Mizuho Financial Group, Inc. (President & Group CEO: Masahiro Kihara) defines “sustainability,” in terms of what it means for Mizuho, as “Mizuho’s sustainable and steady growth, environmental conservation and the sustainable development and prosperity of the economy, industry, and society both in Japan and around the world,” and based on this definition we integrate related initiatives on a group-wide basis into our overall business strategy.
The environment surrounding sustainability is changing at a rapid pace, and the challenges faced by Mizuho and our customers are becoming ever more complex and diverse. We believe that in order to effectively address this situation, we need to leverage our technical and industrial knowledge, organically linking various centers of excellence within the Mizuho group, and respond to the changing environment in a flexible and prompt manner.
As a natural progression of this approach, we have decided to further enhance our ability to promote sustainability initiatives across the entire group, as detailed below.
1. Establishment and Appointment of a Chief Sustainability Officer (Group CSuO)
We are newly establishing the position of Chief Sustainability Officer (Group CSuO) to promote sustainability initiatives throughout the Mizuho group. Mr. Yasuhiko Ushikubo (current position: Head of Research & Consulting Unit) will assume this position as of September 1.
The Group CSuO will not be affiliated with any specific in-house company, unit, or group, but rather report directly to the Group CEO, and will be responsible for the planning and promotion of sustainability initiatives for the entire Mizuho group.
2. Establishment of cross-entity sustainability-related departments
We are establishing two new cross-entity departments as of September 1, the Sustainable Business Promotion Department, which will focus on planning with regard to sustainable business, and the Sustainability Planning Department, which will focus on policy establishment. The two new departments will drive sustainability initiatives throughout the Mizuho group, consolidating and reorganizing the existing sustainability-related planning functions within the Mizuho group, and will report to the newly established Group CSuO.
Going forward, the newly established departments will consolidate and strengthen various knowledge centers and medium- to long-term initiatives across the Mizuho group, and further stimulate forward-looking initiatives aimed at helping customers solve related issues they are facing.
We remain committed to linking common functions throughout the Mizuho group, including our banking, trust, securities, research and consulting, asset management, and leasing entities, and providing both financial and non-financial insights throughout the value chain, from upstream to downstream, in order to contribute to the sustainable growth and value creation of our customers, the economy, and society as a whole.