Yajima (CSR Management Department, OMRON Corporation)：

Let me start our dialogue with members of the Kyoto CSR Workshop, now in the third year. Recently, issues that companies are required to address^** have grown in scale to the degree that is impossible to handle by a single company. Accordingly, more and more companies are likely to seek input from various stakeholders or involve them in their process of addressing social issues. In this respect, OMRON, based in Kyoto, is fortunate to be surrounded by people like you who are here today and who belong to such a great workshop as the Kyoto CSR Workshop. We are in an advantageous position to be able to receive this valuable input from all of you, and we hope to continue this dialogue into the future.

Kotani (CSR Management Department, OMRON Corporation)：

In the first half of this dialogue, from the OMRON side, we will speak about the activities we conducted during fiscal 2007 as well as our stance and vision regarding CSR. Then, we would like to hear your views about these subjects.

^** Issues that companies are required to address：

As the idea of "lean government" penetrates throughout the world, there is a growing call for companies and the private sector to address various social issues rather than solely relying on the public sector such as governmental agencies.

OMRON's CSR Management System

Kotani：

Before going into our activities during fiscal 2007, let me briefly talk about OMRON's organizational structure for promoting CSR initiatives.
First we have a CSR Management Department in the Corporate Strategic Planning Headquarters. This department was under the direct control of the President until March 2007. But in April of that year it was integrated into the Corporate Strategic Planning Headquarters. The objective was to embed our CSR practices deeply into the OMRON Group's business strategies. This department is responsible for CSR management.
Also, we have an organization in charge of promoting our community involvement called the Better Corporate Citizenship Department. This department is within the Corporate Culture Promotion Center under the Corporate Resources Innovation Headquarters. As for environmental management, our Quality & Environment Center in the Monozukuri Innovation Headquarters is responsible for promoting our Group-wide environmental conservation efforts. The Corporate Legal Center within the Corporate Resources Innovation Headquarters is responsible for compliance-related matters.
OMRON has been promoting its long-term management vision, "Grand Design 2010 (GD2010)," which covers fiscal 2001 to fiscal 2010. In April 2008, this vision will enter the third stage (fiscal 2008-10). Starting from the second stage (fiscal 2004-07), we have implemented CSR activities centered around the three pillars of our CSR policy. They are: (1) Contribute to a better society through business operations; (2) Always demonstrate fairness and integrity in the promotion of corporate activities; and (3) Show a commitment to addressing societal issues as a concerned party. We will maintain these three pillars in the third stage.

Information that a company should disclose

Kotani：

Now I'll tell you about OMRON's CSR activities during fiscal 2007, while also referring to the opinions and suggestions we received in the last year's dialogue.
Among the impressions that last year's dialogue participants shared after reading OMRON's Sustainability Report 2006 were "the report is too thick"; "the target readers are unclear"; and "there is no clear distinction between information covered by the printed report and the website." Despite this feedback, our 2007 report, which was published in June of last year, also ended up being a very thick document that was almost impossible to read in less than two or three days. I must admit that our target readers also remained unclear. To rectify these issues, we had a discussion in-house to determine who we should target with our report before starting the editing process for this year’s report, to be published this June. We also interviewed various staff members in different departments to find out how our sustainable report is being used. As a result, we realized that we have to go back to the drawing board, to think it all over again and fundamentally redefine the information that a company is required to disclose, in terms of both quality and quantity.
As such, we have decided to spend the next two or three years to determine the type of information that OMRON should disclose. As a first step, we began an in-house survey to find out how much data we should gather to release that necessary information. We distributed survey forms to all departments, explaining the need for information disclosure and asking their cooperation. The survey form covers almost all CSR-related items that we can think of, and I think there are not many companies that actually can completely fill out this form. For OMRON as well, it would take two or three years at least to completely fill in all these items.
The information that a company can disclose is just the tip of the iceberg. We can assume that for everything that we see above the water, there is that much more hidden underneath the water, say 5 or 6 times more. We are aiming to strengthen the quantity and quality of information beneath the water first, then determine which information to disclose by effectively using the printed sustainable report and website, with a clearly defined purpose for each. For the printed report, we intend to narrow down the information to be included and focus on information deemed important for the general public. On the website, we will provide detailed in-depth information that is convincing enough for experts or authorities. This is our basic strategy for using these two types of media.

Collaboration and dialogue with NGO/NPOs

Kotani：

Collaboration and dialogue with NGOs and NPOs are currently being promoted mainly by the Better Corporate Citizenship Department. Our efforts in this respect are hardly sufficient. OMRON has been committed to social welfare including support for persons with disabilities for many years. In this field, we have now formed partnerships with about 20 NGO/NPOs. Of these we have associations with seven or eight organizations for more than a decade. In the future we are determined to continue strong engagement with organizations that are active in the fields on which OMRON wants to focus, without being influenced by passing trends.

Instillation of the OMRON Principles in all employees

Kotani：

A person also questioned to what degree the OMRON Principles have been disseminated among OMRON employees. In fiscal 2006 we distributed "The OMRON Principles" booklets to all employees throughout the world and held explanatory sessions at more than 40 sites. In fiscal 2007, we launched activities to help employees of Japanese companies that had recently joined the OMRON Group to better understand our corporate principles. Overseas as well, we gave presentations to more than 1,000 employees at 23 sites in China, Asia Pacific, North America and Europe during the period from August to October of 2007, explaining the OMRON Principles and CSR Practice Guidelines. We will continue these presentation meetings during fiscal 2008.

Disclosure of negative information and positioning of various committees

Kotani：

As for the comment regarding the relatively scarce mention of negative information in OMRON's report, we are planning to include such information in our report to be published in June. Specifically it will include a report on soil and groundwater contamination detected at our Okayama Factory and Kusatsu Factory in Shiga prefecture in 2007.
Regarding the difficult-to-understand positioning of committees, we are working to set up a Group CSR Committee that will integrate ongoing CSR-related committees during fiscal 2008. The committee will assume the task of setting the future direction of CSR activities and promoting them. By so doing, the committee will survey the overview of OMRON's management practices from the perspective of CSR and integrate CSR with OMRON's management strategies. With this, we are aiming to enhance completeness and efficiency in the implementation of our CSR strategy and improve the transparency and visibility of CSR management.

Support for persons with disabilities and strict maintenance of corporate ethics overseas

Kotani：

We were also advised to engage in international support initiatives for persons with disabilities. But the reality is that we haven't yet reached a level abroad that is as high as in Japan. In Japan, OMRON is already working aggressively on expanding job categories for disabled people, and ranks highly in its industry in terms of the ratio of disabled employees. Overseas, however, we haven't gone that far yet. Needless to say, we make certain that we meet the legally required levels for disabled employee ratio in countries or regions with such requirements. We are also aiming to exceed these requirements while working to construct a "barrier-free" workplace environment.
Last year, Dr. Masamichi Okano, who at the time was from Osaka University's Graduate School of Environmental Engineering suggested that we might have a dialogue with stakeholders of stakeholders, such as the families of our employees or the employees of OMRON's suppliers. Unfortunately, we haven't reached the point of responding to this need for dialogue with such a wide range of people at the organizational level.
Another suggestion was that OMRON should promote corporate ethics overseas in a way that matches local situations. For this point, as we mentioned in last year's report, OMRON divided its overseas operations into four areas: North America, Europe, China and Asia Pacific, and appointed compliance officers in fiscal 2006 for each of these areas to take the lead in enhancing compliance. We are currently studying the possibility of appointing a CSR officer for each area in the world. We are planning to do this by the end of fiscal 2008.
We also accepted a suggestion to incorporate OMRON's distinctive characteristics into CSR activities. As far as this is concerned, we welcome your comments during the discussion that follows our explanation about OMRON's CSR issues and materiality which will come up next. Does anyone have any questions so far?

Q&A (1): Reporting of numerical data and targets

Fujino(Chief Project Coordinator, Kyoto NPO Center)：

As for setting and reporting numerical targets and data in the report, which I pointed out last year, was there any progress?

