Initiatives related to Human Rights Due Diligence

Human Rights-Related Issues of Particular Concern

Objective and Overview

To identify human rights-related issues that should be prioritized by the Group and addressed accordingly, we have evaluated human rights-related risks associated with relevant stakeholders. We have thus identified human rights-related issues of particular concern.

Specifically, we have defined categories of stakeholders whose human rights could be negatively affected by our operations to determine the latent human rights-related issues that could possibly impact them. We have then assessed these human rights-related issues with an eye to determining severity and likelihood of occurrence, based on which we have set priorities for our responses. In addition, the results of these assessments are being periodically reviewed with reference to changes in the business environment and stakeholder requests from within and outside the Group.

Having identified human rights-related issues of particular concern, we intend to constantly monitor each situation while considering stepping up our relevant initiatives.

List of Human Rights-Related Issues of Particular Concern

The Resona Group has identified human rights-related issues of particular concern as follows.

Employees

Human rights-related issues	Recipients of information disclosure regarding measures to prevent or mitigate negative impact on human rights
Preventing overwork	Preventing Overwork
Discrimination in career opportunities and employment	Preventing Discrimination and Harassment
Discrimination in employment conditions and wages	Preventing Discrimination and Harassment
Harassment	Preventing Discrimination and Harassment

Customers

Human rights-related issues	Recipients of information disclosure regarding measures to prevent or mitigate negative impact on human rights
Violation of customer privacy	Customer information management
Discrimination in the provision of financial products and services	Reflecting human rights considerations in the provision of services
Shortfalls in information provided in the course of delivering financial services	Ensuring respect for human rights through investment and financing
Forced labor, child labor, human trafficking and poor labor environment	Ensuring respect for human rights through investment and financing
Impact on indigenous and other local communities	Ensuring respect for human rights through investment and financing

Suppliers

Human rights-related issues	Recipients of information disclosure regarding measures to prevent or mitigate negative impact on human rights
Labor environment	Ensuring respect for human rights through our supply chain
Issues related to customers’ human rights	Ensuring respect for human rights through our supply chain

Initiatives for Employees

Assessment of Impact on Human Rights

The Resona Group conducts human rights assessments targeting its employees at home and abroad. To date, these assessments have targeted employees at main domestic locations, including Resona Holdings, Resona Bank, Saitama Resona Bank, Kansai Mirai Bank and Minato Bank, as well as those at consolidated subsidiaries in Indonesia and Singapore. In doing so, we have utilized assessment sheets designed to determine the degree of human rights awareness among respondents, their recognition of relevant issues, and the presence or absence of such individual issues as discrimination and harassment. Insights gleaned from assessment results are utilized to update risk mitigation measures and other aspects of our initiatives.

Going forward, we will expand the scope of employees covered by these assessments while periodically monitoring the effect of measures undertaken thus far based on assessment results.

Preventing Overwork

The Resona Group believes that helping employees maintain and improve their emotional and physical health and creating a comfortable and hygienic workplace environment is of importance. Therefore, as part of initiatives related to health management we are striving to prevent overworking. These initiatives include educating employees on how to prevent or mitigate overworking while making it possible to visualize the status of working hours via the use of in-house system usage logs.

Initiatives for Health Management

Preventing Discrimination and Harassment

With the aim of creating a workplace that is friendly to anyone and free of discrimination and harassment, the Resona Group’s Behavior Guidelines, Human Rights Policy and Employment Regulations prohibit words and deeds that constitute harassment and unjust discrimination.

We also strive to thoroughly secure fairness in recruiting and, therefore, provide individuals in charge of hiring with annual training on unbiased selection standards and methods while continually imparting wide-ranging knowledge on human rights.

To ensure that none of our employees is involved in harassment, we have formulated the “Harassment Prevention Guidelines” and “Harassment Prevention Manual.” As part of initiatives to help employees understand these documents, we conduct training via e-learning targeting the entire workforce. At the same time, we educate business unit leaders and newly appointed managers on how to handle reports on harassment and how to best prevent it based on case studies. We update our mode of training and education on an as necessary basis by taking actual cases into account. In addition, quarterly “harassment prevention newsletters” are distributed to all employees, while each business unit engages in workplace readings of “The Don’ts” that showcase undesirable actions. In these and other ways, we are constantly striving to help employees maintain awareness of harassment prevention.

