Society

Panasonic places product safety as its top priority,
and manufactures products that truly serve the customer.

At Panasonic, we place great importance on product quality and strive to create safe reliable products that our customers from around the world can use, no matter the situation.

To that end, Panasonic's Quality Policy states that the company will "truly serve customers by way of providing products and services that continuously meet and satisfy the needs of customers and society." Panasonic also ensures, through a separately defined basic policy on product safety, that the ideals of quality assurance and product safety are thoroughly followed throughout the entire Panasonic Group.

To put these policies into practice, each Company has implemented systems for performing its business with independent responsibility and self-regulation under the supervision of the Chief Quality Officer (CQO). Adding to this, Panasonic periodically holds “quality strategy meetings” and “quality managers’ meetings”, these meetings both enhance cooperation within the group and promote quality improvement efforts.

To implement manufacturing with product safety as its top priority, in 2012 Panasonic reorganized its groupwide General Product Safety Committee and established a Safety Technology Working Group and a Safety Standards Working Group under its umbrella. Using these working groups, the company has devised firmly entrenched safety technologies and developed embedded product safety standards resulting in a better, more consistent system. Because of the increasing need for safety features in automobiles, robots, and other products, Panasonic is promoting the acquisition of safety standard certifications through intragroup partnerships to assure safety in these product categories.

In the highly unlikely event that a product-related accident has occurred, Panasonic immediately confirms the facts relating to the incident, analyzes the causes, and performs tests. If the Company determines that a product-related accident is serious, the details are rapidly and accurately reported to the Company’s management and to the relevant government agencies. Meanwhile, to ensure the safety of its customers, the Panasonic Group acts as one to take all appropriate measures.

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We provide our customers with trust, peace of mind,
and satisfaction based on our philosophy of “true service”.

Panasonic's management philosophy has been to contribute to society through its products and services while always putting the customer first. Based on this philosophy, the company strives to improve Customer Satisfaction (CS) and offers products, solutions, and services that enrich the lives of people around the world.

When providing repairs and customer service support through its global service network, Panasonic strives for sincerity, accuracy, and speed, and acts with humility and appreciation. This finds its basis in the principle of "true service" that the company's founder handed down through his words. The company's fundamental stance is thus to provide customers trust, peace of mind, and satisfaction.

In addition, Panasonic has established a set of Basic Rules for Response to Customers (compliant with ISO 10002) for responding appropriately groupwide to inquiries and complaints from customers. We have implemented ISO-compliant management systems based on the Basic Rules for Response to Customers and tailored to the legal system in each country or region.

CS activities are overseen by Panasonic's Managing Executive Officer, and are implemented in cooperation between the head office and the other subsidiary companies. The CS departments of Panasonic's sales companies around the world collect local information concerning services and quality, as well as customer requests and so forth. This information is used to ensure the quality and safety of products and to help develop products that match the needs of customers in each market.

CS staff in Japan share the knowledge and experience that they have accumulated to endeavor to provide better customer service.

Panasonic uses a variety of methods to analyze the Voice of Customer (VOC), and utilizes the results of its analyses—through coordination between its product planning, design, engineering, and quality departments on the one hand, and its marketing and sales departments on the other—to improve product development, functionality, quality, instruction manuals, catalog updates, and marketing activities.

Panasonic considers its VOC activities to be practical implementations of its management philosophy to improve customer satisfaction. The company encourages all employees to engage with the voices of the company's customers in all their work.

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We are focusing on information security measures
to prevent damage to our customers, business partners and others.

Panasonic is well aware of the importance of protecting personal information and other information with which it has been entrusted by its customers. The company has created a system for the management of information security and endeavors to manage information appropriately on a groupwide basis through the establishment and enforcement of global rules and regulations.

Panasonic works to raise the levels of knowledge and awareness of all employees and to enable them to handle information properly through training. This includes training on new forms of risk for all group employees, for staff according to their position in the organization, and for those who handle personal information and other information entrusted to Panasonic.

In considering the expected growth of its IoT business, Panasonic is undertaking initiatives in its responsibility to society by managing data in a way that protects privacy, on the chance that it will increasingly handle personal data, such as lifelogs.

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Increasing the value of the Panasonic brand
with the expansion of fair and accurate corporate communications.

In recent years, there has been a succession of corporate scandals around the world, and the eyes of society have turned towards corporations with an increasingly severe gaze. Society has begun to vigorously question corporate governance, corporate social responsibility, corporate attitudes, and the very way businesses are managed in general. In response to this, corporate communications have become increasingly important.

The Panasonic Code of Conduct stipulates the following policies for our basic communications as a corporation.
(1) Communications
Through our corporate communications, comprising our public relations and advertising activities, we will provide fair and accurate information on our basic business policies, as well as on our products, services and technologies, with the aim of better informing our customers and other stakeholders, thereby enhancing the value of our brands. At the same time, we will continually listen to and observe the public, to learn from them and reflect their opinions in our business, marketing and merchandising activities.
(2) Fair Content and Expressions
We will not make representations that are deceptive, misleading, fraudulent or unfair. Our advertisements shall not be defamatory or of a political or religious nature.
(3) Creativity and Innovation
We will aim to develop and demonstrate both our creativity and innovation in our corporate communication activities and impress on consumers that they can trust our brands.

