Corporate Ethics Guidelines

Since its foundation to the present, the Pigeon Group (hereinafter called “Pigeon”) has been thoroughly aware of its social existence as a company, has supported the society, and at the same time, has promoted its business activities to fulfill its responsibility together with society. Pigeon has hereby established “Corporate Ethics Guidelines” that stipulates its basic compliance policy for winning the confidence of all the affected people on whom its business activities exert an impact.

I. Corporate Ethics Policies

Pigeon prescribes as follows universal guidelines for putting its compliance management (observance of laws, regulations, and corporate ethics) into practice, and hereby declares observance of all laws, regulations, social norms, and their spirits, and that every company member of Pigeon conducts every activity with integrity and higher ethical standards.

PIGEON IS COMMITTED TO:

  1. Possess high ethical standards constantly, promote management with priority given to compliance, and fulfill its social responsibilities as a company in every aspect of corporate activities under the Pigeon Way.
  2. Pursue customers’ delight, happiness, and excitement, provide safe, useful, and high-quality products and services, and strive for sustainable economic growth and social issue resolution.
  3. Respect community cultures, aim for harmony with society, and extensively promote contribution to society as a good corporate citizen.
  4. Give consideration to the limited global environment and be proactive in environmental management.
  5. Carry out actions that respect human rights of every person in all its corporate activities.
  6. Value the diversity and individuality of each employee at any time and provide for its employees a great work environment with consideration given to their health and security. Pigeon will work out to provide a workplace where its employees can achieve self-realization and feel fulfilled.
  7. Participate in fair and open competition and carries out fair transactions and responsible procurement in its corporate activities for sound growth. Pigeon will maintain a healthy relationship with politics and the administration of government.
  8. Appropriately control and utilize corporate information and promote efficient management.
  9. Continue constructive dialogues with every stakeholder, use stakeholders’ opinions for improvement and development of products and services or raising corporate value, and at the same time, disclose the corporate information positively, appropriately at the right time, and fairly.
  10. Bring the present Corporate Ethics Policies into reality with all members of the Group united, and build, maintain, and develop an effective corporate governance to this end.

II. Code of Conduct

BACKGROUNDS

Pigeon believes that every employee must observe laws and regulations and conduct him/herself in all the corporate activities in order for a company to continue winning the trust in society.
Pigeon has put one “trust” and one “sense of security” on another, one by one, which Pigeon has received from consumers through child rearing and nursing care, and supplied products and services. Pigeon has been strongly conscious of stakeholders’ viewpoint to each company in that “no company that breaks a rule is not forgiven even though it does not do real damage,” and all the directors and employees must observe laws and regulations and conduct themselves as their own free will.

BACKGROUNDS

The environment that surrounds humans is changing dramatically and environment and climate change, energy, safety and disaster prevention, human and gender equality, and various other social issues which the world is facing have come to exert an influence on the development of our familiar society. At Pigeon, too, we must promote business and provide products and services to work toward sustainable economic growth and solve global social issues.

BACKGROUNDS

In the local community and the international community, environment and climate change, energy, safety and disaster prevention, human and gender equality, and various new social issues arise.
Consequently, we are required to select and promote the field we grapple with as social contribution activities with our corporate philosophy and business areas, management resources, and others taken into account, in addition to solution to social issues through the provision of products and services.

AT PIGEON, WE MUST:

Participate in society as a good corporate citizen.

  • We will roll out activities based on Pigeon Way in countries and regions where we roll out business activities and achieve appropriate accountability for explaining the activities.
  • We will be committed to understanding social situations of the countries and regions where we roll out business activities, conducting business activities with thoroughgoing consideration given to the cultures, customs, and religions, and contributing to local community development through the business activities.
  • Everyone of us will have constant recognition on social contribution and be actively involved in social contribution activities in the fields related to our business areas under Pigeon Way.

BACKGROUNDS

Environmental issues including global warming and waste disposal problems exert a serious impact on the earth, the natural world surrounding the earth, and the future of us, human beings. Today, response to environmental issues is the common issue for all humanity, and corporations are required to harmoniously coexist with local communities and to be committed to active engagement with environmental issues.

AT PIGEON, WE MUST:

Conserve the environment.

  • We strive to aim at energy saving and greenhouse effect reduction and to create a low-carbon society in every aspect of development, manufacturing, sales, and use and consumption of our products and services.
  • We promote conservation of resources, reduction of waste, and 3R (Reduce, Reuse, and Recycle) in every aspect of our business activities and strive to establish a recycling-oriented society.
  • We are committed to assessing impact of our business activities on the environment and taking actions to reduce environmental risks, prevent environmental pollution, and reduce environmental load.
  • We are fully aware that biodiversity is a basis of the survival of the entire society and is an essential element from the viewpoint of sustaining business activities, too, and we engage in nature conservation activities for protecting biodiversity.