We have also formulated the “Customer Harassment Response Policy” as we aim to develop a labor environment that enables each employee to maintain their emotional and physical health while holding a position in our workforce. Based on the above policy, we have codified “Customer Harassment Prevention Guidelines” and the “Customer Harassment Response Manual,” which specify how we handle customer harassment and the in-house structure we are developing to do so. Moreover, having established such communication channels as the “Harassment Hotline,” we are currently taking throughgoing steps to ensure information provided by those seeking consultation remains strictly confidential.

The Resona Group aspires to help create a society in which everyone can achieve fulfillment in both careers and private lives while remaining their authentic selves irrespective of their sexual orientation and gender identity. Accordingly, we provide all employees with annual training aimed at raising their awareness of and otherwise ensuring respect for the human rights of LGBTQ individuals. As part of social contribution activities involving the entire Resona Group, we encourage employees to participate in the Rainbow Pride Parade and other external events. Furthermore, we invite all of our employees to show their support by, for example, displaying “ALLY” stickers on their belongings.

Through these initiatives, we are creating an open-minded workplace environment.

Resona Group Customer Harassment Response Policy

The Resona Group, following our purpose of “Beyond Finance, for a Brighter Future.” and with the unified efforts of all employees, is committed to building better relationships with customers and local communities.

We value the opinions and requests of our customers and strive to use their voices to improve our products and services. Unfortunately, however, some customers have engaged in acts that constitute customer harassment, which violates the human rights of our employees and unfairly interferes with our business operations.

From the perspective of creating a work environment where each employee can enjoy good physical and mental well-being, we will take a resolute stance against any acts of customer harassment. If necessary, we will cooperate with the police, lawyers and/or other parties to take appropriate action, and may refuse service for violators in the future.

Definition of customer harassment^*

Customer complaints, behaviors, or other actions considered unacceptable socially as a means and/or method of resolving a reasonable request, and that, as a result, harm the work environment of employees.

*Actions considered to be customer harassment based on the Customer Harassment Response Manual published by the Ministry of Health, Labour and Welfare

Actions considered to be customer harassment

The following actions are presented as examples. Other actions that constitute customer harassment do exist.

Physical violence (assault, injury)
Mental attacks (threats, slander, libel, insults, verbal abuse)
Restrictive behavior (refusing to leave, staying put, confinement)
Intimidating behavior
Persistent behavior
Sexual or discriminatory language and/or behavior
Unauthorized photography, video recording, or audio recording of the Group’s facilities or employees
Defamation of Group employees through social media or online posts
Excessive or unreasonable demands, or demands whose content or nature is deemed inappropriate according to social norms

Diversity & Inclusion

Giving Due Consideration to the Betterment of the Labor Environment

The Resona Group has undertaken thoroughgoing measures to ensure that working conditions are appropriate in accordance with the Group Human Rights Policy. In addition, management periodically engages in dialogue with the labor union so that employees’ human rights as workers are always protected even as it continually strives to maintain and improve workplace quality.

Through these efforts we aim to create an even better labor environment and enable each employee to maintain their emotional and physical health and work at the Group over the long term with peace of mind. This is why we promote initiatives to help employees strike a work-life balance as well as those related to health management. These initiatives include helping employees balance work and child rearing or nursing care.

In addition, we have updated our personnel systems by introducing course-based systems while providing employees with options regarding retirement age. We also provide career development assistance programs, skill development programs and other forms of assistance to help employees navigate their career journeys based on their competencies and preferences.

Diversity & Inclusion

Human Resource System

Initiatives for Health Management

Activities to Raise Human Rights Awareness

Structure to Raise Human Rights Awareness

The Resona Group has established the Group Human Rights Promotion Committee. This committee operates under the Group Sustainability Promotion Committee and is striving to raise the human rights awareness of each employee as doing so is considered an important management issue.

The Group Human Rights Promotion Committee is attended by a director who concurrently serves as an Audit Committee member and is in charge of investigating relevant matters. Thus, the committee comprehensively discusses such matters as the status of the Group Human Rights Policy, human rights-related trends at home and abroad, and human rights-related issues Group companies are confronting in addition to determining topics to be addressed via training and formulating annual basic policies on raising human rights awareness.

Each Group bank has established a dedicated structure for implementing training and otherwise promoting activities to raise human rights awareness. All departments, offices and branches are covered by such structures, with the heads of these business units serving as human rights awareness promoters so that their activities are finely tuned and aligned with their circumstances.

Workplace Training

At group-affiliated banks, we are fostering a corporate culture of respect for human rights through annual training for all employees.

Effective period	Training topic	Participants
FY2024	Considering the “Dowa Problem” (discrimination against Buraku) Gaining a deeper understanding of the Act for Eliminating Discrimination against Persons with Disabilities, etc.	23,475
FY2023	Understanding human rights due diligence Understanding the Revised Act for the Elimination of Discrimination against Persons with Disabilities	23,161
FY2022	Understanding the Group’s revised human rights policy	23,515

Effective period

Training topic

Participants

FY2024

Considering the “Dowa Problem” (discrimination against Buraku)

Gaining a deeper understanding of the Act for Eliminating Discrimination against Persons with Disabilities, etc.

23,475

FY2023

Understanding human rights due diligence

Understanding the Revised Act for the Elimination of Discrimination against Persons with Disabilities

23,161

FY2022

Understanding the Group’s revised human rights policy

23,515

*Participants: All employees, including partner employees, present in the workforce at the time of training

Human Rights Awareness Promoter Training (Training for Division and Branch General Managers)

Human rights training, including trends in human rights issues, is provided annually for human rights awareness promoters (division and branch general managers), who are human rights leaders in their respective workplaces.

Segment-Specific Training

We cover the concept of respect for human rights and knowledge of various human rights according to job level during new employee orientation and training for newly promoted managers.

Distribution of Human Rights Newsletter

Targeting all Group employees, we distribute “human rights newsletters” via the intranet. These publications feature easy-to-understand commentaries on various human rights-related topics that encourage readers to think about human rights.

Human Rights Awareness Slogan

We solicit and award human rights awareness slogans proposed by employees within the Group.

Initiatives for Customers

Customer Information Management

The Resona Group issued the “Personal Information Protection Declaration,” in which it places the utmost priority on protecting customer information and lays out its fundamental concepts on the prevention of its leakage and illicit use. This is a public declaration that is thoroughly upheld by our workforce.

To ensure the appropriate handling of customer information entrusted to us, we enforce thoroughgoing measures. These include the formulation of various policies, regulations and rules governing information management, the establishment of an organizational structure and ensuring employees receive a robust education.

We will constantly review and update these initiatives.

Compliance

Reflecting Human Rights Considerations in the Provision of Services

Initiatives to Ensure Compliance with the Act for Eliminating Discrimination against Persons with Disabilities

We implement various initiatives to ensure that the services we offer at branches are accessible to all people, regardless of whether they have disabilities. For example, we have compiled and distributed to our staff a “Customer Reception Handbook” that focuses on our basic stance toward the realization of an inclusive society, presenting cases of exemplary customer reception involving branch visitors in need of support, including elderly customers. This learning tool helps employees raise their awareness regarding, and skills to accommodate, such customers. Furthermore, on a quarterly basis we collect and consolidate opinions voiced by customers, passing on reports to top management on a semi-annual basis or more frequently if called for to ensure that appropriate steps are taken if improvements are needed.

Initiatives for Normalization

We promote initiatives for normalization with the goal of ensuring all customers, from people with disabilities to the elderly and expectant mothers, can visit our branches with peace of mind and receive the same highly convenient services.

Priority ATMs and Priority Seating	We have installed priority ATMs and priority seating in many of our staffed branches that are reserved for people with disabilities, the elderly, and expectant mothers.
ATMs for People with Visual Impairments	We are in the process of installing ATMs for people with visual impairments that feature a special handset (receiver with a keypad) added to a normal ATM. Customers with a visual impairment can listen to voice guidance using this handset and then carry out their banking with the push of a button.
Improving Accessibility for People with Disabilities	We received feedback from customers using wheelchairs that our cash withdrawal envelops at ATMs were located too high and were inaccessible. In response, we created a specialized cash withdrawal envelop box and installed in at priority ATMs located at our branches.
Deposit Transaction Notification Service in Braille	Resona Bank and Saitama Resona Bank provide a free service at branches to customers with a visual impairment where braille is used to notify them of their banking transactions.
Communication Boards	We have installed communication boards at our branches. These boards are used as a tool for customers with communication concerns to point at illustrations to convey the purpose of their visit. The illustrations also contain English for use by foreign national customers who don’t speak Japanese.
Simple Digital Writing Pads and Wireless Vibrating Pagers	We have placed digital writing pads at teller windows in our branches. In addition, Saitama Resona Bank has wireless vibrating pagers at its branches that are used to notify elderly customers with trouble hearing or customers with a hearing impairment about their place in line for bank teller services.
Assignment of Dementia Supporters	We have assigned dementia supporters at each of our branches to improve access to financial services, deepen understanding about dementia in an aging society, and foster an environment in the community where people with dementia can live with peace of mind.
AEDs	We have installed automated external defibrillators (AEDs) at all of our staffed branches. Employees that have taken a class on first aid, including how to use an AED, are assigned to each branch to ensure a prompt response should a customer or other employee require first aid. AEDs are also installed in the vestibule of certain branches to allow anyone to use them on holidays or at night when the branch is not staffed.
Braille Calendar	Every year since 1982, we have created braille calendars and donated them to social welfare associations for people with visual impairments and special needs schools in communities nationwide in Japan, in order to make life more convenient for people with visual impairments. From 2014, the calendars incorporate Resonya, Resona’s feline communication mascot, and provide information on monthly events in braille for a seasonal feel.

Ensuring Respect for Human Rights through Investment and Financing

The Resona Group has formulated a “Group Credit Policy,” “Basic Stance on Lending” and “Responsible Investment Policy,” and is engaged in investment and financing that gives due consideration to the impact of these on the environment and society.

In particular, when considering financing large projects, we use checklists in our engagements with potential borrowers to establish appropriate structures and procedures that will ensure that all possible social or environmental concerns arising from these projects are properly understood and assessed along with any initiatives that will be implemented to address such concerns. In addition, we have prepared worksheets designed to assess the level of customer commitment to addressing ESG issues through business operations. These tools support the framework we have established to confirm the status of initiatives being implemented by borrowers from the perspective of addressing ESG issues, including human rights-related issues, and help us provide the running partner-type support best suited to meet borrowers’ individual needs. We have also prepared industry-specific worksheets to engage with borrowers in certain sectors requiring particular attention so that our engagement with these borrowers can yield meaningful results.

Initiatives for Socially Responsible Investing and Lending

Initiatives for Suppliers: Ensuring Respect for Human Rights through Our Supply Chain

The Resona Group has formulated the Policy regarding Purchasing Activities to work in tandem with suppliers (including vendors) in contributing to the creation of a sustainable society. This policy also encompasses subjects related to respect for human rights and consideration for the environment. We ask suppliers for their understanding of and cooperation with this policy.

We provide vendors with briefing materials on topics related to respect for human rights and the prevention of corruption while conducting surveys on the presence or absence of a human rights policy and the status of human rights due diligence to understand and manage their circumstances.

Stakeholder Engagement

Pursuing dialogue and engagement with a diverse range of stakeholders is one way the Resona Group promotes respect for human rights and deepens mutual understanding. In particular, the Group considers engaging in constructive dialogue with stakeholders whose human rights could be negatively affected by its business activities and addressing issues confronting them to be an integral part of its responsibilities to ensure respect for human rights. Accordingly, we will strive to build relationships of trust and act in collaboration with stakeholders by taking heed of their opinions and expectations to update our initiatives. Employing a medium- to long-term perspective, we will thus endeavor to raise the corporate value of and secure sustainable growth for the Resona Group.

Stakeholder Dialogue and Collaboration

Furthermore, we will promote initiatives involving industry peers and other members of the international community to realize a sustainable society, to this end acting as a part of or declaring our support for various initiatives at home and abroad.

Participation in Initiatives