In December 2017, the Japanese Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry (METI) established a Forum for Integrated Corporate Disclosure and ESG Dialogue. For the last 5 months representatives of companies and investors have been discussing how to improve corporate disclosure. On May 18th 2018, the forum summarized the results and insights of the discussion and compiled a report that included “Four Principles for Promoting Corporate Disclosure and Dialogues between Companies and Investors” and “Four Actions”.
The four principles are:
• Understanding the meaning of “purposeful dialogues”
• Making use of shared languages
• Promoting dialogues within organizations
• Encouraging investors to explain their evaluation processes
The four actions are:
• Supporting companies that proactively disclose their information
• Encouraging mutual understanding between companies and investors through promoting explanations/declarations/announcements by institutional investors (e.g., “The Declaration of Active Fund Managers”)
• Enhancing the usefulness of the guidance across different industries and fields (e.g., sector-specific guidance and harmonization with relevant guidelines)
• Encouraging improvement of quality and efficiency in disclosure and dialogue of small- and mid-cap companies
Further details can be obtained here: