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The Sustainability Standards Board of Japan (SSBJ) announced the release of new exposure drafts for […]]
Japan Releases Proposed IFRS-Based Sustainability Reporting Standards – ESG Today
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Japan Releases Proposed IFRS-Based Sustainability Reporting Standards
Mark Segal
April 9, 2024
The Sustainability Standards Board of Japan (SSBJ) announced the release of new exposure drafts for proposed standards for companies to report sustainability and climate-related information, based on the recently released sustainability disclosure standards by the IFRS Foundation’s International Sustainability Standards Board (ISSB).
The release of the exposure drafts marks the latest in a series of steps that may see Japanese listed companies facing mandatory standardized sustainability-related disclosure requirements. Over the past few years, regulators and exchanges in Japan have been increasingly raising the sustainability disclosure bar for companies, with the Tokyo Stock Exchange in 2021 revising the corporate governance code with a requirement for prime market-listed companies to begin providing climate-related disclosures based on the TCFD recommendations, and to report on sustainability initiatives on a ‘comply-or-explain’ basis, and the Financial Services Agency (FSA) implementing rules last year mandating the creation of a sustainability-related information section in the annual filings for all listed companies, with required disclosures covering governance, risk management, strategy, and indicators and targets.
The ISSB was launched in November 2021 at the COP26 climate conference, with the goal to develop IFRS Sustainability Disclosure Standards, driven by demand from investors, companies, governments and regulators to provide a global baseline of disclosure requirements enabling a consistent understanding of the effect of sustainability risks and opportunities on companies’ prospects.
The IFRS released the inaugural general sustainability (IFRS S1) and climate (IFRS S2) reporting standards in June 2023, and in July, IOSCO, the leading international policy forum and standards setter for securities regulators called on regulators to incorporate the standards into their sustainability reporting regulatory frameworks.
The SSBJ was formed in 2022 under Japan’s Financial Accounting Standards Foundation (FASF) in order to develop sustainability reporting standards, in line with a legal framework to be developed by the FSA, and to contribute to international sustainability reporting standards, following the launch of the ISSB.
According to the SSBJ, the new exposure drafts were developed under the assumption that reporting according to the sustainability-related disclosure standards will eventually become mandatory in Japan.
The new SSBJ proposals are closely aligned with the ISSB’s sustainability and climate reporting standards, while incorporating a few jurisdiction-specific options that companies may apply, although the SSBJ released the standards as three exposure drafts, as opposed to the ISSB’s two standards, by dividing IFRS 1 (general sustainability) into two standards, including an “Application of the Sustainability Disclosure Standards” draft and a “General Standards” draft that contains IFRS S1’s ‘core content’ section. The SSBJ published a summary of the differences between its exposure drafts and the ISSB standards here.
The SSBJ said that it is soliciting feedback on the drafts, and has previously indicated that it aims to publish finalized sustainability reporting standards by the end of March 2025.
Yasunobu Kawanishi, Chair of the SSBJ said:
“We would like to express our sincere gratitude to all those who have contributed to the development of the Exposure Drafts in such a short period of time. The Exposure Drafts incorporate all requirements in IFRS S1 and IFRS S2, with some additional jurisdiction-specific options the entity can choose to apply. We are interested in hearing the views from market participants, in particular, the need for such jurisdiction-specific options.”
Mark founded ESG Today following a 20 year career in investment management and research. Prior to founding ESG Today, Mark worked at Delaney Capital Management (DCM) in Toronto, Canada, most recently as the firm’s head of U.S. equities. While at DCM, Mark was part of the firm’s ESG team, responsible for evaluating and tracking the sustainability factors impacting portfolio companies, and assessing the suitability of companies for portfolio inclusion. Mark also spent several years in the sell-side research industry, covering the technology and services sectors. Mark holds an MBA from Columbia University in New York, a BBA from the Schulich School of Business at York University in Toronto, and is a CFA charterholder.
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