Compliance

The Yamaha Group has positioned compliance among its most important management themes. We practice compliance management with a focus on ensuring strong legal compliance, adherence to social norms, and a high level of corporate ethics.

The Compliance Code of Conduct puts forth a code for guiding the actions of all members of the Yamaha Group as the foundation for compliance management. Since the establishment of the code in 2003, ongoing revisions have been implemented in reflection of changes in environmental and social conditions, and the code has been translated into multiple languages.

The Yamaha Group publishes booklets that describe in detail the Compliance Code of Conduct in order to promote education and raise awareness regarding the code. In Japan, physical booklets are distributed and electronic booklets are made available via the Company intranet to allow all full-time and dispatch employees (including part-time employees with employment contracts) to review the content of these booklets at any time. These booklets are also used as tools for compliance training and for workplace training and education activities. Overseas Group companies utilize booklets prepared in the respective language based on the booklets available in Japanese.

The Working Group for Compliance, an organization that is chaired by an operating officer and positioned within the Risk Management Committee, which is an advisory body to the president, is a central organization in the promotion of compliance. This working group discusses and decides on Groupwide compliance-related policies and measures. In addition, the working group is responsible for monitoring the activities of divisions and Group companies to ensure legal compliance and ethical operations.

Other measures for ensuring good compliance include internal education and training programs, employee questionnaires, and the development of compliance helplines, which are made available to full-time, dispatch, and other employees.

Major Activities

Four meetings in fiscal 2023

Details

• Confirmation of Groupwide compliance promotion status
• Response to revision of Whistleblower Protection Act and formulation of Group Whistleblowing Specialized Rules
• Training on prevention of harassment provided to Group managers
• Enhancement and improvement of effectiveness of compliance helplines

The Working Group for Compliance conducts regular monitoring of the status of compliance systems and compliance promotion at Company divisions and Group companies to ensure that the business activities of the Yamaha Group are ethical and legally compliant. Overseas, the frequency of monitoring activities, previously conducted once a year, has been raised to allow for timely tracking of the status of compliance through monitoring conducted once every three months. In addition, compliance questionnaires are administered to employees once every three years. Compliance helplines have been set up at all overseas Group companies, and steps are taken to maintain a comprehensive understanding of the level of awareness regarding the Compliance Code of Conduct and these helplines. In Japan, we measure the awareness of domestic Group employees from the perspectives of compliance risks and corporate culture. Moreover, organization-level analyses are performed. The results of these analyses are reflected in measures to address issues and reform our corporate culture.

The Yamaha Group provides employees compliance training and education through the intranet and through various training programs.

For domestic Yamaha Group employees, we distribute accessible, easy-to-understand online compliance educational content for employees via the intranet on a monthly basis. For example, employees are given access to Compliance News, which explains concepts in four-panel comic strips; Compliance Quizzes; and Compliance Mini-Tests. In addition, we began providing comics detailing how to use compliance helplines in fiscal 2023 with the goal of promoting understanding of the helplines and alleviating any concerns employees may have regarding their usage. These and other content allow users to efficiently learn about compliance in a short amount of time.

Training programs include online programs or small group sessions for the employees of domestic Group companies on subjects such as compliance topics and means of improving communication with supervisors to foster a more open corporate culture. One important compliance concern is preventing harassment. Focused on this subject, an online seminar on preventing abuses of power was arranged for all managers of domestic Group companies in fiscal 2023. This seminar looked at harassment mechanisms, case studies, anger management, unconscious bias, and various other topics directly related to management. Post-seminar questionnaires pointed to the improvements to understanding and awareness gained during the seminar through comments on the contents of the program and requests for future iterations. In addition, a training session for employees involved in investigating reports received through compliance helplines was arranged in December 2022 based on the revision to the Whistleblower Protection Act instituted in June of that year. Domestic Group companies also implemented their own compliance training and education programs.