-100％ |
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Intensity*3,4 |
-44％ |
-49％ |
-100％ |
*1 Total emissions
*2 Representing reduction targets for Scope 1 & 2 emissions from domestic listed companies we invest in via stock, corporate bonds and other financing
*3 Total emissions/ investment amount, an indicator that can reflect the company's actual reduction performance without being affected by the size or change of the investment and financing volume
*4 Target assets: Stock, corporate bonds and other financing of domestic and foreign listed companies, and real estate(investment purpose)
Main Initiatives
- Confirm the content of investees’ plans for reducing CO2 emissions and encourage investees to promote decarbonization (reduce CO2 emissions) via engagement
- Promoting ESG investments to create economic and social Value
- Incorporating ESG perspectives into all assets under our management to establish optimal methods for ESG investment in light of asset characteristics
- Publicize the details of each investment and otherwise enhance the content of information disclosure associated with ESG investment
Integration of ESG Factors and Tasks
At Meiji Yasuda, we promote implementing ESG factors (disclosed information related to ESG and ESG ratings etc.) on investment decisions in listed stock, bonds and other financing, etc, depending on the characteristics of the asset.
Similarly, during our engagement conversation with our investees, we aim to increase the investees’ corporate values by confirming each of their ESG subjects and give encouragement towards solving them in accordance to necessity.
In addition with outsourced investment, we confirm the policies of ESG and ESG integration, engagement, and information disclosure condition etc. and we implement it in our investment decision process while considering each investee’s investment strategies and asset characteristics.
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ESG Factors and Subjects |
ESG items below are extracted according to each investee’s subjects and themes that are deemed high priority. | |
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● E:environment |
Global warming (reduction of Green House Gas (GHG) etc.), natural resources (counter-measures against depletion of water resources, responsible raw material procurement etc.), waste management, environmental market opportunities (renewable energy, clean technology etc.), and biodiversity conservation | |
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● S:society |
Human resources (labor management, diversity, human resource development etc.), social market opportunities (contribution to the local communities and health and wellness market opportunities etc.), COVID-19 counter-measures (work environment adjustments to ensure safety of staff, review of work process etc.), human rights, environmental conservation, and building a supply chain that takes into account social responsibilities | |
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G (Governance) |
Corporate governance (formation and independence of the board of directors, effectiveness of the board of directors etc.) and compliance and risk management (scandals etc.) | |
ESG Investment and Financing Methods
We promote ESG investment and financing methods defined as below.
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ESG Investment and Financing Methods |
Definition | |
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ESG Theme-type Investment |
An investment with themes in which contributes to the solving of ESG subjects | |
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ESG Bond |
Green bond, Social bond, Sustainability bond etc. | |
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Impact-investing |
An investment that will bring positive impact to society and environment. | |
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Real estate |
Real-estate investment, equipment renovation, real-estate equity and REIT investment etc. with care on ESG | |
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Other |
Project financing of renewable energy related projects, facility investment etc. | |
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ESG Integration |
Systematic integration of ESG factors into the investment process. | |
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Positive Screening |
Select industries and companies that are making relatively high attempts to ESG ratings and ESG. | |
Furthermore, considering the publicness of the Life Insurance Industry, we prohibit investment and financing for companies that manufacture weapons (such as cluster bombs, anti-personnel landmines, and non-humanitarian weapons such as biological and chemical weapons) that could seriously harm the general public.
We also prohibit invest in coal-fired thermal power projects and coal mining projects, which have a significant impact on climate change due to greenhouse gas emissions, new and renewed coal-fired thermal power generation facilities and coal mining facilities for businesses, new and renewed biomass power plants that use palm oil (palm kerosene shells) and imported wood chips as fuels, etc.
In addition, we don't have upstream oil project exposure.
As a result of screening using ESG ratings and promoting dialogue with investees for the purpose of resolving ESG issues, ESG risks*1 in our investment and financing portfolio are improving.
*1 A score is set as the absolute value of “unmanaged risk” that is the difference after subtracting the amount of risk that the company has managed from the amount of risk related to the company’s ESG issues. ESG risk scores for investment and financing portfolios are calculated by taking the weighted average of the ESG risk scores of each investee by the investment and financing amount.
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