BACKGROUNDS

Respect for human rights is an essential set of values. Stakeholders are highly concerned about human rights and movements have been increased to encourage corporations to address human rights including fair trade. Corporations are required to appropriately exercise human rights due diligence and demonstrate that they understand human rights risks and work toward improvements.

AT PIGEON, WE MUST:

Respect human rights

  • We familiarize ourselves with internationally recognized human rights, are conscious that any business activity may affect human rights, and act with human rights constantly in mind in all countries and regions where Pigeon is doing business.
  • We exercise utmost care to avoid all our business activities from causing, fostering, or supporting any adverse effect on human rights. And should such adverse effect arise, we will deal it with integrity.
  • We ask our suppliers, too, to focus effort on respect for human rights to prevent and alleviate adverse influences on human rights in their business activities related to the products and services.

BACKGROUNDS

Corporations are required to provide opportunities to develop employee’s motivations and capabilities to the maximum by working hard in such a manner that diverse human resources can take an active part in their services, irrespective of nationality, gender, age, disability, gender identity, sexual orientation, and the like.
Observance of labor-related laws and regulations is the minimum obligation which a corporation must fulfill. Basic human rights of workers must be valued most and corporations are required to reinforce activities for securing employees’ physical and psychological health and safety.

AT PIGEON, WE MUST:

Promote diversity and inclusion.

  • Pigeon accepts human resources with motivations and competence as its employees irrespective of nationality, gender, age, disability, gender identity, sexual orientation, and the like, and at the same time, secures a workplace environment where they could exhibit their capabilities fully even when they must confront situations like child-rearing, nursing care, illness, and others, Pigeon does not make any discriminative handling.

Implement workforce management and treatment with no discrimination and unreasonable disparity

  • Pigeon does not implement any discriminative workforce management and treatment on grounds of nationality, gender, age, religion, disability, social status, or the like.
  • Pigeon respects a fundamental right and takes every possible action to prevent any harassment including sexual harassment and all other unreasonable treatment at a workplace.

Respect the individuality of employees, support competence development, and develop human resources

  • Pigeon provides its employees with the opportunities to increase their motivations and develop capabilities to the maximum, supports individual career development, and strives for human resources development to upgrade and maximally bring out capabilities of every one of them.

Prevent occupational injuries and perform management with consideration given to health

  • Pigeon thinks it as one of the top priorities in business management to secure mental and physical health and safety of employees and is committed to positively supporting prevention of occupational injuries and preservation and improvement of employees’ health.

BACKGROUNDS

Competition laws have increased still more in importance from the viewpoint of ensuring free and active competition in the market and reinforcing the rules for corporate activities. Corporations are still more required to reinforce the compliance system to competition laws not only at home but also abroad with an eye to the overall corporate group thoroughly in the light of enforcement and application conditions of international competition laws.
It is the times in which the social responsibility is questioned internationally in a form including not only the corporation but also the supply chains of all the countries and regions of the world. Based on this, companies are asked to address social challenges such as forced labor, child labor, and environmental destruction on a worldwide scale, and furthermore, the whole supply chain, too, is required to solve social challenges.
Moreover, it is requested from home and abroad to increase transparency not only on distribution and trade practice but also on the relationships with politics and administration. The companies must review conventional general rules and practice again, and conduct themselves while keeping the highly transparent relationships with politics and administration.
And for building up a sound civil society, the companies must completely cut off the relationships with antisocial forces.

AT PIGEON, WE MUST:

Ensure the full enforcement of compliance to competition laws.

  • We aim at development as a company through transparent, fair, and open transactions and competitions and contribute to the development of sound economy by this.
  • We, members of the Pigeon Group, make a concerted effort to maintain the system for complying to domestic and international competition laws and observe them in all our business activities.

Establish fair transaction policy and practice responsible procurement.

  • On the basis of competition laws, we work out a fair transaction policy and work harmoniously with suppliers.
  • We define our working stance to the supply chain and other suppliers with respect to observance of laws and regulations, quality and safety, environmental preservation, information security, fair transaction, ethics, and safety and health, and human rights and labor, and responsible procurement.

Fight bribery.

  • We do not entertain, give gifts, give and receive from or provide the money to suppliers and other business partners for the intention of acquiring and maintaining unfair profits or preferential treatment.
  • We not only stringently enforce observance of laws and regulations but also do not perform any act that arises suspicion for domestic and overseas government employees and other government officials (including individuals who serve in organizations equivalent to governments).

Remove antisocial forces.

  • We not only have no relationship whatsoever with antisocial forces but also steadfastly refuse unreasonable demands, and at the same time, take a systematic response in cooperation with the authorities concerned.
  • We do not provide any money and goods or perform any other act that could bring illegal advantages.