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In compliance with the law and our own corporate philosophy,
we strive to improve social norms one by one to promote fair business practices.

As corporate activity expands globally, improprieties occur with some frequency, due not just to deliberate dishonest and criminal acts but also to a lack of awareness and understanding. At Panasonic, we believe compliance with laws, regulations and our own corporate philosophy in all our business activities is the essential foundation of our business. We strive to achieve thorough adherence to these rules, with the aim of promoting fair operating practices in all countries and regions of the world, and to realize a sustainable society. This is the "Panasonic Code of Conduct," which incorporates the requirements of the OECD (Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development) Guidelines for Multinational Enterprises and other norms.

In our observance of our own Code of Conduct, we have a global network of legal departments, directors, and executive officers in charge of ensuring adherence to the Code of Conduct, as well as managers in charge of export control and other persons responsible for supervising various other functions in our Companies, business divisions, and regional headquarters outside Japan.

Each year, we designate September to be "Compliance Awareness Month," marked by efforts to strengthen our awareness of the need to observe ethical and legal requirements. During this month we conduct a "Compliance Awareness Survey" to check the degree of compliance awareness dissemination among our employees around the world. In addition, we also conduct an annual check on the status of observance and practice of the "Panasonic Code of Conduct" in all our business locations around the world.

Furthermore, to prevent improprieties and achieve quick resolutions, we have established hotlines for whistleblowers in our domestic and foreign business locations, and for our business partners.

Through these efforts we will better understand the issues, and then take initiatives to make improvements at the business location level. We will also aggregate these solutions in a unified, comprehensive manner at the Group Head Office level and then reflect them in corporate-wide measures based on social conditions. Currently, our priority themes are “preventing cartels” and “preventing bribery of government officials.”

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Panasonic has defined a concrete set of policies on human rights,
and built a management system for policy compliance.

The respect for human rights is a fundamental rule of the international community, and respect for the rights of both customers and employees is an important consideration for a company whose business has expanded around the globe.

Panasonic has expressly stated in its Code of Conduct that "we must respect human rights and do our best to understand, acknowledge and respect the diverse cultures, religions, mindsets, laws and regulations of people in the different countries and regions where we conduct business." Panasonic supports the fundamental principles of the United Nations Universal Declaration of Human Rights, the International Labour Organization (ILO) Declaration on Fundamental Principles and Rights at Work, and the OECD Guidelines for Multinational Enterprises, and a majority of the principles embodied in these declarations and guidelines have been adopted into the Panasonic Code of Conduct. Furthermore, Panasonic is incorporating ideas concerning global human rights in its management. This includes referencing the UN Guiding Principles on Business and Human Rights, which were adopted by the UN Human Rights Council in June 2011.

In fiscal 2015, Panasonic enacted the "Global Human Rights and Labor Policies" and implemented a management system for abiding by that policy. This system involves a manual outlining the procedures for correctly evaluating the risk and impact on human rights, conducting self-assessment checks to identify risks, correcting those identified risks, and carrying out continuous improvement, and other components. Starting in fiscal 2016, Panasonic will sequentially apply this system to workplaces throughout the world.

The Senior Managing Executive Officer is the executive officer responsible for the promotion of human rights initiatives. The departments responsible consist of the Human Resources & Industrial Relations Department established at the Panasonic headquarters, as well as human resources departments established in all business divisions. In addition, a consultation desk was established at each Company and business division, in an effort to provide a place for employees to go to discuss their concerns about sexual harassment, harassment based on power differentials, and a wide range of other topics relating to human rights. Moreover, all manner of discrimination is prohibited to protect workers’ rights, and the policies also include items concerning the management of working hours and wages, among many others.

In addition to efforts conducted with its employees, Panasonic will cooperate with its suppliers throughout the world to respect human rights and correctly understand laws and labor practices in different countries.

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Promoting activities for human resources development and diversity
where all individual employees can fully deploy their talents regardless of age, gender, or nationality.

Panasonic’s business is growing, and it is essential to create an organizational culture geared towards human resource development in which individual employees can each fully deploy their respective talents in order to further develop the company. Thus, Panasonic regards the promotion of diversity as a crucial part of its business strategy, and hence provides a broad range of opportunities for anyone with ability and ambition, and actively strives to create a work-friendly environment. In fiscal 2011, Panasonic compiled this thinking into a Global Diversity Policy. Since then, this policy has been implemented globally.

For management candidate selection and management human resources development, Panasonic has unified its standards, systems, processes, and IT on a global basis. The company discovers and nurtures the most suited candidates irrespective of age, gender, or nationality, and undertakes efforts for planned career development and promotion for its employees.

