Introduction: Corporate social responsibility and Japanese corporations

Corporate social responsibility (CSR) is globally recognized as one of the core components of corporate strategy for ensuring the long-term value and sustainable growth of a firm. In the rapid globalization of business and finance since the 1980s, business corporations have had unprecedented influence on the societies and communities in which they operate, natural environment preservation, and resource allocation. Alongside financial liberalization and globalization since the 1990s, the linkage between the financial market’s perception of CSP and corporate financing has been attracting interest among researchers. In corporate financing, however, investors and financial institutions might not have a shared comprehensive understanding of CSR with their investees and borrowers, and there could be a perception gap of CSR between investors and financial institutions.