See Japan in a different light: How investors get ESG in world's third-largest economy wrong

Give the country due credit for green efforts

Greenwashing is a persistent and growing problem in the ESG landscape. However, many companies in Japan suffer from this issue in reverse and we believe their ESG ratings are often significantly worse than they deserve.

ESG minded investors who might be thinking about avoiding Japanese companies should take note: all may be not what it seems.  The biggest hurdle is the relative lack of thorough analyst coverage of Japanese stocks (there are less than seven analysts for each listed stock in Japan, compared to more than 40 in the US). Language and cultural differences with the West only compound the problem. Japanese companies are far better at actually carrying out ESG activities than reporting them. The language barrier in particular is underestimated; it takes Japanese companies much longer to ca...