Students from Professor Miyuki Nakamura's seminar in the Faculty of Economics and Business Administration received an Outstanding Poster Award at the "National Conference of the Japan Society for Environmental Management".
At the Spring Research Conference (National Conference) of the Japan Society for Environmental Management held on Saturday, May 23rd, Minato Matsuura (3rd year, Faculty of Management) and Hideto Kanai (3rd year, Faculty of Management) from Professor Miyuki Nakamura's seminar in the Faculty of Economics and Management at our university received the Excellent Poster Award for their research presentation, "Translating Individual Environmental Awareness into the Circulation of Social Capital: A Proposal for Transforming Investment Behavior through ESG Qualified Certification in the New NISA System."
This session focused on sustainability (SDGs and ESG) research and was attended by students, young researchers, and practicing researchers from companies. Based on votes from the society's regular members, both students' research projects were selected for the Outstanding Poster Award.
This research is a financial policy recommendation that examines a mechanism to link the high environmental and social awareness of young people in Japan to actual investment behavior. Currently, the new NISA system has the challenge that it is difficult for individual investors to easily identify financial products that emphasize ESG (Environmental, Social, and Governance) perspectives. Therefore, this research presents a method for evaluating and screening (selecting) all financial products within the new NISA system from an environmental and social perspective, and proposes a new mechanism to connect individuals' environmental and social awareness to the creation of social impact by introducing an ESG accreditation system.
In this research, in addition to literature and surveys, we conducted interviews with leading experts in the field of social finance, as well as experts on the NISA system and asset management. We also proactively engaged in comparative analysis of domestic and international ESG investment systems and quantitative analysis of impact measurement. During the Q&A session at the conference, researchers and practitioners gave high praise to the research content and the feasibility of the policy recommendations, resulting in a highly regarded research presentation by a third-year undergraduate student.
The following comments were received from the award-winning students:
Minato Matsuura (3rd year student, Faculty of Business Administration)
We are deeply honored to receive this prestigious award. In this research, we explored how the environmental awareness unique to the younger generation can be utilized in financial markets. We feel that the recognition of our perspective of "transforming ESG investing into investing for individuals" has further solidified the significance of our research. We express our sincere gratitude to Professor Miyuki Nakamura, who accompanied us and provided warm guidance for about a year, to everyone who cooperated with the research despite their busy schedules, and to all members of the academic society.
Eito Kanai (3rd year student, Faculty of Business Administration)
I am deeply honored to receive such a wonderful award. Through this research, I have strongly come to realize the great potential of ESG investing to create a sustainable society. Over the past year, I have encountered many difficulties and faced many challenges, but I feel that I have grown significantly not only in my logical thinking and data analysis skills, but also as a person through this research. I would like to express my sincere gratitude to Professor Miyuki Nakamura for her dedicated guidance, and to everyone who supported me.
