The T&D Life Group operates the life insurance business as its core business, which is of a highly social and public nature. Accordingly, we believe that it is one of our most fundamental obligations to fulfill our social responsibilities as an institutional investor and contribute to the realization of a sustainable society through our investment and lending activities.
Principles for Responsible Institutional Investors
(Japan's Stewardship Code)
Institutional investors have responsibilities to improve and foster investee companies' corporate value and sustainable growth, and to meet the expectations of the clients for whom they perform asset management services. In February 2014, the Principles for Responsible Institutional Investors (Japan's Stewardship Code) was formulated to define principles and guidelines that are considered helpful to fulfilling those responsibilities. The T&D Life Group's three companies, Taiyo Life, Daido Life and T&D Asset Management have endorsed and expressed their commitment to the Principles for Responsible Institutional Investors (Japan's Stewardship Code).
- T&D Financial Life has not expressed its commitment to these Principles because it does not hold any domestic listed shares.
Dialogue with Investee Companies (Engagement) and Exercise of Voting Rights
- We engage in purposeful dialogue with investee companies on a daily basis in order to foster their sustainable growth.
- When exercising voting rights as a shareholder, we decide whether to vote for or against a proposal based on not only formal assessments of financial information and other data, but also consideration of non-financial information on Environmental,
Social and Governance (ESG) and other related issues. - We have established guidelines on exercising voting rights to ensure that voting rights are exercised appropriately. We engage in dialogue with the investees on proposals that conflict with these guidelines. In the event that such dialogue offers no prospects for improvement, we strictly implement our guidelines by voting against the proposal.
Principles for Responsible Investment (PRI)
The Principles for Responsible Investment (PRI) is the guidelines for financial institutions advocated by the UNEP Finance Initiative and the UN Global Compact, which encourage global financial institutions and institutional investors to promote investment activities in consideration of Environmental, Social and Governance (ESG) issues. In 2007, Taiyo Life within the T&D Life Group signed the PRI as the first Japanese life insurance company. The company developed its asset management processes based on the PRI and has conducted the asset management accordingly.
In 2012, T&D Asset Management signed the PRI, and since then has been working to improve its medium- to long-term investment performance by incorporating ESG factors into corporate evaluation.
Group-wide Commitment to Social Responsible Investment
(ESG Investment)
Taiyo Life and Daido Life have invested in a new ESG fund investing in Japanese equities, established and managed by T&D Asset Management. This is the start of a group-wide ESG investment by the T&D Life Group. (The fund operation started in July 2015.) This fund selectively invests in companies with an outstanding ESG (Environmental, Social and Governance) performance through ESG research. In doing so, the fund seeks to generate investment returns that outperform the medium- to long-term market average. And by investing in companies that seek to reduce environmental impact and help achieve a sound society, the fund aims to play a part in forming a sustainable society.
