April 2022 to March 2023

  There are many social issues ranging from the global environment to daily life problems that affect people's lives, including poverty, hunger, health, education, safe water, energy, decent work, economic growth, urban development, and climate change countermeasures. The need to enhance financial services to solve these social issues is mentioned in the SDGs. Moreover, social implementation of these financial services using digital technology is expected to pave the way to the provision of affordable, high-quality financial services to more people.

   Social bonds, a framework for funding efforts aimed at resolving social issues such as poverty, inequality, and poor living conditions, as well as impact investing in companies that implement such initiatives, are attracting attention.

　In this research, we examined the situation surrounding microfinancing, which is mainly used by economically disadvantaged individuals and women, and international remittance services, which are mainly used by migrant overseas workers. We also examined the social bond funding framework and impact investing, including their digitalization trends, and summarized these findings in an interim report. 

　In our final report, we summarized results of our research on the use of digital finance to support aging societies. In particular, we looked at the use of financial and digital services in response to the accumulation of retirement funds and advancement of cognitive decline as people in Japan and around the world live longer. We also reported on our findings on the use of financial education and digital technology to broadly disseminate financial and economic knowledge, which is fundamental for the use of various financial services.