Compliance

For the Canon Marketing Japan Group (hereafter, the "Canon MJ Group"), compliance is not simply a matter of obeying laws and regulations. We also commit to complying with laws and social rules, maintaining social justice, and continuing to meet the expectations of society based on the spirit of integrity (being sincere, honest, and earnest) . We engage in compliance from the perspectives of initiatives to raise awareness, educating, and undertaking organizational activities to ensure that all of our people act ethically and obey the law.

At the Canon MJ Group, we are raising and promoting awareness of corporate ethics and compliance by advancing the development of a compliance system based on the Canon Group Code of Conduct. This is led by the Risk and Crisis Management Committee chaired by the Director and Senior Managing Executive Officer (in charge of Group General Administration & Human Resources Management).
At the Canon MJ Group, we understand that a lack of employee compliance awareness is a risk the business faces, and that compliance and risk are closely interlinked. Therefore, we implement both compliance advancement measures and risk management systems which are inseparable activities.

We believe that what is most fundamental to compliance activities is that each employee maintains a high awareness of compliance. We therefore raise awareness of employees through a range of methods.

Our management team members raise employees' awareness at every opportunity. Specifically, they use the Compliance Message in the beginning of the year and other events as an opportunity to give employees a direct message about the importance of compliance activities and measures to address risks.

New employees and newly appointed line managers, who will be responsible for managing their workplaces, need to have an awareness of compliance that is appropriate for their position. We therefore provide face-to-face and online training that is effective for raising compliance awareness.

Contents: Meaning of compliance and purposes and content of compliance activities at the Canon MJ Group, and points to check about one's awareness and behaviors

Contents: Factors causing compliance problems in the workplace, and capacity and roles of workplace managers in compliance activities

Main Topics in 2023

We engage in effective activities for instilling knowledge by using e-mail newsletters and our website, so that each employee can make the appropriate judgment and take the appropriate actions against various compliance risks that they face in performing their duties.

We regularly distribute the Monthly Compliance News, an e-mail newsletter, to all employees of the Canon MJ Group to provide them with the knowledge and information they need to ensure compliance. We distribute special issues of this newsletter whenever needed, in addition to monthly issues that mainly provide information about material risks related to the Canon MJ Group's businesses and operations and measures to address those risks.
The newsletter features a wide range of topics, including the prohibition of bribery, security laws and regulations, the Subcontractor Act, information security, and intellectual property. The Monthly Compliance News is also used and shared at morning assemblies and meetings of each department, among other opportunities.
Back issues of the newsletter are archived on the intranet and are available for viewing whenever necessary. They are sorted by the category of laws and rules and that of behaviors and operations.

We provide online training to all Group employees once a year to have them learn ideas and behaviors as the basis of compliance activities and to learn about ways to prevent risks, including risks of violations of laws and rules. In this online training, a confirmation test for measuring the level of understanding is conducted after case examples of behaviors that are problematic in light of laws or rules are shown and explanations are given about them, so as to instill the knowledge effectively.
In 2023, all Group employees learned about the appropriate behaviors that are compliant with laws and rules, based on subjects including the basics of compliance, risks of violating the Antimonopoly Act, risks of infringing on intellectual property rights, risks of violating laws related to bribery prevention, risks of misleading representations, risks of violating the Subcontractor Act, and risks of violating labor-related laws.

We are also enhancing our organizational activities to have individuals, workplaces, and the entire company work as one to establish corporate ethics, not to mention activities for raising awareness of and instilling knowledge in each one employee.

Each year, a compliance meeting is held at all workplaces (approx. 2,000 departments) with the participation of all Group employees. This meeting is aimed at raising awareness of compliance and driving specific actions in workplaces under the spirit of integrity (being sincere, honest, and earnest), enhancing workplace communication, and having risks involved in businesses and operations and measures for preventing them discussed, shared, and practiced in the workplace.
In this compliance meeting, all participants discuss and confirm compliance risks in each workplace, measures for preventing such risks, important matters related to compliance, and other issues, led by the line manager, who is responsible for driving compliance in the workplace.

We have introduced and operate the Speak-up System, an internal reporting system, with the aim of ensuring the early detection of violations of laws or corporate ethics related to business activities or business execution in the Group and to take corrective actions and prevent their recurrence.
Under this system, the Rules on the Speak-up System clearly state that information about whistleblowers and contents of whistleblowing shall be kept confidential and whistleblowers shall not be subject to detrimental treatment in personnel affairs in retaliation for whistleblowing. Further, we have also set up a whistleblowing contact at a law firm for the convenience of whistleblowers.
A reported case is handled immediately by conducting a fact-finding survey and other inspections. Information about how the case is being handled and the outcomes of handling it is provided to the whistleblower on a timely basis and reported regularly to the management team.