Tokyo and Luxembourg have signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) to strengthen cooperation between the two international financial centres with a focus on mobilising private capital for the transition to net zero.
The agreement establishes a framework for working together on promotion activities such as joint events, bilateral visits, and knowledge exchange.
The MoU was signed on April 27 by Hiroshi Nakaso, chairman of FinCity.Tokyo, and Tom Théobald, CEO of Luxembourg for Finance, during SusHi Tech Tokyo 2026, Asia’s largest startup conference.
Speaking at the signing ceremony, Nakaso and Théobald highlighted how the two financial centres complement each other, with Tokyo home to a huge concentration of financial institutions underpinned by Japan’s industrial capacity, and Luxembourg a top hub for cross-border fund distribution, banking, and sustainable investment. Both centres also have fast-growing fintech sectors.
Nakaso said: “I see three areas for collaboration. One is inviting more emerging asset managers from Luxembourg, which has a great deal of expertise in fund management. Secondly, I think we can learn a lot from each other in the area of decarbonisation. As shown by the disruption in the Middle East, humanity is still very much dependent on fossil fuels, and climate change must be addressed.
“Thirdly, Luxembourg has a strong pool of talent, sophisticated financial institutions, and service providers that we can introduce into the Japanese financial system to elevate Tokyo’s global role as a finance hub.”
Théobald added: "There is real added value in sharing best practices and identifying concrete areas such as carbon credits and support for emerging fund managers that we can work on jointly.
“On the green finance side, Luxembourg has about a 40% market share of ESG funds in Europe. On the stock exchange side, in particular the Luxembourg Green Exchange, we have a 44% market share globally for sustainable and green securities. So we see a lot of opportunity in leveraging the platform we have in Luxembourg to mobilise global capital to finance projects across the globe, including in Japan.”
