Internal Control
We aim to expand the internal control system throughout the entire azbil Group. We are striving to raise the standards of management, administration, monitoring, and the internal control system, while working to ensure proper accounting and stronger governance in the Group as a whole.
Efforts to Build the Internal Control System
The azbil Group has established the "azbil Group Basic Policy on Internal Control System Architecture," which outlines the basic policies that officers and employees must follow in establishing an internal control system, and we are implementing this policy reliably. In fiscal year 2024, we established the azbil Group Basic Policy on Human Rights and ensured correspondence with the enforcement of the Freelance Act. We will continue to work to improve our internal control system by building an efficient, legal, and highly transparent system.
Mechanism to Obtain Employee Opinions and Uncover Internal Problems
In the azbil Group, we have established a whistleblowing and consultation hotline to promptly detect and appropriately address compliance violations and issues that may undermine the workplace environment. This is part of our efforts to promote sustainability management and health and well-being management. This hotline is available not only to officers and employees (including temporary staff) of our company and group companies, but also to business partners.
To enhance reliability and encourage greater use of the hotline, we continuously take steps such as disclosing the annual number of reports and consultations, publishing the number of cases by type, and providing employees with a multilingual (Japanese, English and Chinese) collection of case studies related to the hotline.
Furthermore, we are expanding the availability of our overseas hotline (CSR Hotline system) to cover more regions, and we have established a dedicated local consultation system in compliance with personal information protection laws in each country, including China.
In response to the revision of the Whistleblower Protection Act, we are also reviewing our regulations and operational framework to strengthen the protection of whistleblowers and further enhance our whistleblowing and consultation infrastructure.
Going forward, we will continue to improve the reliability of our consultation hotline, ensuring it serves as a trustworthy channel for employees' voices and contributes to our sustainability management.
The Financial Instruments and Exchange Act, J-SOX Internal Control Reporting System, and Strengthened Accounting Standards
We regularly review the scope of assessments, risks, and controls in response to changes in the business environment, and are working to strengthen our response in accordance with the internal control reporting system (J-SOX) under the Financial Instruments and Exchange Act. Following the revision of the internal control standards and practice standards, we have expanded the scope of the company-level control assessment and revised the assessment items. In addition, we have clarified the criteria for the determination of significant locations or business units that will be subject to the assessment of process-level controls. Furthermore, we will continue to provide training to all Group employees, both in Japan and overseas, to raise their accounting skills. And, by working to further improve the accounting and internal controls of our overseas affiliates, we will raise the level of the azbil Group's internal control system and strive to further improve our reliability.
Group Company Management under J-SOX