Clifford Chance

As part of its efforts to achieve carbon neutrality across group companies, as well as to improve the overall operational efficiency of bond issuance through digitalisation, the Japan Exchange Group (JPX) has started looking into raising funds through issuance of security tokens in the form of a 'Digitally Tracked Green Bond', which is the subject of the current research.

A 'Digitally Tracked Green Bond' is a bond that utilises digital technologies such as blockchain to improve transparency of data and efficiency of data collection, thereby tackling issues that have been raised by both issuers and investors of green bonds around the transparency of data and complexity of the data collection process needed for green investment.

The JPX has indicated that it also plans to conduct research from the viewpoint of digitalisation of the entire bond issuance process.

This is the first initiative of its kind in Japan. The primary objective of this initiative is to help the JPX achieve carbon neutrality as an issuer, but in the future, it intends to contribute to the carbon neutrality of society as a whole by sharing the lessons learned and the issues discovered in the process.