Panasonic has established quantitative mechanisms to evaluate candidates for major group posts using a common global standard. All positions of a certain level or above are considered "managerial," and the corporate division supervises both current senior managers and succession candidates. In addition, the company has established a "Talent-Management Committee" as a place to debate and consider the career development and promotion of succession candidates for major posts objectively, transparently, and openly.

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Promoting occupational health and safety management to realize
a comfortable, safe workplace and the welfare of all employees.

One of the most important challenges for companies is to create a safe and comfortable workplace, and maintain the health of both body and mind of its employees.

The purpose of the Panasonic Group's occupational health and safety management is to promote a comfortable, safe workplace through efforts based on the most advanced best practices, which will contribute to the welfare of the group's employees and the development of its business. In addition, the group has established in its regulations that it will give careful consideration regarding the health and safety of subcontractors' employees who work full-time on Panasonic premises.

To maintain our efforts regarding occupational health and safety—and to improve on them continuously—Panasonic has implemented an occupational health and safety management system at nearly all its manufacturing locations globally. The systems implemented at company locations consist primarily of the Panasonic Occupational Safety and Health Management System, which encompasses the OHSAS18001 standard, supplemented with the company's unique perspective. Upon customer request, Panasonic also acquires external OHSAS18001 certification for its locations.

Using the system, Panasonic gives all employees clear roles and responsibilities, promoting engagement in health and safety-related activities. The system also involves periodic reviews by the directors of business sites, thus allowing the company to revise these activities as needed. Panasonic periodically—at least annually—conducts risk assessments to uncover any remaining risks of workplace accidents or illnesses and to reduce these risks, which it does so decisively, in order of severity. Furthermore, when a workplace accident has happened within the company, Panasonic shares it as a case study through its corporate intranet so that it can implement steps to prevent re-occurrences at all business sites.

Panasonic Group staff in charge of health and safety participate in an annual Employee Health and Occupational Health and Safety Forum, where together they learn from case studies of efforts at different business sites, attend lectures by visiting instructors, and engage in other activities to increase their knowledge and put it into practice at each business site.

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We strive to build a sustainable supply chain through CSR procurement
in cooperation with our suppliers.

In today's world, the procurement of raw materials and parts is an essential business activity in manufacturing. Panasonic insists that these activities respect certain social responsibilities, such as respect for human rights and the environment.

For this reason, supplying outstanding quality and technologies is no longer sufficient. Beyond that, Panasonic strives to ensure that it does business only with suppliers that fulfill their social responsibilities in five areas: clean procurement; green procurement; compliance with laws and social norms; information security; and respect for human rights, labor, and occupational health and safety.

To ensure that employees involved in procurement activities better understand CSR procurement, and in order to raise their awareness of CSR procurement, we have created internal rules and manuals on CSR procurement, and disseminated the necessary information via handouts, our intranet, and training sessions.

In March 2016, the Panasonic Group issued the CSR requirements we have created in order to convey our stance on CSR procurement that we want our suppliers to adhere to known as the Panasonic Supply Chain CSR Promotion Guidelines (hereafter, "Procurement Guidelines"), with reference to international standards and standard approaches in industry.

These Procurement Guidelines have been created in Japanese, English, Chinese, Thai, Vietnamese, and Indonesian, and we are working on distributing them to all our suppliers via email and ensuring that they have been notified, in addition to posting them on our website.

We also have CSR supplier meetings in China and Southeast Asia. In China, around 400 suppliers have attended, as have some 3,000 in Southeast Asia and India.

For details, please see our “For Suppliers” regarding our procurement activities.

In addition, with regard to conflict minerals that fund organizations that behave without proper regard for human rights, engage in environmental destruction, practice corruption, and otherwise act unethically in conflict zones, we strive to adhere to the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development's (OECD) Due Diligence Guidance for Responsible Supply Chains of Minerals from Conflict-Affected and High-Risk Areas.

Through these efforts, together with our suppliers, we strive to create sustainable supply chains.

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Panasonic endeavors to address social challenges through corporate citizenship activities along with business activities.

Panasonic aims to contribute to the resolution of societal problems, the creation of a better life and happiness around the world, and the development of society through both its business activities and its corporate citizenship activities, all under the banner of the brand slogan "A Better Life, A Better World."

Of all the issues in the world today, the growing poverty faced by people around the globe, whether in developed countries or developing and emerging countries, is particularly serious. The Sustainable Development Goals were adopted at the United Nations in 2015 as a plan of action for humanity, the earth, and prosperity. Of the 17 goals and 169 targets included in those goals, the one at the very top of the list is ending poverty.

Konosuke Matsushita, the founder of Panasonic, understood poverty as an evil, and considered the purpose of business was to bring an end to it. While standards of living have improved for many, and some poverty has been eliminated, there are many nations and regions that have been left out of this wealth, and the gaps in the standards even among so-called developed nations have become wider.

In light of this situation, Panasonic wants to contribute to resolving these social issues and building a sustainable global society through corporate citizenship activities such as those involving human development, new opportunities, and mutual understanding. The Company's hope is to do so in cooperation with all of its stakeholders, while putting its products and technologies, as well as its knowledge and resources cultivated through manufacturing, to good use.

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