Kotani：

We feel that we are still deficient in reporting numerical data. One approach to solving this issue is the collection of information at each department that I mentioned earlier. At present, we must admit that our disclosure of data is not yet sufficient even in Japan, but even less so overseas. As far as environmental data is concerned, we have been able to collect a reasonably large amount of data, but data in the field of personnel management in particular is very limited. We don't even have a fully established system in place for collecting such information. What we need to do first is collect data, and that is what we are doing right now.

Shimizu(CSR Management Department, OMRON Corporation)：

Let me add a few words to what Mr. Kotani mentioned. OMRON's Sustainability Report emphasizes highlights for each fiscal year. Also we are concerned about including too much detailed data that might not meet the needs of our target readers. Therefore, even if we have the data at hand we may sometimes not include it in the report. For the future, we are aiming to gradually expand the range of our disclosure in the coming two or three years, by releasing data we have through our website as much as possible.

Fujino：

I'm not saying you need to release all the numerical data you have. It is important to set clear-cut targets. For example, if you say you will address the issue of gender equality, your decision as to what target to set and the process you would take to achieve it, I believe, will influence what you will be doing during the third stage of GD2010. As long as you state your respect for diversity at work, information such as whether women are actually in managerial positions or whether your work environment is comfortable for women, etc. would be as important as your statement. I'm saying you should set clear-cut goals for these things. Please understand that I'm not saying that as long as you include numbers in the report you are done.

Yajima：

We are editing our report on the premise that it will be read by people all over the world. In the case of gender equality, for example, we have some data in Japan, but none overseas. So we do have concerns that people outside Japan may feel our report is insufficient if we only report about the situation in Japan. Consequently, we think that it is important to correctly grasp the current status of OMRON globally to begin with.

Q&A (2): Considerations for persons with disabilities

Sakurai(Doshisha University Graduate School of Policy and Management)：

I've heard that OMRON's sustainability report is translated into English and Chinese. Do you have any plan to create a report in Braille or audio tape?

Kotani：

"The OMRON Principles" booklet and CSR Practice Guidelines are available in 25 native languages. Honestly speaking, we haven't thought about Braille or audio tape versions. Some companies in Japan have begun to publish reports by adopting a color-universal design for those with color vision deficiency. In the future, we might also have to incorporate such considerations into our report.

OMRON's CSR vision for a decade from now

Yajima：

Let's talk now about "OMRON's CSR vision for a decade from now" and "CSR issues to be addressed by OMRON in the GD2010 third stage and materiality." Please look at the handouts you have. When we address CSR issues, it is most important to prioritize the issues and determine the targets of our activities. Last year and the year before, we received a comment that OMRON's activities lack clear-cut goals.
When we worked to define our CSR vision for a decade from now, we first anticipated what our society would look like in ten years. We then envisioned the roles that OMRON should assume in the upcoming society, and determined our CSR vision. We did these for each of the core CSR issues we have specified for the third stage of GD2010. The core issues are: "innovation driven by social needs and customer issues," "fair operating practices and organizational governance," "human rights," "labor practices," "environment" and "community involvement and social development."

CSR issues to be addressed in the GD2010 third stage and materiality

Yajima：

The document "CSR issues to be addressed by OMRON in the GD2010 third stage and materiality" is meant to be a reference for determining specific measures we will implement during the third stage. First of all, we compiled issues to be addressed in reference to the ISO 26000 Working Draft for each of three pillars that Mr. Kotani explained earlier. This process resulted in the identification of nine cores issues and 27 specific issues that OMRON should address (see below).

	Core issues	Issues to be addressed
Contribution through business	Innovation driven by social needs	Innovation driven by social needs (Socially/environmentally beneficial products)
	Customer issues	Safe products & services Improvement of products recall mechanism
Fairness & integrity	Organizational governance	Accountable management Transparent management practices
	Fair operating practices	Ethical and transparent practices Protection of intellectual property Personal information protection & information security
Addressing societal issues	Human rights	Countermeasures against human rights violations Respect for the rights of vulnerable groups
	Labor practices	Support for self-reliance of persons with disabilities Support for self-reliance of employees Respect for diversity Occupational safety and health Rights at work & social security Appropriate remuneration for non-regular employees Work-life balance Dialogue with employees Promotion of local personnel to positions of responsibility
	Environment	Reduction in CO2 emissions at all sites Elimination of hazardous substances Energy conservation Zero emissions/recycling Preservation of biodiversity/ecosystem
	Community involvement & development	Support for developing regions Community involvement
	Supply chain management	CSR procurement

