We recognize that the sustainability of society as a whole will always have a significant impact on our corporate activities in the future. That is why we identify high priority issues from the point of view of management. Once we have identified these material issues, we incorporate them into our business activities, and disclosed details and the results of our initiatives in our Sustainability report.
Initially, in the fiscal year ended March 2008, we identified nine material issues of the Group by conducting a material issue assessment based on the framework of the GRI Guidelines, a set of international guidelines that address sustainability reporting. In the fiscal year ended March 2016, we reorganized the items into seven. Later, in response to changes in the external environment and other factors, we updated them to ten items in the Medium-term Management Strategy announced in March 2020.
In addition, in the Medium-term Management Strategy FY2031 that was announced in February 2023, we employed the following selection process to identify key factors from various perspectives and arranged these elements along two axes, in terms of their importance for each stakeholder, and their degree of importance in relation to Our Commitment. Following extensive discussion on the importance of each key factor undertaken by the Strategic Management Committee and the Board of Directors, an order of priority was established, and we re-established the key themes for each material issue and the nature and objectives of initiatives for each key theme.
We review material issues and other matters every year to ensure that we can appropriately identify and respond to changes in the business environment and other factors in a timely and appropriate manner. In this renewal, we decided to integrate "material issues" and "sustainability issues," which were previously organized and reviewed separately, into one. In addition, we added "strengthening information security," " geopolitical and geoeconomic risks," and "financial risk" as new material issues considering their growing importance in recent years.
Information leakage due to cyber-attacks is a risk that could hinder the Group's competitiveness and business continuity. We will work to strengthen IT governance and prevent information leaks in order to establish a global standard IT infrastructure.
International conflicts, wars and terrorism, economic sanctions and trade barriers, and policy changes in various countries can have a significant impact on our business. In order to expand our business globally, we will take initiatives related to reviewing our overseas investment strategy, formulating BCPs, and creating a stable overseas procurement portfolio, while taking account of country risks.
Corporate finances can be significantly affected by corporate working capital funding, investment losses, market fluctuations, and credit risk. To ensure financial soundness, we will work toward strengthening cash management, monitoring the business and financial conditions of affiliated companies, and having appropriate pension asset management.
