Asami Takagi
Board of Director, SIMI

Social Impact Day 2025, held from May 14 to 16, 2025, was such a great success with approximately 550 participants in 17 sessions with a variety of speakers from Japan and around the world. We would like to express our sincere gratitude to all those who participated in the event and to all those who were involved in the planning and operation of the event, including sponsors, supporters, and collaborators.

The theme of Social Impact Day 2025 was “Exploring Foundational Shift toward Impact Economy”. The rules of institutions and markets are being fundamentally shaken, and the relationship between solving social issues and economic activities is being redefined. The event provided an opportunity to look into the future with the words of practitioners and perspectives from a variety of perspectives on these questions.

The keynote speakers were Jon Lukomnik and James P. Hawley, co-authors of “Moving Beyond Modern Portfolio Theory: Investing That Matters”. They pointed out that MPT (Modern Portfolio Theory), which has been at the core of financial capitalism for many years, has not been able to cope with the complex systemic risks of today, and suggested that “active engagement of each investor = beta activism” is the key to updating capitalism and facing sustainability challenges.

Following these essential issues, the sessions featured a variety of practitioners who spoke on themes such as local initiative, public-private partnerships, trust-based philanthropy, natural capital and biodiversity, co-creation and best practices through impact investing, impact accounting, initiatives in Asia and Europe, new institutions and frameworks, and more. They shared their initiatives and challenges in their respective fields.

In particular, this year’s sessions focused on “multi-stakeholder” collaboration from the perspective of how to overcome the challenges that will emerge as the impact economy progresses and initiatives deepen, as it is becoming a force for change that will shake the entire market. The participation of diverse actors, including financial institutions, governments, businesses, and civil society, in dialogue and collaboration that transcended the boundaries of their positions and organizations, strongly suggested that the expansion of such co-creation is the driving force to overcome the “foundational shift”.

As the impact economy accelerates, it is time for diverse perspectives to come together to create new solutions, and we hope that the learning and dialogue at the Social Impact Day will lead to a step forward in your own field.