Mizuho Financial Group (Mizuho Group) Kotaro Sueyoshi, Advisor to Group Chief Sustainability Officer (Sustainability and Impact) and Managing Director, Sustainable Business Promotion, Mizuho Financial Group, has been proactive at recognizing the challenge of defining impact and finding solutions. He believes that impact depends on cross-sector collaborations—and mutual understanding. 101 This philosophy has led to a relationship with United Nations Development Program (UNDP). Specifically, through a three-year contract with UNDP, Mizuho Group staff will be trained on ways to find and define impact in biodiversity and climate change. The lead UNDP consultant on this project is Oxford Social Finance Programme alumna Devahuti Choudhury. She will also help Mizuho Group work with communities to help gather information on the impact of nature-based investments to support climate mitigation and biodiversity. Sueyoshi recognizes UNDP’s skills and understanding of social change. He believes this expertise will help the company grow its impact portfolio successfully. Mizuho Group’s commitment to sustainable finance and impact finance began in 2017, when it participated in Japan’s first Social Impact Bond (SIB) in Hachioji City, Tokyo. 102 This early step into outcomes-based financing was a test case, but it planted the seed for a more structured impact strategy. By 2019, Mizuho deepened its engagement advising and investing in the Hataraku Fund—an initiative focused on allowing people to continue to work through a variety of life events (for a full discussion of the Hataraku Fund, see the case Insights into Japan’s First Impact Funds ). Mizuho Group is committed to building internal expertise and embedding impact into its institutional fabric. It has been a lead institution in the GSG Impact JAPAN Advisory Committee, signed the Declaration on Impact-Oriented Finance, and became one of the first organizations globally to complete the UNDP’s SDG Impact Standards training. 103 These steps reflected a deliberate shift—not just engaging in impact finance but learning how to do it well. At the same time, Mizuho Group began operationalizing impact methodologies, launching its Positive Impact Finance initiative and investing in an environmental investment fund. 104
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Ten Years in the Making
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