Compliance

Compliance Structure

The Yamaha Motor Group has established a Sustainability Committee, chaired by the President and Chief Executive Officer, to create a structure to ensure legal and regulatory compliance throughout the entire Group. The Committee deliberates plans to ensure compliance, and monitors the implementation of those plans and the corporate culture with regard to compliance. The outcomes of these deliberations and monitoring are reported, as appropriate, to the Board of Directors as items deliberated by the Sustainability Committee, together with ESG risks, and a structure has been established to ensure their effectiveness.

Specific activities are carried out as per the “Compliance Management Rules,” and the compliance supervising section manages the Group’s overall activities.

As a way to ensure that compliance is incorporated into the corporate culture, Groupwide compliance awareness surveys are carried out each year to confirm the effectiveness of compliance measures, including the degree of understanding and scope of implementation of the Code of Ethics, the extent to which reporting lines and hotlines are used, and the effectiveness of training programs. Based on the results of these surveys and social trends, the Code of Ethics Guidebook is updated annually, and the Code of Ethics is reviewed regularly.

Code of Ethics

The Yamaha Motor Group has formulated and disseminated throughout the Group its Code of Ethics, which stipulates standards of behavior to be observed based on the Company Pledge, passed down since the Company’s foundation, and the Management Principles. The Code has been translated into local languages at overseas Group companies, and an educational video has been prepared in 11 languages for use in training at Group companies to further familiarize all employees with the Code of Ethics. Group companies also hold training sessions on the Code of Ethics for new employees.

In the 2020 compliance awareness survey, in response to the question, “Do you have a full understanding of the contents of the Code of Ethics?,” 74% of respondents answered “Yes” while 2% answered “No.”

Compliance Risk Assessment

A Groupwide risk assessment is carried out each year to identify the common compliance risks that need to be recognized, including bribery and corruption, cartels, and security-related export controls. These risks are then assessed at individual operating divisions and Group companies, appropriate countermeasures are implemented, and their implementation status is monitored.

Compliance and Legal and Regulatory Training

A compliance activity plan is formulated each year, and various opportunities are used to conduct compliance training based on this plan.

a. Compliance training as part of level-specific training

All new employees – both new graduates as well as mid-career hires – and temporary staff take compliance training that focuses on the Code of Ethics when they join the Company. In addition, when an employee is newly promoted to a managerial or supervisory position, division manager, or head of a business site, they take compliance training focused on that position or function each year or as required. This training includes examples of harassment, and how to respond when cases are brought to their attention for consultation.

Thanks to activities like these, in the 2020 compliance awareness survey, in response to the question, “When you are unsure of something in the course of your work, do you place top priority on compliance?,” 89.5% of respondents answered “Yes” and 1% answered “No.”

b. Compliance training for all employees

All persons who work for Yamaha Motor take compliance training, with the aim of each employee creating a model that will earn the trust of society for the Company as a whole by practicing compliance. This compliance training is carried out each year (including for temporary staff), and records of attendance are retained. In addition, division managers and executive officers who are primarily engaged in operating activities take annual compliance training on given topics in an effort for top management themselves to implement compliance.

c. Specialized training on laws and regulations

Group training programs covering laws and regulations deemed to entail significant risk in the execution of the Company’s business activities are carried out annually on select topics. Our legal and regulatory training in 2020 included such topics as the “Antimonopoly Act,” “bribery of foreign public officials,” “import/export controls,” “Subcontracting Act related topics,” “prevention of insider trading,” “intellectual property rights,” “IT risk,” and “substances of concern controls.” In addition to online training programs, e-learning is used to provide training in a wide range of fields.

In the 2020 compliance awareness survey, in response to the question, “Do you consider the Company’s compliance training to be meaningful?”, 84% of respondents answered “Yes” and 3.4% answered “No.”

Training in the Code of Ethics and legal and regulatory training is also carried out for new employees of overseas Group companies, and the results are monitored at the head office.

Whistle-Blowing Systems (Compliance Hotlines)

The Yamaha Motor Group has a whistle-blowing system for reporting any acts that may be in violation of the Code of Ethics. In addition to the Yamaha Motor Group Compliance Hotline provided for Yamaha Motor and domestic Group companies, a Global Compliance Hotline was introduced in 2018 for the overseas Group companies. Since 2020, we have been carrying out the integrated management of the harassment and compliance hotlines. To make it easy to report issues, both hotlines are established at outside professional institutions and accept anonymous reports. Reports that we receive through the hotline are managed strictly as confidential information based on our internal rules. In carrying out investigations, we give consideration to protection of the personal information of the person making the report as well as that of the person who is the target of the report, while ensuring the confidentiality of matters related to the case in question. In the case that misconduct is revealed through investigations, strict punishments are carried out. At the same time, we promptly execute corrective action as well as take measures to prevent recurrence. Through such response, we work to prevent the occurrence of illegal acts and misconduct and enable their early discovery.

To protect whistle-blowers, internal rules clearly state that no directors/officers/employees of the company and the company’s group companies shall treat the person making a report disadvantageously in any manner because the person made the report. We are striving to create a system and culture of compliance by ensuring employees have a deep understanding of the whistle-blowing system, and enabling rapid and proper functioning of the system.

Yamaha Motor established a Fair Business Hotline in 2017 as a contact point for suppliers, and since 2019, its use has been expanded to include all business partners with which we have ongoing transactions.

The number of hotlines (including consultations) received in 2020 was 186, and below is the breakdown of the hotlines.

Whistle-blowing systems have also been established and operated individually at major Group companies, based on the local laws and regulations and other circumstances specific to each respective company.

Anti-Corruption

Yamaha Motor Group declares in its “Code of Ethics”, which stipulates the standards of conduct to be observed by our officers and employees, to restrict providing gifts and entertainment to public officials and pledges to always maintain the relations with public officials to be transparent and sound. Yamaha Motor Group also signed the “United Nations Global Compact” that aims to eliminate corruption, and further explicitly prevents corruption in the “CSR Guidelines for Suppliers”, working together with the entire supply chain of Yamaha Motor Group to combat bribery.
Detailed information is available here:

Compliance with Anti-Monopoly Law and Competition Law

Yamaha Motor Group declares in its “Code of Ethics” to observe anti-monopoly laws and competition laws, reject the profit pursuit with unfair or illegitimate means, and carry out a fair business activity. Furthermore, “CSR Guidelines for Suppliers” explicitly states to comply with competition laws, working together with the entire supply chain of Yamaha Motor Group to pursue fair trade. Yamaha Motor Group established the “Yamaha Motor Group Competition Law Compliance Policy” to further promote these efforts on a global scale and pursues various activities.

• Yamaha Motor Group Competition Law Compliance Policy［PDF］

Yamaha Motor Group make further efforts to comply with anti-monopoly laws and competition laws by developing competitors contact rules groupwide to prevent cartel or bid rigging. At the same time, we conduct training on laws and regulations and training intended for specific groups or individuals (in particular, persons scheduled for overseas assignments or other positions where they may be exposed to potential high risks), and regular monitoring to ensure the competition law compliance.

Thorough Import and Export Management

Because a large proportion of the Yamaha Motor Group’s business activities are conducted outside of Japan, we are constantly engaged in activities which place importance upon the management of imports and exports.

As an initiative related to exports, at Yamaha Motor Co., Ltd., we conduct Security Trade Control (STC) study sessions and liaison meetings based upon compliance with the Foreign Exchange and Foreign Trade Act and other related laws and regulations. For relevant departments and Group companies, regular and comprehensive educational training sessions are implemented. As one aspect of training for those engaged in trade, we encourage employees to take the STC Associate^*1 and STC Expert^*2 examinations and we have had successful candidates each year.

We continue our initiatives to prevent the order, import, transfer and supply of goods which are confirmed to contain substances prohibited for use in manufacturing^*3 or where the inclusion of such substances cannot be confirmed.

※1

A practical accreditation exam for security trade control conducted by the Center for Information on Security Trade Control (CISTEC), a non-profit and non-governmental organization

※2

An accreditation exam demanding a higher level of ability compared to the “STC Associate Examination”

※3

Substances indicated in Item 1, Article 16 of the Enforcement Order of Industrial Safety and Health Law