As natural disasters have become increasingly severe and more frequent in recent years, demands for safe operations are increasing for companies with chemical plants. Accidents caused by fires or production facilities can harm the health and safety of not only employees but also local residents, and affect the surrounding environment. We will ensure safety and strengthen disaster prevention measures to prevent such incidents from occurring.

We carry out daily safety and disaster-prevention activities through the health and safety committees at each business site and the Central Safety & Health Committee, which serves as their overarching organization and is composed of the heads of each business site, subsidiaries with factories, and labor union officers. The Central Safety & Health Committee holds a regular meeting once every two months to receive reports on new issues that have arisen at each business site and their countermeasures and status. We are working to prevent recurrence by disseminating information on incidents and countermeasures across our Group. In the event of an emergency, we have established a system to grasp the situation through an emergency communication network.

In fiscal 2024, no accidents occurred that affected the environment or the surrounding community. However, there were 23 minor accidents. We have analyzed the causes of these incidents and implemented appropriate measures to prevent similar occurrences in the future.

We regularly inspect high-pressure gas facilities, electrical equipment, and hazardous materials facilities to confirm that there are no safety issues.

We provide fire prevention education, forklift safety training, and crisis management training for security guards to strengthen safety and disaster prevention. We have published a database on our intranet that summarizes past accidents, trends in their causes, countermeasures for each type of work, and points to keep in mind, in an effort to prevent the recurrence of similar accidents.

The Central Safety & Health Committee conducts inspection tours of Group plants and laboratories in Japan to strengthen safety and disaster prevention, aiming to eliminate serious accidents as well as onsite fires, explosions, and leakage accidents. In fiscal 2024, the Committee inspected the Kyushu Factory and the Shiga Factory. We are reinforcing safety measures to enhance the work environment and ensure strict adherence to safe work practices, with the goal of creating a secure and comfortable workplace.

Through freight forwarders to whom we outsource the transportation of our products, we ensure environmental safety during transportation by requiring drivers at all times to carry a card (yellow card) with emergency measures and contact information.

At our factories and laboratories, we conduct regular drills in anticipation of fires, leaks of hazardous materials, other potential emergencies. After the drills, we verify the response and improve our disaster prevention capabilities by correcting any defects. Recognizing the importance of preparedness for major earthquakes and tsunamis, our Hiroshima Head Office participated in Hiroshima Prefecture’s “Disaster Reduction for All” earthquake drill, which simulated a major earthquake originating from the Nankai Trough, stretching from the Tokai to Shikoku regions along the Pacific coast. The Shiga Factory and Kobe Paints also conducted drills simulating responses to emergency earthquake warnings.

Because our Hiroshima Head Office is situated along the Seto Inland Sea, we conducted evacuation drills using designated routes to the city of Otake’s emergency evacuation shelters to prepare for potential tsunamis caused by a Nankai Trough earthquake.