BACKGROUNDS

Proper protection and use of intellectual properties form the basis of corporate activities, and at the same time, these are sources of corporate competitive edges. That is why the company is requested to take appropriate action. Appropriately managing trade secrets including intellectual properties and personal information is the overriding prerequisite from the viewpoint of corporate defense and it is essential to maintain confidence in company, too. The companies are required to handle such information as important corporate properties and at the same time, required to manage and use it properly.

AT PIGEON, WE MUST:

Protect personal information, trade secrets, and intellectual properties.

  • We protect, manage, and handle properly personal information in conformity to domestic and international personal information protection laws and company regulations.
  • We recognize the information obtained through business activities as important corporate assets, and classify and properly manage trade secrets such as knowhow, technological and business secrets according to the degree of importance.
  • We recognize the criticality of corporate patent rights, utility model rights, trademark rights, design rights, copyrights, or other intellectual property rights, get and protect patents on research results and development results appropriately.
  • We take utmost care to handle intellectual property rights of any third party, and obtain license from the right holders through due formalities when the relevant intellectual property rights are used, and take extra care in handling them to prevent us from infringing the rights unjustifiably.

Properly use personal information, trade secrets, and intellectual properties.

  • We aim at developing and providing safe products and services useful for the society and solving social challenges through application and utilization of data while appropriately protecting personal information, trade secrets, and intellectual properties.

BACKGROUNDS

It is necessary for a company to carry out business activities while conducting a constructive dialogue with shareholders and investors and gaining their understanding of its own business in order to achieve sustainable growth and to enhance medium- to long-term corporate value. It is important to disclose information appropriately in the company in order to promote a constructive dialogue between the company and shareholders and investors. In addition, the company must achieve accountability of a significant impact which the company exerts on society and environment in order to obtain understanding of a wide range of stakeholders.

AT PIGEON, WE MUST:

Have a responsible dialogue with shareholders and investors.

  • We provide shareholders and investors with accurate information at an appropriate time and strive to promote understanding of corporate activities through appropriate disclosure based on laws and regulations or exchange market regulations, IR and SR activities, and general shareholders’ meetings.
  • We not only disclose information on the basis of laws and regulations or exchange market regulations but also proactively provide the market with its own growth strategies and other management information in a dialogue with shareholders and investors. In such occasion, we strive to provide all shareholders and investors equally with information.

Prevent insider trading.

  • We strictly abide by Financial Instruments and Exchange Act and other laws and regulations as well as internal rules concerning insider trading regulations and strictly prohibit buying and selling of shares that may lead to suspicion of insider trading.

Provide appropriate information on products and services.

  • We provide customers clearly with necessary and sufficient information that enables customers to select products and services voluntarily and reasonably.
  • We stand on the same footing of customers and strive to provide necessary information on products and services actively and voluntarily in an appropriate and comprehensible manner.

Provide a sincere response to inquiries from customers.

  • We respond to customers inquiries with integrity, quickly, and appropriately, and at the same time, share information with affected departments, and strive to improve products and services.
  • If any problem occurs, such as an accident, trouble, etc. in connection with products or services we provide, or there is any sign that would predict the occurrence, we report top management without delay to solve the problem and at the same time, take recurrence prevention measures.

BACKGROUNDS

Companies are required to shape the governance system with soundness, efficiency, transparency, and effectiveness under the leadership of top management in order to make the spirit of Corporate Ethics Guidelines known to everyone in the company with the aim of enhancing a company’s value.

Companies are required to establish crisis-management systems and to take organizational measures against seismic hazards, floods, volcanic eruptions, and other large-scale natural disasters as well as human-caused disasters such as attacks by terrorist organizations or cyberattacks.

AT PIGEON, WE MUST:

Establish a governance system for making Corporate Ethics Guidelines effective.

  • Pigeon establishes a governance system that ensures management soundness, efficiency, and transparency.
  • Pigeon consolidates the companywide activity system for thorough enforcement of Corporate Ethics Guidelines. We make Corporate Ethics known to every group company, too.
  • Pigeon streamlines and utilizes the whistle-blowing system independent from the usual reporting system to improve corporate behavior.
  • Should any situation that raises a suspicion of violation of Corporate Ethics Guidelines occur, Pigeon strives to quickly conduct an investigation of the facts and the causes and prevent recurrence, quickly and accurately disclose information and achieve accountability to society, clearly define authorities and responsibilities, and take appropriate disciplinary measures under the leadership of top management.

Promote risk management.

  • Pigeon assumes the case of occurrence of terror, cyberattack, disaster, or other states of emergency, streamlines its crisis-management system, formulates measures, and encourages training so that all the company members can take appropriate actions quickly.

Supplemental provisions

  1. These Corporate Ethics Guidelines are put into effect on and after September 12, 2005.
  2. Revised on December 2, 2019