Compliance
Through an approach based on ethics and integrity, and putting right and wrong over profit and loss, we are striving to ensure thorough compliance, with the aim of building an enterprise trusted by all our stakeholders.
Basic Approach
As any violation of laws and regulations or a scandal would hinder Hitachi High-Tech Group’s basic philosophy of being trusted by all our stakeholders and severely damage corporate value, the Group holds thorough compliance (complying with laws, company rules, social justice, public order, and standards of decency, etc.) as the premise for all our business activities. Through an approach of surely practicing judgement and conduct based on ethics and integrity, and on putting right and wrong over profit and loss, we are conducting initiatives including the operation of an internal reporting system and the implementation of compliance education and awareness-raising activities for employees in an effort to promote compliance activities throughout the Group.
In addition, our Group is committed to acting as a member of the Hitachi Group to follow the One Hitachi Compliance approach in our activities. These include complying with the Hitachi Group Codes of Conduct as a unified Hitachi Group policy, establishing and strengthening our compliance framework, introducing and unifying a compliance notification system, preventing antisocial transactions and money laundering, preventing bribery and corruption, complying with competition laws, implementing rigorous export management, and so on.
Regarding Hitachi Group's compliance initiatives, which include our initiatives, please see here.
Organization
Compliance Framework
The Group has established the Compliance Committee, which meets regularly to discuss, on a Company-wide basis, the status of compliance risks, plans for countermeasures to reduce the risks, and the status of implementation of such measures. More specifically, responsibility for addressing each particular type of risk has been assigned to a specific department; the head of the department in charge of tackling a particular type of risk envisages and evaluates that risk, as well as implementing measures to deal with it, such as providing in-house education concerning relevant legislation and internal rules. In addition, the manager concerned identifies new compliance risks that are a concern. If a compliance related incident occurs, the Company will hold an ad hoc meeting to determine the facts, trace the causes, take corrective measures and discuss how to prevent recurrence.
In addition, the heads of business groups, branch offices, and Group companies appoint Compliance Managers for their respective organizations. The Compliance Managers work under the direction of the Chairperson of the Compliance Committee to manage the compliance system of their respective organizations by constructing compliance systems within their respective organizations, implementing compliance measures and reporting to the Compliance Committee. With regard to compliance risk, each organization conducts regular revisions and self-checks whether its risk activities are appropriate.
The Group has designated October as its annual Corporate Ethics Month, during which each managing unit conducts compliance education and other initiatives aimed at ensuring thorough awareness of the need for corporate ethics and compliance.
Establishment of Whistleblowing Hotline
The Hitachi High-Tech Group has introduced the Hitachi Group unified whistleblowing hotline system (for Japan and overseas) for the purpose of quickly detecting and responding to incipient legal violations and improper conduct. The system can be used by executives, employees, senior employees, partner employees, temporary agency workers, retired personnel, and so on. We are taking these steps in order to enhance our self-correcting functions in order to quickly detect and respond to incipient legal violations or improper conduct.