As you can see, these are important issues we should address and in reality, it must be very difficult to handle all of these with an equal application of effort. Therefore, we decided to prioritize these issues and created a materiality map. "Materiality" is a term used in accounting to mean a characteristic of an event or information that is sufficiently important to have a large impact on a company's performance/stock price, etc. The map plots individual issues grouped according to the degree of OMRON stakeholders' expectations along the vertical axis and the degree of impact on OMRON's management/business performance in the medium/long term along the horizontal axis. Obviously, materiality evaluation for each issue will be a matter of argument. As for CSR evaluation criteria, there have been no fully established standard evaluation techniques in the world or in Japan. In light of this situation, companies that classify issues based on the concept of materiality are still very limited in number. But OMRON sought to become among the first to take this advanced approach, and created this map.
But this map is not an absolute that will never change. In particular, stakeholder expectations will change from time to time, so we will be reviewing the map every six months or at least once a year. At this moment no fully established evaluation method is available, so we assume the best way for now would be to take an inductive approach with repeated discussions to reach a conclusion. Based on this approach, we spoke with a number of people. In today's discussion too, we hope that you will share your views on this matter as one topic of today's dialogue.

Q&A (3): What is "support for developing regions"?

Orii：(Secretary General, Nippon International Cooperation for Community Development)

I'd like to confirm one thing. You have specified "support for developing regions" as part of the core issue "community involvement and development." By "developing regions" did you mean "developing countries"?

Yajima：

It might turn out to be that way. But what we are saying is that when OMRON enters a new region, we don't want to just build a factory and that's all. Instead we will strive to support that region to solve the issues it has. So it is not our main intention to support a region that is totally unrelated to our business even if the region has some issues. Of course, we will continue to offer support where needed, as we did for areas affected by the Java earthquake in 2006. But our basic stance is to focus on support for regions associated with our business.

Shimamoto (Professor, Faculty of Human Studies, Department of Social Design Studies, Kyoto Bunkyo University)：

Now, it's discussion time. First of all, after reading the handout outlining OMRON's strategies for the third stage of GD2010, does anyone have anything to say regarding issues that are missing or hard to understand in OMRON's target image?

OMRON should extend its environmental commitment beyond in-house efforts

Okutani(Ph.D. in Cultural Policy Studies)：

Because the main theme of my work is the environment, I want to say a few words about matters related to the environment. In "OMRON's CSR vision for a decade from now," your perception of society is that the environment will face a critical situation in the next ten years. I believe that is the global consensus. But even though you say it's critical, I feel that OMRON's approach as discussed in the "CSR issues to be addressed in the GD2010 third stage and materiality" is still insufficient. I'm not sure we can say that you've taken an in-depth look at the issue. My impression is that you sort of stopped at stating that OMRON will commit itself to environmental conservation within the company. "OMRON's CSR vision for a decade from now," for example, mentions that as OMRON expands its corporate activities in newly emerging economies such as China, you realize the need for activities that extend beyond reducing the environmental impact of the OMRON Group's business activities alone, addressing broader environmental issues of the countries/regions in which it operates. I think you should take a more proactive approach, striving to improve the environment of the community at large through OMRON's corporate activities. I believe that this is a primary mission of a company.
Last year in a symposium, one executive from OMRON spoke these words of wisdom, "A dead earth cannot give birth to any business." Today's situation is that concern for life should come before concern about business. This makes reducing CO₂ emissions through your corporate activities one of the biggest issues. However, I found from OMRON's Sustainability Report 2007 that CO₂ emissions increased significantly in fiscal 2006. OMRON makes lots of products that are good for people's health, good for people's well-being and convenient for society. But as a result of producing such beneficial products, CO₂ emissions increased. How can you balance the global environment and business? When we set our eyes on the society of ten years from now, I suppose addressing this life-affecting issue as a company will be extremely important. Considering that "CSR issues to be addressed in GD2010 third stage and materiality" was drafted based on your sense of urgency that the global environment is in such a critical situation, I'm afraid that your approach is a little weak, and is still focused on in-house measures.

Community involvement leads to creation of new businesses

Okutani：

Another point that I want to stress is that the emphasis OMRON puts on addressing societal issues is much larger than the other two of three pillars listed in the "CSR issues to be addressed in the GD2010 third stage and materiality." I think this is great. I believe that most companies focus on things that sell, but OMRON's focus on addressing societal issues is very commendable. I assume that all employees are aware of the importance of addressing societal issues such as human rights, labor practices, the environment and community involvement through their participation in volunteer activities or through day-to-day work. This in turn will lead to innovation driven by social needs, which OMRON has put at the top of its list of issues to be addressed. I assume that this positioning reflects the fact that this issue is expected to become a major challenge in the upcoming ten years.
Therefore, if you pay attention to what employees learn from their daily lives and how they apply what they have learned to their business, community involvement will no longer be something that you do in your spare time with spare resources, separate from your main business. Instead, through support for persons with disabilities, community service and other contributions, you will be able to see the future of OMRON's business. If you strive to further extend your commitment by consistently identifying and tackling various issues around the world, you should be able to further promote innovation driven by social needs.

Establishing initiatives to enable employees to cooperate with NPOs

Fujino：

Although Ms. Okutani recognized OMRON's drive to place greater emphasis on addressing societal issues, my impression is that it happened by chance, simply because there are so many issues to deal with. When we consider how society might change in ten years, it's likely that the government will become smaller and leaner. Can corporate activities really fill the void left by a leaner government that can no longer fulfill certain social needs? Certainly some needs will be unmet and untouched by the private sector. If that proves to be the case, third-sector organizations such as NPOs will increase in importance. In turn, labor practices such as self-reliance of employees and respect for diversity, which OMRON has specified as issues to be addressed, will become especially important. But I feel that OMRON's measures in these areas are not solid or extensive enough. As Ms. Okutani mentioned, I also have the impression that OMRON has a tendency to think in terms of in-house measures alone.
Suppose you ask yourselves who will take major roles in society ten years from now. The answer could be all three sectors, including non-profit organizations, companies and the government. For example, the corporate drive to establish initiatives that allow diverse and flexible working styles will be important, so that employees can freely take part in NPO activities. Or it may be necessary to create a system with which people from other sectors can join in a company's thinking process, such as joint product development with NPOs. For OMRON, it would be necessary to delve into its values such as self-reliance of employees and respect for diversity. Rather than just relying on internal resources to solve all issues, I want to see OMRON step outside to seek ideas and cooperation from external organizations.

Areas of emphasis in social development differ between Japan and overseas

Shimamoto：

Mr. Orii talked about support for developing countries earlier. From now on, I believe that the question of how to deal with underprivileged groups at the bottom of the pyramid (BOP) will attract growing attention worldwide. The trend in official development assistance (ODA) will also emphasize this. At the same time, there will be an increasing awareness that the private sector also should share its efforts toward solving the BOP issue through their business operations. In fact, companies abroad have already begun to consider the BOP as a newly emerging market.
And what about Japan? The phenomenon of an aging population and a declining birthrate will progress even further. As such, there will be a growing concern for how elderly people can continue to enjoy a fulfilling life or how creativity-filled communities can be developed, and so on. Moreover, the question of how to cultivate human power and creativity in the shrinking ranks of the younger generation will become an urgent issue. There are many things that OMRON can contribute in approaching these issues. For example, OMRON can give junior high school or high school students the chance to experience work or real issues by hosting internships in NPOs or private companies, or by organizing workplace observation tours. By making the workplace open to the public, OMRON can provide opportunities to foster vitality-filled young people. This drive can also be combined with interaction with local communities in the neighborhood of OMRON's offices or factories to promote social development.
Roughly speaking, issues related to social development can be divided into those in Japan, and those overseas, each focusing on different areas. You should keep this difference in mind when addressing social development issues. Overseas in particular, underprivileged groups comprise a major part of the market. These are people who are unable to meet such fundamental requirements as drinking water, food or shelter. How can you approach this BOP market in a business sense? Is this an issue that a company can address alone? These arguments will inevitably arise, but they can produce breakthroughs.
For example, OMRON has worked on R&D for landmine removal in collaboration with an NGO. Such an endeavor can help OMRON refine its sensing technology, and may sometimes lead to commercialization of new products. This dynamic way of thinking may be necessary when addressing social development issues.

