• CSR
• IBIDEN Group CSR
• CSR Policy
• Scope of CSR Activities
• Corporate Governance
• Compliance
• Risk Management
• Social Contribution
• Environmental Management

• Contact Us

Standards governing employee behavior in their business activities

Development activities

1. Basic attitude

With "IBI-TECHNO" as its mainstay, the company draws upon its originality, ingenuity, and enthusiasm to develop new technologies and to venture into new fields. This approach is the driving force behind the company's product development activities, which are carried out to provide products that benefit society.
Faced with increasingly vocal demands for environmental protection and product safety, the company is determined to carry on with its efforts to contribute to the prosperity of society by thoroughly scrutinizing its activities from the development stage onwards.

2. Behavior standards

(1) Efforts to adopt new technology

Officers and employees shall seek to adopt advanced technology from a wide variety of sources in Japan and abroad with the aim of responding to various demands from users. Officers and employees shall use "originality, ingenuity, and enthusiasm" as a guide in pressing ahead with their research on and development of state-of-the-art technology.

(2) Promotion, notification, etc. of invention, device, etc.

With the intention of contributing to the prosperity of society, the company shall encourage its officers and employees to produce novel and useful inventions, devices, and designs.
If any officer or employee has produced, within the scope of the company's operations, an invention, device, or design based on his or her duties or resulting experience, the officer or employee shall give notification in accordance with internal rules that apply to the handling of inventions, devices, or designs.
Each officer or employee who has produced an invention, device, or design shall endeavor to maintain the secrecy of his or her invention, device, or design. In addition, such an officer or employee before making a public announcement shall gain approval for so doing in accordance with internal rules.

(3) Intellectual property of other business enterprises

Officers and employees shall exercise due caution to avoid infringing on the intellectual property of other business enterprises.
Officers and employees shall exercise due caution and refrain from stealing ideas from other business enterprises or unfairly diverting the use of trade secrets belonging to other companies.

(4) Compliance with laws and regulations

If the company (i) licenses technology to or (ii) carries out joint research and development with partners in Japan or abroad, officers and employees shall not restrict the business activities of such partners except for legitimate purposes, which include the legitimate exercise of rights (such as intellectual property rights) and the protection of the company's secret information. Officers and employees shall not make any arrangements designed to preclude certain business enterprises from entering the marketplace.

Production activities and activities for profitability improvement

1. Basic attitude

Officers and employees shall endeavor to create a safe and healthy workplace and shall attempt to make the company's plants friendly to both the workers and the environment.
Officers and employees shall endeavor to improve product quality with a view to providing products and services that fulfill user expectations.
In order to live up to the expectations of stockholders or society at large, officers shall endeavor to strengthen the company's management foundation in a manner that ensures lasting profitability in the future. Officers and employees shall therefore strive to reduce costs and respond quickly to changes in the business environment in their effort to improve management efficiency and to increase profits in a sustainable manner.

2. Behavior standards

(1) Creation of a safe and healthy workplace

Officers and employees shall take care to protect the environment and endeavor to create a safe and healthy workplace by fully participating in workplace 5S activities and safety circle activities.

(2) Reliable work performance and efforts to improve work performance

Officers and employees shall standardize work procedures to enable work to be performed reliably, free from strain, waste, and inconsistency, thereby ensuring and improving product quality. If any problem or suspected problem arises with respect to product quality, officers and employees shall undertake a thorough survey to discover the facts and causes without delay and by so doing facilitate a rapid response and improvement.
Officers and employees shall endeavor to improve their abilities, skills and work efficiency. Officers and employees shall use "originality, ingenuity, and enthusiasm" as a guide to improving working methods and process steps.

(3) Activities for cost performance improvement

Officers and employees shall always be aware of incurred costs and endeavor to reduce them and improve the workplace through TPM (Total Productive Maintenance) activities and improvement proposals.

Purchasing activities

1. Basic attitude

The company shall provide fair commercial opportunities open to all of its business partners, irrespective of their nationality, corporate scale, or the presence or absence of past transactions with the company.
Officers and employees shall comply with laws and regulations including the Anti-monopoly Law and subcontracting-related laws to ensure the fairness of their purchasing activities.

2. Behavior standards

(1) Relationships with suppliers

In selecting a supplier from two or more business partners, officers and employees shall compare and evaluate various conditions in an impartial manner to decide which one is best suited to the company's needs. Officers and employees shall make a selection in the same impartial manner regardless of the quantity of goods to be purchased.
Officers and employees shall not accord business partners or potential business partners any preferential treatment on account of an existing relationship with themselves, fellow officers or employees, or their relatives. Any officer or employee who has found himself or herself involved in this type of special relationship shall consult his or her immediate superior or related divisions in advance and shall act in the best interests of the company.
Officers and employees shall not use the company's advantageous position as a purchaser to (i) coerce business partners to disclose their conditions of transactions or know-how, or to (ii) preclude certain suppliers from participating in the selection process.

