Environmental Performance and Corporate Governance: Evidence from Japan

Abstract

This study investigates the impact of corporate governance on corporate environmental performance among Japanese companies listed on the Tokyo Stock Exchange for the period 2006–2019. Using fixed-effects modelling for 4617 firm-year observations from 2006–2019, we demonstrate that board independence, board diversity, and the presence of environmental management committees are significantly associated with improved environmental performance. However, a large board reduces the environmental performance, and CEO duality does not appear to be a significant factor affecting a firm’s environmental performance. Additionally, we show a consistent result when we proxy environmental performance by total carbon emissions.