potential to build good relations with both. However, there are challenges. Compared to the experience of Japan’s developed countries and neighboring Asian countries, the layer of human capital with the experience of emerging countries in the Global South is thin.” Shibusawa would like Japan to position itself as a global leader. Specifically, he would like Japan to partner with African countries and so has created an Africa Fund in which a younger generation of Japanese, who are taking on the challenges of emerging economies, are indispensable to leaders in Africa. 6 He calls for Japan to “respond to the world by opening up the latent potential of the Japanese people.” 7 Mizuho Financial Group and Mizuho Securities Kotaro Sueyoshi (Finance Group) and colleague Yasunobu Katsuki (Mizuho Securities) also believe Japan will hold and be bold. Sueyoshi explains his perspective: “I think impacting investment or impact financing is in subset of sustainable finance. I think the share of impact and financing is going to expand in the next three years—although we have seen many mainstream financial institutions, especially in US, trying to not to use the term ESG. They are trying to avoid political backlash toward sustainable businesses. To do so will require more explanation that it is possible to make impact and make money.” 8 Sueyoshi believes that in ten to twenty years, every impact finance investment will have IMM (Impact Management and Measurement) and intentionally result in sustainability. He says, “The environment surrounding sustainability continues to change, but we all understand what is needed in the medium to long-term. I think most of the executives in the large Japanese corporations understand they need to invest into projects that will solve the issues around social and environmental challenges. And there is a business opportunity.” Sueyoshi has seen an increase in investing in green and blue and other energy transition projects, not only in Japan, but globally. Mizuho is partnering with the UNDP to develop measurement frameworks to understand the impact of investments in terms of environmental and social issues. He believes “collaboration will be an important tool to build more robust impact investing and sustainable finance portfolios, and we need to engage in this more many diverse partners to tackle complex challenges.” Yasunobu Katsuki of Mizuho Securities agrees and sees some pushback for financial institutions to step back from sustainable finance, but he believes “finance will hold.” 9 Katsuki doesn’t think it is easy to define Japan’s role, as “the financial market does not have borders.” He believes that for energy transition, blue and green and biodiversity bonds and investments to expand will require a global standard for every investor to have clarity on definitions. But the situation depends on the country and the regions. For instance, most of the Asian countries are still in an economic expanding period, but in 204
Ten Years in the Making
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