(2) Compliance with laws and regulations

Officers and employees shall comply with domestic and foreign anti-monopoly laws and subcontracting-related laws to ensure the fairness of their activities in relation to purchasing from business partners.
Officers and employees shall neither take advantage of their functional status or authority to derive socially unacceptable personal gain*8 from business partners nor misuse trade secret information held by business partners for the purpose of insider trading.*9

*8) Gifts (of money and other articles), entertainment, convenience, etc.
*9) See "6-1. Insider trading."

Sales activities

1. Basic attitude

The company shall carry out sales activities for the basic purpose of providing products that consistently meet users' needs.
Officers and employees shall comply with laws and regulations including the Anti-monopoly Law and the Foreign Exchange and Foreign Trade Control Law to ensure the fairness of their transactions.

2. Behavior standards

(1) Relationships with clients

Officers and employees shall always serve the company's clients in good faith and shall promptly provide, in accordance with basic agreements and the like, the products and services requested by users.
Officers and employees shall not accord clients or potential clients any preferential treatment on account of an existing relationship with themselves, fellow officers or employees, or their relatives. Any officer or employee who has found himself or herself involved in this type of special relationship shall consult his or her immediate superior or related divisions in advance and shall act in the best interests of the company.

(2) Compliance with anti-monopoly laws

Officers and employees shall comply with domestic and foreign anti-monopoly laws. Officers and employees shall not, with competitors or through meetings of trade associations in which the company holds membership, make any arrangements that may affect product sales prices or conditions (including sales prices, production quantities, and sales territories). Officers and employees shall not participate in any associations or meetings that may make such arrangements.
Officers and employees shall not impose on its sales subsidiaries or others any restrictions intended to maintain the resale prices of the company's products. In addition, officers and employees shall not ask any of the business partners of the company's sales subsidiaries to impose such restrictions.

(3) Proper export

Officers and employees shall comply with export control laws and regulations (including the Foreign Exchange and Foreign Trade Control Law) and internal security trade control rules to ensure the proper export of products.

Information collection activities

1. Basic attitude

Collecting information on competitors and other business enterprises is a necessary and normal part of business activities. Secret information on competitors, however, may not be collected by improper means.
Officers and employees shall collect information only through those business activities that can be regarded as fair and legitimate.

2. Behavior standards

(1) Protection and proper acquisition/use of information on other business enterprises

Officers and employees shall ensure that the purposes and methods of their use of information on other business enterprises are appropriate (or that the use is within the scope defined in an agreement or a similar legal instrument, if any). Officers and employees shall not disclose such information to parties outside the company without the consent of the business enterprises concerned. Such information shall not be disclosed even within the company except to those in charge of operations for which the acquisition of such information is deemed essential.
If a third party offers to provide information potentially constituting secrets belonging to a party other than the third party, officers and employees shall not accept any such information unless they are sure that the third party is a legitimate holder of the information and that the offer of disclosure does not involve improper acquisition or disclosure of information. If officers and employees have acquired information on other business enterprises from a legitimate holder of the information by a proper method, then they shall record the fact (in a daily sales report or minute book to show, for example, the timing of the acquisition and the source of the information).

(2) Prevention of copyright infringement

Officers and employees shall exercise due caution in handling information acquired from the Internet, newspapers, magazines, references, or other sources to prevent copyright infringement problems such as plagiarism and falsification.
In using computers, officers and employees shall not reproduce or install commercially available software in violation of contractual conditions for use or licensing agreements.

Gift giving and entertainment

1. Basic attitude

Officers and employees shall use social common sense when offering gifts or entertainment to business partners.
Officers and employees shall not offer gifts or entertainment in violation of laws, regulations, or the internal rules applicable to the receiving parties.

2. Behavior standards

(1) Giving and receiving of gifts

Officers and employees shall not offer gifts to business partners or clients if such an offer is considered inappropriate in the light of social common sense.
Officers and employees shall not suggest to business partners, who influence or appear likely to be able to influence business relations, that they should offer any gifts of money or other articles as inducements. In addition, officers and employees shall not behave in a way that might be construed as an implicit request for gifts.
If any officer or employee has been offered, by a business partner, client, or any other person, a gift considered inappropriate in the light of social common sense, the officer or employee must report the fact to his or her immediate superior and ask for instructions.

(2) Entertainment

Officers and employees shall have a definite and legitimate business purpose, use social common sense, and obtain approval from relevant persons in accordance with internal rules when socializing with officers and employees of business partners.

(3) Relationships with public agencies

For standards applied to the act of offering gifts and entertainment to persons involved in politics or government administrations, see "Relationships with public agencies."