Nippon Foundation at the time and led the foundation’s special support team. He planned and implemented many reconstruction projects in collaboration with business and the government. He said, “It was an experience that demonstrated the capacity of the people of Japan from all walks of life to help and give generously. It demonstrates living with the potential for natural disaster builds a close-knit and compassionate community.” 38 Brookings Institute also noted that the disaster “...revealed Japan’s most valuable asset: the strength of its civil society. The world watched in awe as Japanese citizens who had lost everything, immediately sprung to help one another. The dignity, creativity, and orderly response of the Japanese population to this mega disaster is indeed the best measure of Japan’s potential.” 39 Following the event, Japan saw a surge in the number of non-profit groups and a swell in the culture of volunteerism across sectors. 40 When asked for one word that represents the core of his own belief and that of the Japanese people, Mitsuaki Aoyagi responded with “justice.” After leading reconstruction efforts following the earthquake, he focused on creating just conditions for children living in poverty, publishing Japan’s first social loss estimation derived from child poverty. Aoyagi also began researching and modeling impact investment, ultimately leading to the establishment of the Social Impact Investment Foundation (now SIIF) in 2017. Since then, he has dedicated himself to the advancement of impact investing in Japan, including supporting the nation’s first Social Impact Bond (SIB). Justice and impact define the SIIF culture and are embedded in Japan’s impact investing and Impact Economy— helping others through collaboration and using capital for impact and common good. (More on this in the case What is Impact: Who Decides and Why It Matters .) What is the Impact Economy GSG Impact, an international network active in over fifty countries, 41 was formed as GSG in 2015 as the successor to the 2013 Social Impact Investment Taskforce under the UK presidency of the G8, which later became the G7. 42 Its primary goal is to foster a global network that promotes impact investing. There are many definitions of impact investing, but GSG Impact adopted the Global Impact Investing Network (GIIN) definition: “Investments made with the intention to generate positive, measurable social and/or environmental impact alongside a financial return.” 43 For almost a decade, GSG Japan National Advisory Board, now GSG Impact Japan National Partner (GSG Impact JAPAN), was supported by SIIF as its main secretariat, working to build an impact investing ecosystem. This role and its objectives will be further discussed in the section on SIIF strategies. In 2022, GSG Impact JAPAN and SIIF expanded its scope
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Ten Years in the Making
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