As one of Japan’s premier institutional investors, SuMi TRUST is dedicated to fulfilling our stewardship responsibilities. In March 2020, the Japanese government published the revised “Japan’s Stewardship Code” (the Code) which is a set of principles set by Japan’s Financial Services Agency aimed at establishing fiduciary duty by institutional investors on behalf of their clients.

Principles for Responsible Institutional Investors

Based on the principles set out in the Code, SuMi TRUST work on a number of initiatives as part of our broader efforts as a responsible investor.

Principle 1 – Policy Formation and Disclosure

We re-endorsed the revised Principles for Responsible Institutional Investors <<Japan's Stewardship Code>>, which was published on March 24, 2020. Sumitomo Mitsui Trust Asset Management has formulated and published a “Policy for Addressing the Principles of the Japan’ s Stewardship Code.”

Principle 2 – Conflict of Interest Management

  • As the investment managing company of the Sumitomo Mitsui Trust Group, we have put in place an essential conflict of interest management system.
  • We have disclosed summaries as needed of the deliberations of the Stewardship Activities Advisory Committee, which is an independent committee.

Read more about our conflicts of interest management policy here.

Principle 3 – Accurate Understanding & 4 – Dialog with Companies

  • Engagement activities were promoted by means of a top-down approach based on our ESG12 topics, a market cap approach that focuses on the scale of the market price, and a risk approach targeting companies with a low ROE.
  • Engagement activities were carried out through trilateral cooperation among our Tokyo, London, and New York bases.

Principle 5 – Exercising Voting Rights

  • We disclosed our voting records on all proposals for all brands we hold (in October 2021 and January, April, and July 2022).
  • We disclosed our reasons for voting on each of the proposals which need explanation in light of the guidelines for exercise of voting rights. We disclosed
    details on voting activity in the Stewardship Report.
  • Standards for responding to climate change and gender diversity were added based on revisions to the Guideline on the Exercise of Voting Rights (January 2022).

Read more about our Proxy Voting activities here

Principle 6 – Reporting to Clients and Beneficiaries

  • We are providing explanations about our stewardship activities to asset owners periodically or non-periodically.
  • We found opportunities at external seminars and workshops for explaining our Stewardship Activities.
  • We released our 2021/2022 Stewardship Report in November 2021.

Principle 7 Development of skills

  • We acquired, shared, and deepened new knowledge through activities such as various global initiatives and workshops.
  • We also utilised engagement targeting government offices, institutions, and academic institutes for gaining new knowledge.
  • We utilised an external organization (PRI Academy) and in-house e-learning to strengthen ESG knowledge.

Please refer to our ESG: Our Approach page for more information on our participation in global initiatives.

Download the full details below

SuMi TRUST’s response to Japan’s Stewardship Code: “Principles for Responsible Investors”