Importance of maintaining a perspective of disparities between companies

Fujino：

I want to add something based on what Mr. Shimamoto pointed out. Specifically, the disparity among peoples. There are different types of disparities – wealth disparity, disparities between men and women, disparities between those with disabilities and those without, and so on. There is also the North-South gap, and regardless of whether you address this problem or not, you should always maintain the perspective of disparities.
For example, when you have business dealings with your partner or supplier, you want to purchase at the lowest possible cost, which is natural for business. So, while employees of large companies may make a good living, those of subcontractors may have to endure lower living standards. That kind of disparity between companies exists in the real world. I'm not in a position to completely negate such a disparity but in the long run, for instance ten years from now, we will have to solve such disparities at the societal level.
For example, in the field of international development, there is the so-called Fair Trade movement intended to eliminate the North-South gap. If this kind of movement is realized in Japan or at the corporate level, it would be great. This does not concern OMRON alone, but it is my desire to see such things happen in companies.

OMRON should address the issue of accepting foreign workers

Orii：

What I'm going to talk about now is also along the lines of what Mr. Shimamoto pointed out. Reading OMRON's "perception of society ten years into the future," it occurred to me that one point was missing – the aging population and declining birthrate. In addition to the point that Mr. Shimamoto stressed, when we thought about how to tackle the declining population in Japan at the national level, it came down to the issue of foreign workers. It will be unavoidable to accept foreigners, not only for manual labor but also for skilled work. In fact, advanced nations have already been fighting over talented students from universities in developing countries. In Japan too, our market will become smaller and smaller along with the shrinking population. In light of this situation, I am concerned that our country will not be able to make it after 10 or 30 years if we cannot effectively deal with this problem. Needless to say, it will be unavoidable for Japanese society to accept people of diverse races and nationalities, or at least have serious discussions about this matter. I wonder to what extent OMRON has included this point into its outlook.
When it comes to the issue of refugees, which I am currently involved with, other advanced countries have accepted hundreds of thousands of refugees as a way to contribute to the international community. But Japan has so far only accepted 410, excluding refugees from Indochina. With the population in Japan continually declining, is it possible that Japan will keep its own style of international contribution? Japan is very slow in terms of accepting refugees, and it is reducing ODA spending every year. Moreover, Japan's support for PKO is much smaller than Korea or China. With this level of international contribution, if we maintain an attitude of entering their markets just to earn money, I wonder whether our country can really last in the future. While working in various countries, I developed a strong feeling about this. This will become a challenge in Japan too, for sure. I believe that a company like OMRON that has a forward-looking view, keeping one step ahead of Japanese society, should touch upon this problem.
Earlier today we were informed about OMRON's efforts to instill its corporate principles among its overseas staff. OMRON has worked hard to allow people from different cultural backgrounds to better understand the values that OMRON has cultivated in Japan. This is exactly what Japanese society or companies have to deal with in the future, in classrooms or when accepting foreign workers or refugees into workforce. OMRON is a forerunner in this field, so I expect you to address this area of foreign workers as an important issue that Japanese society will face.

It is important to link support for developing countries with business

Orii：

Another point is the bottom-of-the-pyramid matter that was brought up earlier. Today, underprivileged groups are considered as a business opportunity and a huge amount of money from the Middle East and other areas is invested in this market. For some time, I have suggested that OMRON might be able to connect support for developing countries with its business. For example, if you could provide daily goods that will not break down, even in tough environment such as deserts, it will present a business opportunity to OMRON and at the same time provide a benefit for people in developing countries. I believe that it is important to combine contributions through OMRON's business with direct local support and cooperation.

