Kao Corporation has recently been included in global stock indices for environmental, social and governance (ESG) investing: the FTSE4Good Index Series for the 11th consecutive year; the FTSE Blossom Japan Index and MSCI Japan ESG Select Leaders Index for the second consecutive year; and MSCI Japan Empowering Women Index (WIN) for the first time.
The FTSE4Good Index Series and the FTSE Blossom Japan Index are developed by FTSE Russell, a member of London Stock Exchange Group. They are designed using FTSE4Good Index Inclusion Rules, based on the existing international ESG standards including the UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) to select companies that demonstrate strong ESG efforts.
The MSCI Japan ESG Select Leaders Index and MSCI Japan Empowering Women Index (WIN) are developed by MSCI (US), a company providing institutional investors around the world with various support tools for their decision making. Both are composed of companies with high ESG performance selected from the MSCI Japan IMI Top 500 Index.
These indices are broadly used as important criteria by global investors who focus on each company's ESG efforts.