News Releases
Konica Minolta Declares Acceptance of Japan’s Stewardship Code for Corporate Pension
Commitment to ESG Investment that Contributes to Achieving a Sustainable Society
March 12, 2021
Tokyo (March 12, 2021) – Konica Minolta, Inc. (Konica Minolta) has declared that it will accept Japan’s Stewardship Code (SSC) governing asset management in corporate pension (asset owners) for its contract-type corporate pension.
ESG investment was advocated by the United Nations in 2006 to promote investment in companies that take into consideration environmental, social and governance factors. It spread mainly among institutional investors in Europe and the U.S. In 2017, Japan’s Government Pension Investment Fund (GPIF) selected ESG indices, marking the full-scale spread of ESG investment in Japan. ESG investment helps to achieve a sustainable society by attaining stable returns based on companies’ sustainable growth and long-term investment.
Meanwhile, the Financial Services Agency (FSA) considers the SSC, which is the code of conduct for institutional investors to perform their fiduciary duties as responsible investors, and Japan’s Corporate Governance Code (CGC), which is the code of conduct for companies, as two key pillars for creating a virtuous cycle of the investment chain. The FSA expects that both investors and companies will promote the sustainable growth of companies and medium- to long-term improvement of corporate value. In the revised SSC, the FSA requires institutional investors to consider sustainability (medium- to long-term sustainability, including the ESG factors) depending on the management strategy.
Konica Minolta has promoted corporate management and business operations based on the belief that contributing to a sustainable society leads to sustainable growth of the company. By accepting the SSC, Konica Minolta supports ESG investment and the FSA’s policy as an asset owner and contributes to a sustainable society through asset management of its corporate pension.
Commitment to Stewardship
Konica Minolta started to monitor the stewardship activities of external asset managers in FY2018 to ensure that its corporate pension fulfills its expected role as an asset owner. The company monitors all asset managers who manage equities listed in Japan, reviews their stewardship reports, conducts surveys using a standardized format, interviews respective asset managers, and evaluates their stewardship activities by scoring them on the SSC principles. Konica Minolta judges that these activities will be feasible into the future and that the company has completed preparations to create a system for accepting the SSC based on the results of past activities.
Konica Minolta’s policy on fulfilling its responsibility for stewardship:
https://www.konicaminolta.com/about/csr/csr/governance/stewardship/index.html
Commitment to Corporate Governance
Konica Minolta has established a corporate governance framework from the standpoint of supervision. This is based on the conviction that corporate governance that contributes to medium- to long-term corporate value growth must encourage suitable risk-taking in business operations and have a highly effective supervisory function for business operations.
In 2003, the “company with committees” structure (currently “company with three committees”) was selected as the organizational structure in accordance with Japan’s Companies Act. In addition, the company has taken steps to ensure its governance system is objective and not overly influenced by personalities, while still operating the system in a distinctive Konica Minolta style. In 2019, Konica Minolta was selected by the GPIF for its excellent corporate governance report. The company meets social needs as a listed company.