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Japanese Financial Services Agency’s Supervisory Guidelines for Publicly Offered ESG Investment Trusts

On March 31, 2023, the Japanese Financial Services Agency (“JFSA”) revised supervisory guidelines  regarding Environmental, Social, and Governance (“ESG”) investment trusts and related green washing issues (the “Revised Guidelines”) were issued and came into effect. In Japan, investment trusts (toushi shintaku in Japanese) are a popular structure for mutual funds. Accordingly, the number of questions raised during the Revised Guidelines “public comment” process exceeded 200, indicating a high level of interest and need for clarification among market participants. In part, this interest arrives from the fact that, while Europe and the United States have taken various approaches to ESG fund regulation, such as the enactment and amendment of laws and regulations, and...

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Authors

山本 俊之

Since 2009, as an attorney in the firm’s finance team, Toshiyuki has been handling various financial transactions and financial regulatory/compliance matters, with a focus on asset management and derivatives, his main practice areas. He advises both domestic and foreign asset managers, financial institutions, and corporates on financial regulation matters in the asset management and derivatives spaces, as well as on contract drafting, regulatory analyses, and development of internal controls for new product launches. Further, he has been involved in numerous cross-border finance transactions and investment transactions by fund operators. Recently, his practical experience expanded to the FinTech space, such as digital securities, and he has been publishing articles and giving presentations on artificial intelligence/machine learning in relation to finance industries. In addition to finance matters, he has extensive experience in handling regulatory defense matters and foreign class actions in cooperation with foreign law firms. Prior to being registered as an attorney-at-law in 2009 and joining the firm, he worked at a Japanese credit rating agency and the Tokyo arm of a U.S. investment bank as a credit analyst in the securitization space. He is a Certified Member Analyst of the Securities Analysts Association of Japan and a Certified International Investment Analyst.