Jumpstart Your Japanese Journey Vol.3: ESG and SDGs Strategies of the Japanese Government and Enterprises
Jumpstart Your Japanese Journey Vol.3 evolves around one of the most talked-about issues in the world — ESG and SDGs Strategies of the Japanese Government and Enterprises. This time around, Startup Island TAIWAN once again invited well-known speakers from both Taiwan and Japan in the field of ESG, including Chairman and CEO of Zeroboard Inc. Tokeiji Michitaka, Solution Development Section Chief of Toppan Printing Co., Ltd. Kyushu Business Innovation Sales Division, DX Promotion Department Ishimoto Yasuhisa, and Head of the Taiwan-Japan Industrial Collaboration Promotion Office (TJPO) of the Ministry of Economic Affairs (MoEA) Long Chen.
The former prime minister of Japan has announced that Japan will achieve carbon neutrality by 2050, and the Japanese government has also begun to levy carbon taxes and limit carbon emissions trading in 2020. Therefore, the possibilities and business opportunities surrounding carbon neutrality should not be underestimated. The three speakers shared their views on the current trend of net-zero carbon emissions in Japan, SDG strategies and ESG collaboration cases, as well as the outline and goals of Japan’s carbon neutrality policy.
“More and more youngsters are concerned about environmental issues and are becoming more interested in products or services offered by environmentally conscious companies. Considering that youngsters are becoming the main and biggest group of consumers, companies will be at risk if they do not take carbon reduction measures; at the same time, in addition to quality, cost, and delivery, carbon emission is also an important corporate procurement criterion nowadays. If relevant data can be properly disclosed, the business can potentially grow bigger”, said Chairman and CEO of Zeroboard Inc. Tokeiji Michitaka. Further development of cloud services with network effects will only be possible if more, even private, companies put in the effort, allowing for new business opportunities and bringing new economic benefits through data linkages and sharing. Ultimately, it’s no longer to reduce emissions for reporting purposes but to enhance corporate value.
Yasuhisa Ishimoto, Solution Development Section Chief of Toppan Printing Co., Ltd. Kyushu Business Innovation Sales Division, DX Promotion Department, shared that more and more entities are working with companies like Zeroboard, investing in carbon emissions management by calculating emissions and working with suppliers for solutions and then implementing carbon reduction plans. Toppan Printing is the best example. They formulate and promote development strategies based on social trends and issues related to sustainable development. After implementing relevant measures according to the policy, they publicize it to gain public trust. As the world’s largest single printing company, Toppan Printing pays much attention to the raw materials for printing and uses the LCA system to analyze the life cycle of packaging products all the way from raw materials to manufacturing, using, recycling, and disposal, to calculate the investment of resources and emissions. Toppan creates packaging with low environmental burdens to solve various societal and customer problems. It also established “co-necto”, an open innovation business based on co-creation, connecting startups with their own assets to expand new business entities.
“The era when responding to the greenhouse effect was seen as a constraint or cost of economic growth has ended, and the world has entered an era of seeing it as an opportunity for growth. Industrial policies that create good cycles between the economy and the environment, or so-called green growth strategy, will be the focus”, Head of TJPO Long Chen concludes.
Startup Island TAIWAN has held three Jumpstart Your Japanese Journey online workshops so far, with hundreds of practitioners participating. The white papers on ESG and the first two issues of Web3.0 and e-commerce will continue to be available for downloads. The fourth and upcoming white paper and online workshop “Digital Transformation Strategies of Large Japanese Enterprises” will be launched in May. Follow Startup Island TAIWAN’s Facebook page for first-hand news.
