Responding to non-financial information disclosures as part of our audit work
Recently, investors and other stakeholders have become increasingly interested in non-financial information, especially sustainability information, and the disclosure of such information and ensuring its reliability have become important issues worldwide.
In Japan, a new section for the disclosure of sustainability information has been established in the securities report for the fiscal year ending March 31, 2023. In addition, the “The Working Group on Disclosure and Assurance of Sustainability-related Financial Information ” is currently discussing future disclosure and assurance, and it is expected that “Prime Market” listed companies or some of them will be required to disclose sustainability information based on the sustainability disclosure standards issued by Sustainability Standards Board of Japan（SSBJ）. It is also expected that assurance will be introduced at the same time or with a delay of one year.
As the disclosure and assurance of sustainability information becomes increasingly institutionalized, we have established a Sustainability Committee (1 director, 3 partners, and 6 staff) to research the sustainability disclosure standards of the SSBJ and other organizations, and assurance standards and their practices, such as the Practical Guideline for Assurance Engagements 3000 published by the JICPA. The results of this research are disseminated throughout the company through internal training programs and other means. In addition, we have established a system to ensure that engagements are conducted appropriately, by establishing a Non-Financial Information Assurance Group, which is responsible for conducting assurance engagements on non-financial information such as sustainability information.
On June 6, 2024, we have joined The Japanese Association of Assurance Organizations for Sustainability Information.
Through these measures, we will contribute to building a sustainable society by providing assurance engagements for sustainability reports, etc.
Sustainability activities that our firm can contribute to society
Among the environment, social, and governance issues that we must address, we will consider personnel and nationality-neutral hiring and working methods that can continuously contribute to the audit industry for social(S), and management will strengthen its governance (G) function in terms of audit quality. Furthermore, we believe that a feasible action to climate change, given our business type, is to make efforts to reduce greenhouse gas emissions by conserving electricity. To this end, we have instructed all members of our firm not to work after 10:00 p.m. and to turn off unnecessary lighting by gathering in a limited place in the firm.