Governance

Kuraray Group Risk Management Policy in Fiscal 2023

Basic Policy

• Completely prevent illegal or inappropriate conduct that betrays the trust of society.
• Completely prevent accidents and injuries (e.g. process accidents, occupational injuries, pollution, and product defects) that threaten the health and safety of employees, the local community, clients, partners, and so on.
• Should an event occur that seriously impacts the business or society, be sure to secure trust from society, safety, and health, and implement measures to achieve business continuity or early recovery. (Prioritize trust from society, safety, and health, and then work to continue or restore the business.)

Priority Issues

Based on the above policy, the following are the priority issues for fiscal 2023 in light of the findings of risk analysis of the Kuraray Group and recent social conditions and trends.

• Further reinforce management of confidential information by implementing ongoing measures to shore up information security throughout the Group.
• Continue to implement measures to strengthen operation and facility management at overseas plants to reduce the risk of process accidents. At the same time, through the activities of the Global Process Safety Management Audit Team and other actions, identify issues in the safety management frameworks of overseas affiliates and work to improve them.
• Review all elements, including commodity materials, from a supply chain perspective for supply risks affecting raw materials, fuels, secondary materials, and equipment. Further improve the accuracy and effectiveness of business continuity planning (BCP) by taking risk countermeasures, starting with high-priority measures in the BCP of each business.

Priority issues for fiscal 2022

• Implement immediate measures to prevent the recurrence of confidential information leakage.
• In order to mitigate the risk of occurrence of safety-related accidents, objectively evaluate through the audits by in-house expert teams and steadily improve the status of action towards the countermeasures which were recognized through the survey of not only safety design but also management aspects (operation management and facility management) including human resource development at overseas plants.
• For supply risks or raw materials, fuels, and secondary materials, review all including commodity materials from a supply chain perspective and formulate a more comprehensive BCP (Business Continuity Planning).
• Continue ensuring preparation for COVID-19 pandemic.

Specific Measures

• We formed a Confidential Information Management Team in June 2022 to monitor and better implement the Kuraray Group Confidential Information Management Policy, reformulated in November 2021, both in Japan and overseas. We bolstered IT security by building an emergency response framework for IT incidents and putting in place a more secure data storage system.
• Since 2019, members from Japan have been conducting safety audits of chemical plants outside Japan. In 2022, a Global Process Safety Management Audit Team made up of in-house experts from across the Group started up activities to gauge and take steps to address overseas security risks.
• Based on the findings of our analysis of priority production areas and the risk of suspension of the sharing of raw materials and other resources in each business, we are formulating a succession of risk-mitigation measures, starting with high-priority raw materials.
• In response to the global COVID-19 pandemic, a response team formed in January 2020 worked with Group companies in Japan and abroad to identify infection levels and take measures to prevent infection, continuing to implement preventive measures while responding to the specific context in each country.