Labor-Management Relations

There are labor and legal risks specific to each country we operate in outside Japan, and it is important that we proactively identify and manage these risks. We are focused especially on strengthening our overseas human resources management to increase employee satisfaction.

To strengthen our overseas human resources management, we created our "Overseas Human Resources and Labor Assessment." The assessment consists of surveys used to identify and understand areas to be improved in our labor and human resources management outside of Japan.

We have developed a checklist of over 300 items on a range of topics that we send to local companies for their self-assessment. We ask them to provide evidence for their answers, for example, about their communications channels and their compliance with local laws. Then the headquarters and human resources department review the findings with the local company's managing director. Through this collaborative process, we work with local managing directors to determine how well the human resources system is working and can identify and send feedback about risks they are likely to face, as well as recommendations for improvement.

Our primary focus in fiscal 2012 has been to undertake these assessments in our overseas operations, specifically in China, where the improvement needs are strong, but elsewhere in Asia as well, depending on local needs. In our labor relations efforts, we respect rights regarding freedom of association and collective bargaining. In Japan, we take a number of measures to make sure that management and labor leaders are in direct communication. We also have several initiatives to make sure regular communication occur between top management and labor union representatives.

• Management-Labor Committees are established for labor union members to express their opinions. The Committees are held once a month and are attended by the President, the managing directors in charge of Personnel, the head of the Union Central Executive Committee, and others.
• Labor-Management Councils are held to provide an opportunity for management to describe and make suggestions to labor union leaders. The Councils are held twice a year and are attended by all executives at the level of managing director and above and by members of the labor union's Central Executive Committee.

By dedicating our efforts to improving our relationships with labor unions and continuing to respect labor rights, we can improve our impacts in every country in which we operate and smooth the path to steady growth around the world.

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