CSR

Third-Party Opinion/Response to the Third-Party Opinion

According to the report, the Fujikura Group suffered damage from another natural disaster in fiscal 2011 following the occurrence of the Great East Japan Earthquake in the previous fiscal year, namely the flooding in Thailand, which forced the Group to suspend operations of its nine bases. I would like to express my respect to all members of the Group, who made strenuous efforts to recover from the damage. I think that the hardship also provided the members with an opportunity to re-recognize the fact that the Group is supporting society through its core business. The history of the Group, which has continued for more than 120 years since its founding, proves the fact that it has developed with society as an entity that is needed by the public. The Fujikura-Kiba Millennium Woods, which I visited, indeed shows the commitment of the Group to remaining a corporate group that will be needed by society long into the future, as the name bio-garden ("Millennium Woods") implies.

Starting with this CSR report, Fujikura has decided to communicate more information in the online version and to structure the report based on the ISO 26000 international standard on CSR. As a global company, Fujikura is sincerely addressing international issues, which is highly appreciated by society. It is also significant that the Fujikura Group sets its priority CSR measures, checks on the progress of the measures through the CSR Committee including the president, and executes a PDCA cycle towards the implementation of said measures. I expect that all members of the Group, including both top executives and individual employees, will continue making a concerted effort to fulfill their CSR.

Toward the future, I hope that the Group's CSR measures will be more aligned with the core subjects set in ISO 26000 and the materiality of the measures will be clarified by the Group. Fiscal 2011 was the last year of the three-year plan for the priority CSR measures, and the Group needs to explain the overall results as well as details of the next three-year plan. Regarding CSR, the Group needs to have a medium- to long-term vision, while setting specific targets on a short-term basis and steadily implementing measures to achieve those targets.

Regarding human rights and labor practices, the Group needs to expand the scope of data tabulation in light of the fact that employees working outside Japan account for a large percentage of its workforce. Also, I expect that additional measures will be taken to help female employees display more of their abilities.

The report refers to the issue of conflict minerals in the section on the Group's procurement activities. It is surely difficult for the Group to have a complete grasp of its entire supply chain, which is complex and multi-layered; however, this is necessary because in the future the public will pay even more attention to CSR measures taken by companies regarding their supply chains. I hope that the Group will accumulate more know-how on supply chain management based on its past experience.

　

For the Fujikura Group, fiscal 2011 was a very important year as the first year of the 2015 Mid-Term Business Plan, which we formulated to ensure further growth of the Group. Unfortunately in 2011, we faced a series of large disasters: the Great East Japan Earthquake in March and the flooding in Thailand in October. Nonetheless, we proactively implemented measures to recover from the damage through the concerted efforts of all and based on the recovery policies set in the business continuity plan (BCP). We also worked to accelerate the implementation of our global strategy toward the achievement of the targets set in the 2015 Mid-Term Business Plan.
Also for our CSR activities, fiscal 2011 was an important year because it was the final year of the three-year plan for the priority CSR measures we had been promoting since fiscal 2009. Accordingly, despite the difficult business environment, we proactively conducted CSR activities to help create a sustainable society while achieving the sustainable growth of our own business.
The details are shown in this report, specifically in the section on the Group’s priority CSR measures and the evaluation of the results.

As for the Group's CSR activities conducted in fiscal 2011, we were able to achieve most of the predefined targets; however, society is making continuous changes and requests made to companies and issues faced by them are also changing day by day. In order to become a corporate group that remains needed by an ever-changing society, we repeatedly discussed new measures to be taken by the Group mainly through the Fujikura Group CSR Committee, and have finally set the new priority targets (25 items) to be attained by fiscal 2015. We have already begun implementing measures toward the attainment of the targets.
We have created this Fujikura Group CSR Report 2012 by illustrating our new initiatives and enhancing the content even more than before. I hope that this report will be read by as many stakeholders as possible and will help them deepen their understanding of the CSR activities conducted by the Fujikura Group. For the report, Ms. Keiko Omori kindly provided us with a third-party expert opinion. We will steadily and resolutely conduct our CSR activities, referring to the important opinions given by Ms. Omori as guidelines for such activities.