Stakeholder Dialog

Date

June 13,2018

Participants

TOPIC 1 Corporate philosophy

Opinion

Creating methods of concretization such as the award system and the creation of a continuous project structure that employees voluntarily participate in, will be an important requirement for raising corporate philosophy awareness. It will be necessary for employees to think about the corporate philosophy code of conduct (NTN Spirit) and work on their own initiative to encourage actions inspired by the corporate philosophy. Continuing ongoing activities will also be effective, such as by having top management make personal visits to domestic and overseas business sites and convey the dialogs on the spirit of the corporate philosophy. In addition to organizing the NTN PROUD AWARD, we also recommend activities designed to make the corporate philosophy more relatable. For example, the results or processes of implementing NTN PROUD AWARD could be illustrated in videos shown to all employees.

TOPIC 2 Materiality

Opinion

NTN engages in a comprehensive set of CSR activities, but these activities could be improved by deciding on their materiality to indicate which way the company is heading. It is important to hold ample discussions with units such as business divisions and technical divisions in addition to head office divisions. It is also important for management to make decisions on the issues discussed. Materiality selection procedures are something the company decides on autonomously. Materiality should be determined by scoring and mapping analysis, consistently ensured to adhere to the Medium-term Management Plan. The company should ultimately consider SDGs and other issues of public concern while keeping strategic assessments of materiality in mind.

TOPIC 4 Supply chain CSR, human rights and governance

Opinion

Key suppliers should be designated and managed instead of just setting the same standards for all suppliers, and we recommend gathering a wide range of information.
Considering as global management, local areas should generally be handled by the head office, and ideally not left completely up to local business sites. It is also important to strengthen internal control functions and improve awareness among employees. Especially, in the area of human rights, human rights should be addressed on a global level even when no human rights issues exist in relation to local domestic laws. We recommend working on making human rights effective in overseas locations with different laws and cultures.

Date

June 7, 2017

Participants

TOPIC 1 On the Centenary of the Company’s Founding

Stakeholder

I feel that it is wonderful how you have sincerely responded to the results of the dialog during the past two years through evaluation and execution. Also, in the lead-up to commemorating your centennial in 2018, you are instilling your corporate philosophy. To achieve this, it is necessary to be linked to specific actions and to clarify what links the corporate philosophy to the concrete actions of employees. Doing this will enable each and every employee to contribute to society through his or her actions.

NTN

Our corporate philosophy reflects the “frontier spirit” and “co existence and co-prosperity spirit” that permeated our company when it was established, as expressed in the phrase, “creation of original technologies” and “contributing to society.” In order to ensure this corporate philosophy permeates the company for the next 100 years, it is necessary to explain it in a manner that enables employees to understand the link between their day-to-day work and our corporate philosophy. Ultimately, it would be ideal if our corporate philosophy were to guide our employees in their decision-making. We will work to ensure that each and every employee can contribute to society while meeting the needs of our customers.

TOPIC 2 The Need for CSR in the Midst of Global Expansion

Stakeholder

In order to promote CSR on a global basis, it is important to cooperate with local companies and with society. Toward that end, it is also useful to “identify materiality (issue of particular importance among wide range of CSR initiatives)” in addition to instilling the corporate philosophy, so please consider that aspect. From a management perspective, “promoting diversity” is also an important factor. For the global expansion, promoting diversity is required with the understanding of executive officers.

NTN

We have been considering the materiality of our group by placing our focus on the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) adopted by the United Nations. This will enable each base outside Japan to be rooted in its own region through its business operations. Regarding diversity, we have been implementing a variety of measures, including training of executive officers, and we will take steps to create an environment of mutual respect with each of our bases outside Japan and with our respective cultures.

TOPIC 2 Environmental Initiatives

Stakeholder

I believe that you have positioned itself at a fairly high level in terms of reducing the environmental impact of its business operations. In the future, I would expect to see initiatives involving different aspects than in the past through the establishment of an environmental strategy with a long-term perspective. This could involve reducing the environmental impacts and other innovations in the scope of supply chain. In such a case, it would be necessary to develop indicators, such as the environmental contribution, that could be understood by a third-party, what it means the objectivity of data. I believe that products that contribute to society — not only from your own company but also developed in collaboration with other companies — will be essential for the sustainable society.

NTN

From now on, we would like to concentrate not only on environmental efforts at our factories but also on creating environmental value. We recognize that the objectivity of data is also important, and we are promoting visualization of environment-related figures as non-financial indicators, such as third-party evaluations of CO₂ data. Regarding products that contribute to the environment, we are beginning to formulate such criteria, and we intend to develop products that would be effective over the medium and long terms. (The above is the summary of the experts’ comments.)

Date

June 9,2016

Participants

TOPIC 1 CSR at NTN

Opinion in 2015

• Further coordination between business activities and CSR activities will be important in the future.
• It is vital to include “Value Creation” as part of corporate activities for the further CSR development.

