Compliance and Risk Management
We believe that thorough compliance in accordance with corporate ethics is essential for us to satisfy the expectations of all our shareholders and to fulfill our corporate social responsibility commitment. Compliance acts as a foundation for all our business activities, and we endeavor to reinforce our compliance structure, which consists of various components including a corporate code of conduct, rules, training implementation, and establishment of contact points for consultations and communications. We also consider accurately identifying various risks in our business activities, preventing them, minimizing their impact if they do occur and preventing their recurrence to be important management issues. Therefore, we have built a risk management structure to achieve these goals and we review and make improvements to our risk management structure on an ongoing basis.
Compliance Structure
Compliance is promoted under the direction of the Compliance Committee, which is chaired by our President. Also, we have established a management structure to promptly address suggestions, whistleblower reports, and other communications from employees in accordance with the Rules for Improvement Proposals Concerning Corporate Ethics. We have also established a help line for employees to report to and consult with outside legal advisors directly, thereby creating a structure that ensures the proper functioning of compliance mechanisms. The Internal Audit Department cooperates by reporting compliance information obtained in internal audit procedures to the Compliance Committee.
Observance of Corporate Code of Conduct
We have established the Yonex Corporate Code of Conduct as the defining standard of behavior to be observed by all employees in the course of performing their business duties. The content of the Code of Conduct has been approved by the Board of Directors, and shared with all directors and employees, who have submitted pledges to observe and uphold our Code of Conduct to the Chairman of the Compliance Committee. Moreover, we have prepared a manual summarizing the various categories of our Code of Conduct and published it on our internal portal to ensure that all directors and employees thoroughly understand all of its details. Through these various efforts, each of our directors and employees understands that compliance is the premise of our business activities, and they endeavor to strengthen our compliance structure.
Internal Whistleblower Reporting System (Help Line)
The help line is the point of contact for communication and consultation for the Yonex whistleblower reporting system, and there is one help line created for each workplace and subsidiary. They are used as points of contact for directors and employees to share opinions on improving corporate ethics and serve as an early detection system to correct potential instances of compliance violations, fraud and misconduct. We have also established lines of communications with outside legal advisors, thereby creating an environment to further strengthen our compliance function. We respect the privacy of individuals providing suggestions or reports, the content of which is strictly managed to maintain its confidentiality. Furthermore, we take the utmost care in the operation of this system to ensure that persons making suggestions and submitting whistleblower reports will not suffer any disadvantages.
Education and Training
Compliance topics are covered in new employee and executive training to raise the awareness of legal compliance among all directors and employees and to prevent problems from arising. In addition, various legal topics are regularly published on the internal portal in question and answer and other formats. We introduce examples of common misunderstandings as a means of preventing unintentional legal violations and raising compliance awareness.
Risk Management Structure
Based upon our Risk Management Rules, we have established a Risk Management Committee chaired by our President. We have also created an organizational management system to thoroughly familiarize all employees with risk management policies, to avoid risks and to promote swift action to address risks that may occur. These efforts are led by risk management officers and risk managers in each workplace. In the event that a serious risk arises, a Risk Response Team will be established under the authority of our President, who will serve as its director-general. Other directors in charge of the division in which the risk occurs will also participate in the Risk Response Team, along with other internal members and legal and other experts as external members. The Risk Response Team will provide centralized management of information, decide upon measures to address the risk, and provide instructions to implement those measures. We have established this structure to ensure that our entire Company can consistently and effectively address various risks.
Information Security
We have established the Information Security Policy to strengthen our information security measures and to thoroughly familiarize our entire Company with the importance of information security. We have also established Rules for Protection of Personal Information and endeavor to establish an internal management structure to prevent leaks.