Governance Crisis Management

Policy and Basic Mindset

The UBE Group has established a Crisis Response Committee to respond to four categories of crises affecting the UBE Group or in society at large around it, namely 1) natural disasters, 2) epidemics, 3) overseas emergencies, and 4) misconduct and other crises. This committee deliberates and decides on responses to crises with the potential to greatly impact the business operations of the UBE Group in order to ensure the safety of employees.

Group Business Continuity Plan Basic Policy

The Group recognizes the high degree of risk that would be posed to business operations by the occurrence of such events as a large-scale earthquake in the Tokyo metropolitan area or the spread of a novel epidemic and has therefore placed employee safety and building trust with customers and local communities at the forefront of its efforts to minimize the negative impacts of such events. To enable the swift recovery and maintenance of operations, we have designated basic policies in our Group Business Continuity Plans (BCPs).

1. Ensuring the Safety of Human Life

We value the lives of employees and other individuals affected by such events as large-scale earthquakes in the Tokyo metropolitan area or the spread of a novel epidemic, and ensuring their safety is our highest priority.

2. Swift Recovery and Maintenance of Operations

We strive to limit the impact on capital necessary for business continuation to an absolute minimum and to achieve the swift recovery and maintenance of all operations. We also minimize impacts to external groups such as customers and local communities in response to the trust they invest in us.

3. Regular Actions to Increase BCP Efficacy

We regularly and continuously conduct education and training on BCPs to improve their efficacy.

Management System

Based on our Group Crisis Response Regulations, we established the Crisis Response Committee as a Company-wide interorganizational entity headed by the Chief Risk Officer (CRO). This committee meets regularly to foster awareness of crisis responses as well as to revise action plans, BCPs and manuals. We also established a subcommittee known as the Overseas Crisis Management (OCM) Committee to manage the safety of local staff and their families as well as handle crisis responses at our overseas bases.

We have formulated Standards for First Responses in the Event of Accidents or Disasters as the basis of a checklist to be used when responding to incidents and have set up a reporting line to connect offices and facilities to people in charge at our Head Office should disaster strike, thus enabling rapid reaction to crises and efficient reporting systems.

Crisis Response Committee Duties

• Deliberate and decide on basic matters related to responses to the following four categories of crises that would greatly impact the UBE Group’s business operations and society at large.
  1. Natural disasters
  2. Epidemics
  3. Overseas emergencies
  4. Misconduct and other crises
• Direct the creation, compilation and management of manuals regarding these four types of events, starting with BCPs, for the UBE Group. Additionally, conduct inquiries and establish systems for Company-wide responses and mechanisms in the event of such an incident.

OCM Committee Duties

• Properly disseminate knowledge on such events as overseas security situations and trends in epidemics at proper times, and prepare overseas emergency response manuals for the UBE Group in preparation for such incidents.
• Prior to dispatching staff scheduled for overseas postings and their accompanying families, provide education on such matters as the security situation in the country of posting. Also, provide ongoing health management support for staff posted overseas as well as those on long-term business trips.
• Conduct on-site risk inspections at overseas locations and residences of local staff through consultants

Targets and Performance

We understand the considerable risk to business operations posed by crises, especially in the case of natural disasters such as large-scale earthquakes in the Tokyo metropolitan area or torrential rains as well as by the spread of novel epidemics, and we work to minimize impacts should they occur, with the safety of employees and building trust with customers and local communities at the forefront of such efforts. To enable the swift recovery and maintenance of operations, we have established a Group Business Continuity Plan Basic Policy. This policy naturally includes “ensuring the safety of human life” and the “swift recovery and maintenance of operations” along with the major theme of taking “regular actions to increase the efficacy of BCPs,” which encompass improvement through continuous education and drills in non-crisis times.

As part of our BCP measures, we have complied a Head Office Natural Disaster Response Manual, which provides Head Office employees with response policies and instructions for action. This manual stipulates that should a large-scale earthquake in the Tokyo metropolitan area cause the Head Office to sustain damage rendering it only partially functional, we will shift Head Office functions to such major locations as Ube Works. At the same time, a disaster response headquarters will be set up to quickly establish a chain of command, while emergency customer response centers will be launched to address our customers’ needs swiftly and properly. We have also formulated BCPs for each UBE business and department in preparation for the spread of epidemics and large-scale damage to factories.

By formulating and revising these BCPs, we minimize the impact of natural disasters and epidemics while placing the utmost priority on securing the safety of employees and building trust with customers and local communities. In these ways we are striving to enable the swift recovery and maintenance of operations.

Initiatives

Natural Disasters

We have established a Crisis Response Committee and a Natural Disaster Countermeasure Committee, created response manuals and other such materials for when a disaster occurs, conducted planned maintenance and improvements to building and manufacturing equipment, carried out regular disaster drills, and ensured that employees are provided with appropriate instruction. To swiftly restore operations when natural disasters strike, we have formulated BCPs that we regularly revise and conduct drills for. For events considered to be of particularly high concern, for example, a large-scale earthquake in the Tokyo metropolitan area, we have devised an overhead view table of first responses to such an event, and have disseminated information at offices and facilities on action guidelines covering a time frame from just after the event occurs to three days later.

Spread of Epidemics

We have formulated a Novel Disease Response Manual that categorizes responses within five periods, namely non-occurrence, overseas cases, early domestic cases, domestic epidemic, and lull. We disseminate this knowledge throughout the Group; regularly revise BCPs at offices and facilities; and designate thorough disease prevention measures, appropriate responses regarding contagious individuals, and methods as well as response policies for business continuation, thus building flexibility in accordance with disease conditions into our responses. The Crisis Response Committee also collects timely information regarding the status of foreign and domestic pandemics, governmental and municipal responses and policies, and on the status of contagious individuals within the Group. It also creates action and response policies to prevent infections among employees as needed while conducting other such measures to minimize impacts on business activities.

Overseas Crisis Management (OCM)

In order to quickly respond to emergency conditions in our overseas business expansion regarding such events as deteriorating governmental or economic conditions and social unrest stemming from wars, conflict, terrorism, etc., abroad, we have established the OCM Committee as a subcommittee of the Crisis Response Committee to create manuals on such concepts as gathering information and emergency responses. Through the effective use of expert consultation, this committee has also created systems to gather requisite information and share it in a timely and appropriate manner with our locations in affected countries. Furthermore, it establishes disaster response headquarters when necessary, and as it seeks to quickly and properly address matters while prioritizing employee health, it regularly conducts safety inspections at overseas bases and the residences of local staff through consultants.