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Strengthening Compliance

At Kobe Steel, we consider compliance to be one of the first premises on which our corporation is founded.

Through promotion of a variety of measures, spearheaded by management, we aim to create a corporate group with an organizational culture that is highly sensitive to compliance.

Compliance System

Kobe Steel has a Compliance Committee that advises the Board of Directors. Two of its members are company directors, while five come from outside the company in order to maintain fairness and neutrality. The Committee proposes recommended plans related to compliance, checks on progress, and deliberates cases reported through the internal reporting (whistleblowing) system.

We appoint a companywide compliance director and a companywide compliance officer. We have also set up a dedicated Compliance Planning & Administration Section in the Legal Department to work in partnership with planning and administrative departments and with compliance managers stationed in our business units.

Compliance System

Compliance Education

Compliance Top Seminar

Compliance Top Seminar

In addition to Compliance Top Seminars for executives at Kobe Steel and other Group companies, we incorporate compliance-related content into every level of training and provide opportunities for employees to receive a broad range of training at different points in their careers. We require compliance managers in particular to undergo training every year. We also run legal education e-learning sessions every year, to give all employees the opportunity to check their level of compliance awareness.

Compliance Manuals

Conduct Guide for Employees

Conduct Guide for Employees

The specific contents of our Standards of Corporate Conduct, which form part of our Corporate Code of Ethics, are explained in greater detail in the Conduct Guide for Employees, which is distributed to all employees as a companywide compliance manual. The guide also serves as a basic manual for companywide risk management, focusing particularly on "shared risks" that are applicable to all group companies as part of their risk management activities.

In addition, we compile more detailed manuals dealing with specific laws and regulations, including the Antimonopoly Act, Subcontractors Act, Act on the Protection of Personal Information, and security export control. Manuals provide an easy source of reference whenever employees have queries during the course of their duties.

Detailed manuals

  • Antimonopoly Act Compliance Manual
  • Subcontractors Act Compliance Manual
  • Intellectual Property Information (intranet)
  • Personal Data Management Manual
  • Confidential Information Management Manual
  • Security Export Control Intranet
  • Manual for Measures against Extortion
  • Manual on Relationships with Public Officials
  • Sexual Harassment Prevention Manual

Internal Reporting System

Our internal reporting (whistleblowing) system is one of the methods we use to prevent risks associated with legal, ethical and other compliance-related issues from materializing and spreading, by quickly identifying problems and implementing appropriate measures. If employees come across any form of illegal conduct within the company, the system enables them to report the matter directly to a designated outside lawyer who operates from a neutral standpoint. The contents of such reports are then investigated by the Compliance Committee and appropriate action is taken. Similar systems have also been rolled out for Group companies.

Internal Reporting System

Risk Management

The aim of risk management at the Kobe Steel Group is to enable departments to identify risks independently and take remedial action.

Every department formulates and implements their own Risk Management Plan, based on "operating risks" applicable to their own operations, and "shared risks" specified by the relevant staff department at corporate headquarters according to regulatory revisions and social changes. At the end of the fiscal year, the heads of each business unit and department, including top management, review the results of risk management activities over the course of the year and provide feedback for the following year.

Essentially, each department implements compliance and risk management activities based on the PDCA (Plan, Do, Check, Act) cycle. The aim of ongoing activities such as these is to establish an organizational culture that is highly sensitive to compliance, within the context of individual operations.

Risk Management

Group Initiatives

In addition to establishing compliance committees or equivalent bodies at all Group companies and drawing up a Kobe Steel Group Corporate Code of Ethics, we have also introduced an internal reporting system. Group companies also appoint compliance directors and compliance promotion managers, whose roles are to coordinate with Kobe Steel and promote activities within their respective companies.

Risk management activities in line with those at Kobe Steel are carried out at all Group companies.

Group Initiatives

Our Aim is to Create a Corporate Group that is Highly Sensitive to Compliance.

Naoto Umehara

Naoto Umehara
Executive Vice President and
Representative Director
Oversees companywide
compliance

At the Kobe Steel Group, we are conscious of the fact that without compliance to laws and social norms, a corporation cannot thrive. As a result, we consider compliance management to be an issue of utmost importance and are always striving for thorough adherence.

In addition to activities previously in place, we are also working to further raise awareness of compliance issues through compliance managers appointed at each company, and to aggressively expand compliance activities to subsidiaries overseas.

By continuing such efforts into the future, we aim to foster a corporate culture that is sensitive to issues of compliance and can meet the expectations of all of our stakeholders.