Everybody, today, January 25, is the 11th annual Compliance Review Day.

What is Compliance Review Day?

As I mentioned in the video message, on January 25, 2012, the company and employees of our Matsusaka Plant were sent to the prosecutor's office for violating the notification requirements of the Industrial Safety and Health Law.

The problem was that our company's employees carried out work to renovate the facility without submitting the required notification, placing priority on production over compliance, failing to report and respond to violations of the law even after becoming aware of them.

In order to prevent the lessons learned from this incident from fading, we have designated January 25 of every year as "Compliance Review Day," and have been working to improve our organizational culture to re-acknowledge and re-enforce "Safety, Environment, Compliance, and Quality (S.E.C.Q.)," and "Bad News First & Thanks".

At this year's Compliance Review Day, Tatsuko Koike, Outside Audit & Supervisory Board Member, was invited to give a lecture on the basics of compliance, internal rules, and "Bad News First & Thanks".　

Ms. Koike, as a corporate auditor herself, speaks in an easy-to-understand manner with specific examples based on actual cases she has handled as an attorney.

In addition, Ms. Koike and I discuss the prevention of legal violations, raising awareness of quality compliance, and the results of a survey conducted this year, so I encourage everyone to watch the video and learn more about compliance.

Reaffirming Compliance

Compliance is not just about observing laws and regulations.

It includes observing laws and regulations, and internal rules as well as acting ethically to meet the expectations and trust of society and stakeholders. Thus the whole concept is compliance.

The slogan I have adopted since assuming the position of president is "Building a team that responds flexibly to change without being bound by past concepts※.

The reason for this is that common sense and values change with the times, and conventional ways of doing things, thinking, and making decisions may no longer suit the times.

It is necessary to regularly check internal rules and regulations related to your work.

As for myself, of course, we should always update our sense of ethics and values in line with the changing times, and reconfirm whether they are in line with our own actions.

※I used to refer to this as “Creating a culture" until last year, but I have updated this to "building a team" this year.

Reconfirm and reemphasize "Bad News First & Thanks

For early detection and prevention of problems, it is necessary to be informed of Bad News as soon as possible and take action as soon as possible. The longer the initial response is delayed, the greater the loss and the more effort and time it takes to resolve the issue.

Sumitomo Riko Group has been calling for the practice of "Bad News First & Thanks" in each workplace on a daily base, but the results of this year's questionnaire show that a certain number of respondents still do not know the phrase "Bad News First & Thanks".

In order to encourage employees to practice "Bad News First," we ask that supervisors value daily communication and take the initiative in "Bad News Thanks”.

Whenever you are in doubt about a decision, I would like you to return to the Sumitomo Spirit of "Shinyo-kakujitsu" and "Fusu-furi" and always act in a manner that meets the expectations of society.

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