NIKKEI RESEARCH INC.

ESG Investment: Attracting young people

Nikkei Research “Financial RADAR®” Special Survey 2021

Nikkei Research Inc. released the 2021 edition of its “Financial RADAR®” Special Survey on July 26th, 2021.
The Financial RADAR® is an annual survey conducted by Nikkei Research to understand the general household’s financial interests and behavior. This year's special survey was done online from June 23rd to 28th targeting people of aged 20 to 74 within a 40-kilometer radius of the Tokyo metropolitan area. Responses were collected from total of 3,103 respondents. The following are some of the results from the survey.

Today, ESG and SDGs show up in the media frequently, and people’s interest toward building a sustainable society is growing. In this survey, we asked the respondents about their ESG investments -- an act of contributing to the society through investments. In addition, we asked 1,797 respondents who hold some form of investment product about their minds toward ESG investments.

Level of interest differs by age

ESG is an acronym for Environment, Social, and Governance. ESG investment evaluates those factors and not only the corporation’s financial status. Comparing by age group, the percentage of those who are interested in ESG investment are; 37.7% for 20s~30s, 28.3% for 40s~50s, and 30.8% for 60s~70s. The results show clearly that younger people are more interested in ESG investment.

Interested in ESG Investment

Interested in ESG investment

Younger people have ESG in mind when investing

The share of people who invest with ESG activities on their mind, by age group; 26.0% in 20s~30s, 14.9% in 40s~50s, and 14.8% in 60s~70s. This investment behavior also shows that young people are more motivated to ESG investing.

Consider ESG relating activity when investing

Consider ESG relating activity when investing

Areas of interest vary by age

We asked those who are interested in ESG investment (543 respondents) what specific activities that organizations run would lead to their favor of invest. Overall, interest in environmental (E) fields such as “actions against climate change” and “use of renewable energy” was high. By age group, 20s~30s showed a high level of interest in social (S) areas such as “consideration of human rights such as gender equality” and “creation of a good workplace,” while 60s~70s had environmental (E) areas in the top level.

I want to invest in companies that are practicing...

I want to invest in companies that are practicing

The concept of ESG is becoming popular among individual investors and is rising to be as an important investment indicator. Besides the environment (E) field, which has long been an issue to be tackled, younger generations are now interested in the social (S) field. Companies that take actions and communicate ESG issues and financial institutions that develop relating investment products need to keep in mind of these attitudes of individual investors.

Financial RADAR® has a history of tracking the record for more than 30 years. The survey results are used by various organizations -- financial institutions, think tanks, universities, etc. Please feel free to contact us for more information about the data and the details of our products.

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