Progress

• In addition to energy conservation and global environmental protection in main businesses, we are coordinating business activities with natural energy utilization and contributions to local communities even in the natural energy business and other new business fields.
• As a way of “value creation” through products, with consideration for the global environment, local communities, personnel and other factors, we are incorporating CSR activities in our business activities from the perspective of achieving a sustainable society.

Opinion in 2016

• Taking CSR priority level and direction as CSR materiality indices, it is desirable to disclose related progress using nonfinancial KPI. Materiality should reflect changing conditions and may be adjusted every three years.
• CSR targets (as well as business targets) should not be just action plans. Maintaining them as benchmarks is also important during times of low growth.
• As a form of value creation, it is important to assess materiality in the medium and long term based on major objectives.
• Advancing local production for local consumption is necessary for energy as a whole in Japan. Businesses that contribute to this area are admirable.
• Reporting should clearly communicate the key points of this year (not across the board).

TOPIC 2 Global

Opinion in 2015

• Building up a global network is needed for the mutual interaction within the NTN Group.

Progress

We hold Global Management Conferences and CSR Global Meeting in English, and we advance the sharing of information by localizing various databases into English and publishing “e-Talk21” in-house electronic news (combined English and Japanese editions) and the seasonal “Blue Horizon” in-house bulletin (combined English and Japanese). We also engage in mutual personnel exchanges, through overseas trainee and International Internship Program systems, as well as by receiving trainees from overseas factories.

Opinion in 2016

• The CSR Global Meeting is useful for sharing the issues of each area as they are different in every region.
• “For New Technology Network” is important for expanding networking ties.

TOPIC 3 Compliance

Opinion in 2015

• Sharing information with transparency is crucial.

Progress

We established Internal Control Sections in the Overseas Offices of the General Manager in every region. As we strengthen the compliance promotion structures of the NTN Group Overseas, we are advancing measures for each region based on their conditions and characteristics. For these measures, we are conducting overall management in the head office and monitoring them in the Internal Auditing Department.

Opinion in 2016

• The corporate governance code is being handled correctly. It is originally a medium and long term way of thinking, stating that it is for all stakeholders. Showing medium and long term value creation is important.
• There might be some cases that the compliance systems do not work properly. Distance between workplaces and management may result in a failure of compliance. Communication and feedback processes are important to keep encouragement from becoming pressure.

TOPIC 4 Environment

Opinion in 2015

• We would like to see more information on environmentally friendly products designed as “value creation.”

Progress

We are advancing businesses in fields that are “value creation” domains, including natural energy, EV business for the electrification and safety revolution of automobiles, robots that work and live with people, and service and solution businesses that utilize big data. In the natural energy field, we established Green Power Park as an energy recycling model. This empirical experiment utilizes power generated by vertical axis wind turbines and micro hydro turbines, to charge electric vehicles, to illuminate vegetable farms and for other purposes.

Opinion in 2016

• Green Power Park is a good effort that strengthens public infrastructure not only for the company but for the community. It also represent a significant contribution to society.
• Bearings themselves, as the core business, probably still have considerable potential. We believe there would be more added value in rotation and movement of bearings in terms of ease of turning and stopping, etc. We expect them to have new functions as well.

TOPIC 5 100th Anniversary and Future Issues

Opinion in 2016

• Approaching your 100th anniversary, we want you to devise new ways to show “value creation.” The corporate philosophy is a place to return as the company continues to thrive. We hope that you approach the 100th anniversary in a way that makes employees feel proud.
• Investigating, for example, the CSR consciousness of employees in areas other than compliance on a global scale could be valuable. Investigation is necessary to confirm the permeation of the philosophy.

Date

May 22, 2015

Participants

Outline of Dialog

• NTN’s CSR report contains a lot of information for a B to B company (Business to Business, companies selling products and services to other companies, instead of general consumers). Further coordination between business activities and CSR activities will be important in the future.
• After a system has been built, promoting CSR activities is tend to be difficult to become part of routine procedures. It is vital to include “Value Creation” as part of corporate activities for the further development.
• For globalization, it is vital that employees around the world are aware of NTN’s overall image and significance of CSR. Building up a global network is needed for the mutual interaction within the NTN Group. It is also important to provide a framework that allows the most suitable people for the job to work by incorporating a sense of global value with suitable positions and jobs.
• Companies that face problems related to compliance have issues with their corporate culture. Even companies have an appropriate system for compliance; it would be possible not to function properly. Sharing information with transparency is a key point. Some countries have different levels of compliance with laws and regulations, so it is also important to develop a framework for each country.
• Environmental efforts designed with the concept of Reduce, Reuse and Recycle are reaching their limit with regards to the Recycle aspect. The issue in the future will be focused on the Reduce aspect. We would also like to see more information on environmentally friendly products designed to “create value.”

Issues that have been raised from the feedback we received will be assigned an order of priority in spans. We will continue to hold this kind of stakeholder dialog with a view to taking a pro-active stance to issues related to the environment, society, governance and other fields.