A Message from HOYA’s CSO : I will be striving to take HOYA’s sustainability activities to an even higher level while aiming both to contribute toward the realization of a sustainable society and enhance corporate value over the medium to long term.

Tomoko Nakagawa Executive Officer, Chief Sustainability (ESG) Officer

The position of Chief Sustainability (ESG) Officer, to which I have been appointed, was created under the new management structure which HOYA adopted on March 1, 2022. At a time when stakeholders’ awareness of sustainability or environmental, social, and governance (ESG) is rising, and when sustainability and ESG have become a management issue of growing importance to HOYA, I am eager to take on this challenge and will work to promote sustainability and ESG initiatives in the HOYA Group with the aim of contributing to the realization of a sustainable society and enhancing HOYA’s corporate value over the medium to long term.

The first tasks that I undertook as CSO were putting in place relevant internal systems and the formulation of a sustainability policy. In the past, individual business divisions implemented their own social contribution activities and measures to reduce environmental impact. Now, besides formulating a Group-wide sustainability policy, we have also established an ESG Promotion Office, a dedicated organization for promoting ESG-related sharing of best practices and collaboration between business divisions, which is based in the HOYA Group head office. As HOYA has developed a wide range of businesses, ranging from semiconductor components to medical devices, sustainability/ESG initiatives and issues are not necessarily the same in every business. For this reason, each business has established its own sustainability/ESG unit or responsible person in a way that suits that particular business, putting in place the necessary systems. Going forward, the HOYA Group head office will be collaborating with sustainability/ESG managers at each business, sharing and enhancing related know-how, and promoting activities in which the whole Group works together as one.

In May 2022, the formulation of the HOYA Group’s sustainability policy was approved by the Board of Directors. Over the 80 years since the Company was founded, HOYA has continued to expand its business areas in line with its corporate philosophy: “Dedicated to innovation in information technology, lifestyle and culture, HOYA envisions a world where all can enjoy the good life, living in harmony with nature.” HOYA’s mission is to contribute toward enhancing the quality of life of people throughout the world through its products and services and by providing solutions that support eyesight and other aspects of human health, or which support contemporary information technology. Based on this corporate philosophy and approach, we have formulated a policy that incorporates items that are expected to be important for the Company’s continued growth over the medium to long term. In the future, besides drawing up strategies and measures based on this policy, we also intend to implement activities aimed at disseminating awareness within the Company, so that employees can be more aware of sustainability in their day-to-day operations.

Sustainability Policy

HOYA Group is committed to contributing toward building a sustainable society and aims to enhance our long-term corporate value by implementing our management principles based on our corporate mission in our day-to-day work.

  • We will aim to help resolve global social issues through innovation in our businesses.
  • We will realize fair and highly transparent corporate management by building a relationship based on trust through consistent dialogue with key stakeholders.
  • We will aim to minimize environmental externalities in our business activities to ensure our future generations inherit a healthy global environment in the future.
  • We respect the human rights of all people involved in our business activities, including those in our supply chain and will strive to prevent any abuse on human rights.
  • We will create a work environment to promote diversity and inclusion with an emphasis on the wellbeing of our employees in the aim of keeping high motivation and moral to create new value.

In line with the revision of Japan’s Companies Act in 2003, HOYA transitioned speedily to become a company with Nomination Committee, etc. and restructured its Board of Directors so that independent directors held over half of the seats on the Board, committing itself to management characterized by a high level of objectivity and transparency, with the committee system as its foundation. Going forward, I believe that HOYA will need to adopt an even more proactive approach to environmental (the “E” element of ESG) and social (the “S” element) initiatives, and to related disclosure, with the Board of Directors expected to implement regular monitoring of the content of such activities.

In the future, while strengthening our ongoing dialogue with all stakeholders, we will take HOYA’s sustainability/ESG activities to an even higher level, aiming both to contribute to the realization of a sustainable society and to enhance HOYA’s corporate value over the medium to long term.