Innovation driven by social needs related to labor practices

Shimamoto：

So far, we haven't spoken much about labor practices. Reading "OMRON's CSR vision for a decade from now," I had the impression that OMRON's perception of society ten years into the future, as relates to labor practice issues, is probably focusing too much on the optimistic side of the so-called "free agent society." It is true that workers will be able to enjoy freedom in mobilization, but it also means we will see frequent changes of jobs, and from the company side, it may cause a shortage in high-quality workers, partially due to increased employment in non-profit organizations. In Japan, while the younger generation finds it difficult to envision a bright future because of their concern for the government pension system, companies will find it more and more important to secure and foster a workforce based on excellence. More than ever, companies will consider the need to invest in employee welfare and create a comfortable workplace.
At last year's stakeholder meeting, there was a very interesting suggestion about listening to the opinions of employees' families. This may become necessary. It might become advantageous for a company to extend its considerations not only to its employees, but also to the living environment that supports them. It will also be important to assist women and people with disabilities in taking a more active role in society. As Mr. Orii said, globalization of the workforce will advance in the future, and working styles will also change. It may no longer be necessary to come to the office, depending on the nature of the job.
In summary, we can expect radical changes in our work environment, and these changes will serve as a new source of innovation driven by social needs for OMRON.

Taking on the role of facilitator in connecting disabled persons with society

Sakurai：

I have a special interest in relations with children, women and persons with disabilities, which Mr. Shimamoto just mentioned, and I have been engaged in these areas since I was in college. I noticed that there are only a few mentions of "education" as relates to community involvement. For example, I care very much what education in ten years from now including environmental education will look like, when today's ten-year old child becomes 20 years old. I read somewhere about OMRON's "model of corporate development integral with society," I'm very much interested in seeing how education will be related to or embedded into OMRON's development process.
The importance of environmental education has been covered by the mass media, earning public recognition and understanding. It is in fact actively promoted in society. But education regarding disabilities is still limited and public recognition regarding this issue is minimal. In view of this, I think OMRON, with its experience of pioneering connections with persons with disabilities, should be able to send a message and command leadership in this area. This message will set OMRON apart from other companies. I hope OMRON will become the number one facilitator for connecting disabled persons with society.

Shimamoto：

In the same way, the issue of human rights is also very important. Although this term has a rather stiff image, in ten years, the concern for human rights will definitely grow and possibly result in a big movement depending on the results of the US presidential election.
OMRON specified "support for self-reliance of persons with disabilities" as one of issues to be addressed. The support for self-reliance of vulnerable groups as a whole will be necessary instead of limiting support to those with disabilities. Obviously, these are related to human rights issues. But when companies address human rights issues, socioeconomic considerations will become necessary, that is, ensuring not only legal rights but also economic freedom or freedom of economic involvement and providing opportunities to raise their potential capabilities. In other words, companies should work to involve people based on their individual qualities and potential capabilities with society as much as possible, transcending the current understanding of "human rights" as a legal term. This way of thinking will bring the concept of human rights closer to the area of corporate management.

Sakurai：

Last year, we worked on a graduate school class project at Kyoto station. Kyoto station is the main entrance to the tourist city of Kyoto, but to me it didn't look so friendly for people with disabilities. How can OMRON, as a Kyoto-based company, address a problem such as this? I think this sort of locally rooted activity is equally as important as having a global perspective.

Clean Development Mechanism, post-Kyoto Protocol target, future lifestyle, etc.

Okutani：

Today in the field of the environment, Clean Development Mechanism (CDM) projects are attracting a great deal of attention. So I thought it was insufficient that OMRON's Sustainability Report 2007 had only a few lines mentioning CDM. It would be better if you could include one page of information regarding OMRON's stance on this matter, along with case studies. For instance, how is OMRON going to address the environmental issue at the global level? How do you deal with the Kyoto mechanisms overseas? How will OMRON improve the environment of various regions through its commitment to CDM projects, and how will the company connect in-house efforts to reduce CO₂ emissions with CDM projects, etc?

