Customer Stories
How One of Japan’s Largest Asset Managers Leveraged a Custom Voting Policy and Engagement Services
With US$ 222.3 billion in assets under management, Daiwa Asset Management (AM) is one of Japan’s largest asset managers. To meet growing expectations on investment stewardship practices, the firm sought to develop its strategy and scale efforts in alignment with its objectives. By partnering with Glass Lewis – using services such as a custom voting policy and a tailored engagement program – Daiwa AM could effectively execute on its priorities, ensuring both voting and engagement activities support its investment beliefs and long-term value creation.
"Working with Glass Lewis allows us to holistically implement our stewardship philosophy into both our voting and engagement practices. The ability to design a custom voting policy aligned with our values, while also leveraging tailored engagement support, ensures we deliver consistent, transparent, and impactful stewardship on behalf of the investors in the funds we manage.”
Shingo Nakao
Managing Director, Responsible Investment Department, Daiwa Asset Management
Managing Director, Responsible Investment Department, Daiwa Asset Management
About the Client
Daiwa Asset Management
Daiwa AM is one of the largest Japanese asset managers, as part of the Daiwa Securities Group. The company manages multiple asset classes, covering equities, fixed income, REITs and alternatives. It has a strong domestic presence in Japan with expanding international offerings and has made a commitment to responsible investing, stewardship, and sustainability. Daiwa AM was the first asset management company in Japan to become a signatory to the UN Principles for Responsible Investment (PRI) since its inception in 2006.
The Challenge
Previously, Daiwa AM had limited engagement activity on foreign holdings and like many investors, they faced the challenge of ensuring that global proxy voting and engagement efforts aligned with its stewardship philosophy and environmental, social and governance (ESG) commitments. They identified core objectives to address these challenges.
The Solution
To execute on their strategy, Daiwa AM needed to secure a suitable partner in the market. Following extensive reviews, valuing different criteria such as voting capabilities, engagement model, influence on priorities, and geographical coverage, they chose Glass Lewis for its two complementary solutions of a custom voting policy and engagement service.
1
Custom Voting Policy
The firm worked with Glass Lewis to design a bespoke custom voting policy that reflected its stewardship priorities and ESG commitments, with customizations primarily around board independence, gender diversity, and pay for performance conditions.
The policy enables them to cast votes systematically in line with their own principles, while leveraging Glass Lewis’ global research and execution infrastructure.
The policy enables them to cast votes systematically in line with their own principles, while leveraging Glass Lewis’ global research and execution infrastructure.
2
Custom Engagement Service
Daiwa AM engaged Glass Lewis’ Stewardship team to implement a custom engagement program, covering proactive, structured dialogue with foreign investee companies.
This service further empowers them with a fully customized approach, designed to help scale their stewardship efforts by partnering with a specialist team and resources.
This service further empowers them with a fully customized approach, designed to help scale their stewardship efforts by partnering with a specialist team and resources.
Together with technology platforms for both vote execution and engagement management, these services allowed Daiwa AM to effectively implement their stewardship priorities, from policy creation and proxy voting to active engagement.
Summary of
Daiwa AM’s Custom Engagement Coverage
Topics
Climate Change and Transition
Ethics and Governance
Fundamental Rights
Gender Diversity
Water Stewardship
Note: As of November 2025.
The Results
By unifying a bespoke voting framework with a tailored global engagement program, Daiwa AM now executes its stewardship activities with greater strategic alignment and operational efficiency. These enhancements strengthen the firm’s position as an active and credible steward of capital, focused on driving long-term value creation across markets. More specifically, it empowered:
