Japan Sustainability Disclosure Standards
The Sustainability Standards Board of Japan (SSBJ) releases first sustainability disclosure standard based on the ISSB standards.
The Sustainability Standards Board of Japan believes that sustainable development disclosure standards based on the ISSB guidelines can improve information comparability and have interoperability with standards developed in other jurisdictions.
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Introduction to Japan Sustainability Disclosure Standards
In July 2022, the Sustainability Standards Board of Japan was established with the aim of developing sustainable development disclosure standards applicable to Japan. In March 2024, the Board released drafts for soliciting opinions on a universal sustainable disclosure standard and two thematic sustainable disclosure standards. The solicitation of opinions ended in July 2024, and the committee revised the standards based on over 100 feedback and officially released the sustainable disclosure standards in March 2025.
The Japan Sustainability Disclosure Standards include three documents, namely:
- Universal Sustainability Disclosure Standard “Application of the Sustainability Disclosure Standards”.
- Theme based Sustainability Disclosure Standard No.1 “General Disclosures”.
- Theme based Sustainability Disclosure Standard No.2 “Climate related Disclosures”.
The first two documents are based on IFRS S1 published by the International Sustainability Standards Board (ISSB), which include contents related to sustainable risks and opportunities in the general standard and other contents in Theme based Sustainability Disclosure Standard No.1. The third document is based on IFRS S2 published by the ISSB.
At present, there is no specific scope and timeline for sustainable disclosure standards, but in the future, all companies listed on the Prime Market of the Tokyo Stock Exchange must adopt this standard. Other companies can voluntarily adopt this standard. The standards have set a one-year transition period for companies to prepare for sustainable disclosure. The Sustainability Standards Board of Japan plans to release supplementary documents and educational materials in the future to provide more information for companies to prepare sustainability reports.
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