Shimamoto：

I think people's opinions are probably divided over CDM. Obviously, it is one effective way to achieve the Kyoto Protocol targets, but there are arguments on how we should deal with this when the Kyoto Protocol period ends in 2012. For instance, if nuclear power plants revive, how can we respond to accidents? More of these fundamental technological issues will probably come out. Moreover, how do you respond to issues of waste disposal capacity or energy source depletion? Needless to say, it will become extremely important for OMRON to effectively address these and other social needs.
Also there is a question of how you can secure forests or parks. When you construct a plant, you will have to provide green areas at close proximity. I'm sure that OMRON has already been working on this. But if you further extend your efforts to address environmental issues, such as by designing the color of the plant in harmony with the landscape, you will be able to detect a greater variety of social needs. Other possibilities might include "green" labeling on product tags, similar to labels indicating the sugar content of fruits, for instance. I'm looking forward to seeing a steady stream of such consistent and innovative ideas from OMRON.

Fujino：

My opinion is slightly different. Ten years into the future I envision a totally different lifestyle from the one we have today. We won't do things that we do today, like promoting energy saving but still continuing to rely on fossil fuels. For example, a lifestyle without electricity may become mainstream, or you may be plowing a field on holidays instead of driving to shopping. People with such totally different lifestyles will probably increase in the future. It might be an idea if you could include these changing lifestyles into your perception of society ten years into the future.

Innovation driven by social needs

Fujino：

Finally, regarding "innovation driven by social needs" in the perspective of ten years from now, I believe that collaboration with NPOs will be essential rather than focusing on innovation by OMRON employees. In an extreme case, it may happen that OMRON and an NPO will jointly develop new products. For example, NEC, being a computer manufacturer, is dedicated to supporting social entrepreneurs. You should also be able to find "seeds" of such support through collaboration with NPOs. You should effectively use external resources instead of just relying on internal resources. That way, OMRON will be able to further advance its efforts to stimulate innovation driven by social needs.

Shimamoto：

I'm sure OMRON employees are pretty familiar with and have a full understanding of the phrase "innovation driven by social needs." But how about us, I wonder. I take the idea as not only meeting present needs but anticipating needs that are not yet well-recognized in society or potential consumer needs as well. It seems OMRON is aiming to become a forerunner in addressing these needs, so as to contribute to OMRON's business. I wonder if my understanding is correct and if it fully covers everything that OMRON is trying to do.
When I visited Thailand the other day, they were holding their Senate elections. It was an election to "take back" control of the country after the former Prime Minister Taksin was expelled. Prime Minister Taksin had been committed to vitalizing the Thai economy through privatization of state-owned enterprises based on free market principles. "Sufficiency economy" was the slogan often heard during the election and this was the phrase that the King of Thailand used against the "new economy" that Taksin had pursued. As Mr. Fujino just said, it is possible that mass consumption-based lifestyles will be eliminated totally so we should keep the new concepts in mind. If so, OMRON's approach of simply detecting potential needs and developing creative businesses to meet them may not be enough if you are to offer new values in the future. It will be essential that social needs are rethought fundamentally.

Conclusion: Aiming for CSR efforts to further the development of humanity

Shimamoto：

Nevertheless, my overall impression is that OMRON has created an excellent long-term CSR vision. I don't believe that many companies formulate a CSR vision, though some companies have established CSR guidelines. On top of that, companies that have envisioned a target image for ten years from now are very few, so I think what OMRON has done is very significant.
What OMRON did was to envision what it will be able to achieve from a realistic standpoint in ten years. This was based on an analysis of OMRON's current standing, so it's unavoidable that some points may be missing or insufficient. It may also be natural for a large gap to appear if you compare your current status against your ideal image for OMRON's CSR commitment in ten years.
To sum up our opinions regarding OMRON's CSR vision for ten years from now, I believe that a reflection of values that will lead to the development of humanity or happiness in each item is essential. When developing products for example, OMRON has not only pursued safety, functionality, quality design and low environmental impact but has also strived to promote innovation driven by social needs. With that in mind, I think it will be even better if OMRON upgrades its effort to offer creative concept values such as "additional benefits users can enjoy by using certain products." OMRON's commitment to universal design may be one way of embodying such concepts. If you can produce products that help to fully develop human potential, this would obviously be a great result that would truly befit OMRON.

Yajima：

Thank you very much for your valuable opinions. I think there are many things that we should add to our vision as it exists today. Through today's dialogue, we have discovered missing concepts or viewpoints that we should incorporate into our vision along with specific measures that we should implement. Again, thank you very much for sharing your valuable time.