News Details
2023.07.17
【Company Secretary】Sustainability Disclosure on Annual Securities Report
ARK Outsourcing KK provides one-stop service mainly to Japanese branches or subsidiaries of foreign-based companies.
In this article, we will introduce the basic information about making English company documents such as articles of incorporation or meeting minutes in a dialogue style. The contents of this article are based on discussions in our internal study group.
Characters:
Ken (male) : Ken is 22 years old. He has been with ARK for a year.
(He seems happy learning English on Podcast these days.)
Emma (female) : Emma is 34 years old. She is a mother of one child and a trainer at ARK.
(She wants to go to beer gardens.)
George (male) : George is 46 years old. He has been working hard to become a paralegal.
(His hobby is mountain climbing.)
George:
I attended the VNV (fictional) shareholders’ meeting at the end of June, 2023. Let me share the newest information with you. I found a new section, “Sustainability Perspective and Measures” in its annual securities report (ASR). From fiscal year ended March, 2023, listed companies in Japan are required to disclose “human capital” in ASRs. Let’s talk about this new topic in today’s training.
Ken:
Sustainability?? George, you really like using English words. What is that meaning?
Emma:
Well, the word “sustainability” comes from “sustain” and “able.” You know the word SDGs, which stands for “Sustainable Development Goals.” Currently, stakeholders are closely watching companies’ ESG (Environment, Social, and Governance)/ the ESG investment. They are expecting the medium to long term returns from a company’s business activities based on the ESG investment. Therefore, the disclosure of a company’s sustainable development consistent with ESG is a must.
George:
Excellent! In the global trend of the ESG disclosure, the US and Europe are proactive to disclose human capital, in line with the ISO30414 and the revised regulation S-K. In the past, companies voluntarily disclosed non-financial information; however, it is now mandatory to disclose such information by numerical indicators and targets in ASRs.
Conclusion
In this article, we mentioned “Sustainability Disclosure on Annual Securities Report.”
Please note that this article only introduces general outlines and does not include professional advice. So please make sure not to make any decisions without taking professional advice individually. If you have any questions, please feel free to contact us.
（References / in Japanese）
・”Human Capital Management”
Hisashi Yoshida, Takashi Iwamoto / Nikkei BP, Inc., Nikkei, Inc., 2022
・Ministry of Economy, Trade, and Industry
（Accessed on 16 June, 2023）
・United Nations Information Centre
（Accessed on 16 June, 2023）
Query on the phone+81-3-6821-9455