JICPA releases "Sustainability Capacity-Building Policy and Actions"
The Japanese Institute of Certified Public Accountants (JICPA) recognized the need for professional accountants to develop their skills and competencies in sustainability, and comprehensively discussed education for professional accountants. On June 30, 2022, the JICPA published the Sustainability Education Study Project Team Report, Discussion Paper - Integrating Sustainability into Professional Accountants' Competency.
Since then, we have seen further progress in each area of regulations, standards, and practices related to sustainability disclosure. In December 2022, the Financial Services Agency released a report by the Working Group on Corporate Disclosure of the Financial System Council, highlighting the importance of society-wide efforts to develop talent supporting sustainability disclosure and assurance engagements.
These situations suggest that the need for strengthening sustainability education for professional accountants has been growing, as presented in the aforementioned Discussion Paper published by the project team. Responding to the growing need, the JICPA has set up the Sustainability Education Special Committee to discuss measures for steadfastly implementing capacity-building initiatives for professional accountants in sustainability. Through a series of such discussions, the Sustainability Education Special Committee formulated and published the report "Sustainability Capacity-Building Policy and Actions".
The JICPA will implement the policies and actions mentioned in this report, as well as expeditiously and effectively promote professional accountants' capacity building on sustainability in collaboration with related bodies. In doing so, we will promote efforts to ensure the usefulness and build trust in sustainability information in the capital market.
