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Japan Inc. is getting ready to pivot away from ESG
Nikkei Asia ^

Posted on 08/07/2022 7:58:10 PM PDT by FarCenter

In recent weeks, mainstream Japanese media, echoing their foreign counterparts, have begun reporting second thoughts about the wisdom of investments and corporate policies based on environmental, social and governance (ESG) concerns.

This appears to be laying the groundwork for a revisionist pivot away from ESG and its close cousin, sustainable development goals (SDG), roughly five years after the twin utopian projects were launched.

The religious overtones of woke capitalism never attracted true believers in Japan, in contrast to countries with a Christian heritage of sin, repentance, redemption and salvation.

Nevertheless, Japanese executives dutifully donned SDG lapel pins and piously declared allegiance to ESG and SDG ideals on their corporate websites. Initial enthusiasm for ESG was universal, at least among members of the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development, but the reasons it took hold here were peculiarly Japanese.

One impetus was a characteristically Japanese instinct to conform. It is no accident that corporate websites in a given Japanese industry, whether banking, cars or beer, all eerily resemble one another.

Conforming to the competition is the path of safety; standing out invites the risk of being hammered down. Japanese companies embraced ESG and SDGs all at once circa 2017 in a herdlike reflex.

Adding to the enthusiasm, the ESG-SDG ethos resonated with the vaguely socialistic and communitarian values of Japanese-style capitalism. Japan has never accepted the classic version of capitalism under which Darwinian competition in the pursuit of profit invisibly produces socially optimal results.

Not least, ESG gave CEOs a convenient shield against accountability for objectively measurable financial performance.

...

Although hard to quantify, there appears to be a strong positive correlation between poor financial results and claims of SDG achievements on an underperforming company's website.

(Excerpt) Read more at asia.nikkei.com ...


TOPICS: Business/Economy; Culture/Society; Foreign Affairs; News/Current Events
KEYWORDS:

1 posted on 08/07/2022 7:58:10 PM PDT by FarCenter
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To: FarCenter

Not least, ESG gave CEOs a convenient shield against accountability for objectively measurable financial performance.


yes it does.


2 posted on 08/07/2022 8:07:30 PM PDT by PeterPrinciple (Thinking Caps are no longer being issued but there must be a warehouse full of them somewhere.)
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To: FarCenter
Elon Musk led the fight against ESG and now the exodus against ESG is taking off everywhere.
Its about the most stupid way to invest other people's money ever.
3 posted on 08/07/2022 8:11:21 PM PDT by SmokingJoe
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To: FarCenter

ESG
SDG
DEI
DIE
BDS

How can anyone keep all of these things straight? I think they all boil down to: “I’m a bad person and I deserve to suffer.”


4 posted on 08/07/2022 8:11:39 PM PDT by ClearCase_guy (We are already in a revolutionary period, and the Rule of Law means nothing. It's "whatever".)
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To: SmokingJoe

Klaus will not be happy


5 posted on 08/07/2022 8:12:53 PM PDT by butlerweave
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To: FarCenter

Smart country.

Wish ours was.


6 posted on 08/07/2022 8:15:01 PM PDT by Scott from the Left Coast (Make Orwell Fiction Again)
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To: FarCenter

The flushing sound will stop


7 posted on 08/07/2022 8:20:09 PM PDT by butlerweave
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To: butlerweave

Klaus vs Musk, I’d back Musk every time.


8 posted on 08/07/2022 8:22:31 PM PDT by SmokingJoe
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To: FarCenter

This is good. Reject the woke!


9 posted on 08/07/2022 8:22:32 PM PDT by TigersEye (The Democrat Party is criminal, unAmerican and illegitimate )
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To: ClearCase_guy

ESG, SDG, DEI, etc... are covers to establish a totalitarian socialist world government. In the United States the Fascist Wokesters have essentially eliminated free speech, the rule of law as applied to the marxists among us, empowered their criminal brownshirts to defy local, state, and federal governments at will, have taken over large corporations allowing them to persecute anyone having differing opinions, and have taken effective control of the Federal Government by infiltrating and subverting unelected government agencies
including the Justice Department and arming them in preparation for releasing them upon an unsuspecting public. Further, empirical evidence indicates our oligarchs, in cooperation with their European brethren, intend to sharply reduce the world’s population through any means at their disposal. Starvation, disease, war, anything.
How anyone believes in Fascist Woke dogma is beyond me but a large portion of our population and the world’s population does. Sorry for the rant, I’m just a furious American.


10 posted on 08/07/2022 8:52:40 PM PDT by Nuc 1.1 (Liberals aren't Patriots. Remember 1789!)
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To: FarCenter

good. may all countries follow suit.

it’s time for ESG to become a mainstream topic, because everyone’s pension/retirement funds etc are involved, without people having even heard of it.


11 posted on 08/07/2022 9:07:56 PM PDT by MAGAthon
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To: FarCenter

good. may all countries follow suit.

it’s time for ESG to become a mainstream topic, because everyone’s pension/retirement funds etc are involved, without people having even heard of it.


12 posted on 08/07/2022 9:08:02 PM PDT by MAGAthon
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To: MAGAthon

apologies for double post.


13 posted on 08/07/2022 9:08:33 PM PDT by MAGAthon
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To: Scott from the Left Coast

It will be again in 2 & 5/12ths years.


14 posted on 08/07/2022 10:18:30 PM PDT by DoughtyOne (I pledge allegiance the flag of the U S of A, and to the REPUBLIC for which stands.)
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To: FarCenter

It’s stuff like this that gives me some hope, that the global
reset is going to turn out to be little more than a figment
of some idiot’s imagination.

No matter how much you propagandize people, a lot of them
are going to wake up sooner or latter.

Biden was our nations wake up call.


15 posted on 08/07/2022 10:42:45 PM PDT by DoughtyOne (I pledge allegiance the flag of the U S of A, and to the REPUBLIC for which stands.)
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To: DoughtyOne

Eventually the will be a “reset” when Antichrist comes into the scene. These could be dry runs in preparation for him. The world will welcome it.


16 posted on 08/08/2022 5:35:00 AM PDT by ViLaLuz (2 Chronicles 7:14)
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To: FarCenter

I’m surprised they went for it at all.


17 posted on 08/08/2022 5:36:18 AM PDT by Tijeras_Slim
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To: ViLaLuz

I don’t know how it will take place, but I do see it happening.

It wouldn’t surprise me to see it now, soon.


18 posted on 08/08/2022 9:42:04 AM PDT by DoughtyOne (I pledge allegiance the flag of the U S of A, and to the REPUBLIC for which stands.)
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To: DoughtyOne

Yes. I try to remember everyday that our Lord can snatch us away at any moment. Keep looking up...a great reminder phrase. Be ready.


19 posted on 08/21/2022 7:34:18 PM PDT by ViLaLuz (2 Chronicles 7:14)
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To: ViLaLuz

I don’t disagree. We’ve been warned.


20 posted on 08/21/2022 7:51:40 PM PDT by DoughtyOne (I pledge allegiance the flag of the U S of A, and to the REPUBLIC for which stands.)
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