I see the inclusion of non-financial ESG targets in the Japan Post Group Medium-Term Management Plan as extremely positive. On carbon neutrality, I hope that you will not simply set a target. Rather, as an enormous corporate group and an organization with links to local communities, I hope Japan Post Group will communicate to the government and policymakers information on specific issues such as the problem of power shortages for the spread of EVs, and support government policies. I think that the addition of a sustainability perspective to the educational materials Japan Post Bank offers for financial education is also an important initiative for the next generation.
The globally important issue of "business and human rights" also needs to be considered. I hope that Japan Post Group will use Japan's National Action Plan on Business and Human Rights as a reference and go about its business fully cognizant of the issues.
I believe that the establishment of the Sustainability Committee marks a huge step forward from the Group's previous CSR standpoint, and will lead to a greater focus on sustainability, which is globally recognized as essential. The first challenge is to ensure that senior management fully understands the importance of sustainability management. I expect to see discussions exploring sustainability management in depth. The next step is to instill sustainability management in employees. It is important to focus on sustainability at head office, branch offices, and every business site. In the huge organization that is Japan Post Group, the work done by each division varies greatly and there is, therefore, a tendency to think "this doesn't concern me." Ensuring that sustainability management percolates down to all employees is a difficult challenge. It is important that head office clearly sets out group policy and conveys the message externally and across the whole organization. It would be a good idea to flesh out the details of initiatives and communicate very specific information, devising good ways to present it.
Japan Post Group still appears to be lagging behind other more advanced companies in terms of its long-term vision and corporate culture reforms. I would like to see you strive harder for improvement, including action in response to assessments by assessment organizations. I believe Japan Post Group has now taken the first step to full-fledged sustainability and am looking forward to next year (2022) to see how much progress the Group makes.

I approve of the direction Japan Post Group aims to move in. "Providing lifelong support in an era of 100-year life" is also a good concept, and I believe that the plan of making the post office charging infrastructure available to local communities is an extremely good idea. Japan Post Group has enormous social influence and you should therefore definitely use this influence as a driving social force. For example, whilst seeing SDGs as a business opportunity from a CSV* perspective is all well and good, it is not all about positive impacts on society; responsibility for negative impacts (governance, human rights, labor issues, etc.) is also extremely important. More specifically, I would like to see initiatives based on the seven core subjects of ISO 26000, for instance. In addition, rather than aligning its activities with government policies and the standards of society at large, Japan Post Group must bring about transformation by creating demand in society and impacting markets.
Japan Post Group has made good progress in initiatives to address climate change. However, now the issue attracting as much attention as climate change among many stakeholders is biodiversity. There is also a need to focus on incorporating this into management in the future. I would also hope that as a corporate group with extensive networks in local communities, you will also actively focus on measures to tackle the issues of dementia, unoccupied houses and disasters.
My impression is that progress on ESG targets is insufficient when it comes to social aspects such as human rights due diligence and sustainable procurement. Implementation of human rights due diligence in particular is urgent and you must, therefore, tackle this properly by incorporating it into a PDCA cycle. Meanwhile, in the context of diversity, I want you to place importance on the financial inclusion of financial services, leaving no-one behind, including persons with disabilities and foreign nationals.
Instilling sustainability management in employees is a challenge facing many companies. In your external corporate communication activities, you must communicate meaningful information to avoid any concerns about SDG washing. For this and other reasons, it is important to communicate social impacts and outcomes. Besides also putting effort into internal corporate communication, I think it would be a good idea to consider the process of employee participation, for example, including young employees when creating your long-term vision.

* CSV: Creating Shared Value (process whereby companies create social value by addressing social needs and issues and economic value is also created as a result)

The "Co-creation Platform" defined in Japan Post Group's Medium-Term Management Plan is an extremely positive initiative. I believe that your adoption of an initiative which customers can also participate in will allow you to contribute to the realization of a sustainable society. Whilst I was impressed by the fact that Japan Post Group is implementing ambitious sustainability initiatives, it seems to me that it is still catching up with trends in wider society, and there are also some aspects that lack specific details. Having a good grasp of the basic approach and policy now, at this stage, will be important for progress in the future.
Japan Post Group reorganized the CSR Committee into the Sustainability Committee, but I believe that, in light of the developments such as the revision of the Corporate Governance Code, there is still room for further consideration; for example, the Sustainability Committee does not include any members from outside the Group. I hope that Japan Post Group will definitely consider adding outside members as the pace of social developments is fast and to some extent cannot be fully considered by internal members alone.
"Customer-oriented" business will end up being superficially customer-oriented without a proper understanding of how to perceive customers and what kind of problems customers face, which are the underlying premises of customer-oriented business. It is important that, in face of risk situations for customers such as disasters and dementia, Japan Post Group asks itself what it can or should do and translates this into systems and initiatives. Japan Post Group reviewed sales targets and personnel appraisals in this regard but it is also important to change employee awareness in terms of how employees perceive customers.
As for diversity, creating business based on principles such as respect of individuals and diversity, with reference to the Guiding Principles on Business and Human Rights, will lead to real solutions.
As digitization progresses, consumers face the problem of human rights in a digital society and other issues such as the digital divide. I hope Japan Post Group will also strive to raise awareness among consumers as part of its sales and marketing and other business activities.
Furthermore, the occurrence of several more fraud scandals following a major scandal gives people outside the company to understand that fraud is still going on and creates the impression that fraud is not being dealt with properly. I felt that in your communication of information about fraud scandals, you need to come up with ways of clearly communicating your approach and initiatives more proactively.