Membership of Civil Society
Prevention of Bribery and Compliance with the Anti-Monopoly Act
Basic Stance
The basic philosophy of the Advantest Group, which is embodied in the ADVANTEST Way, attaches great importance to the awareness of one's responsibilities to society, and to the maintenance of integrity in one's conduct. Advantest implements a variety of measures to prevent the occurrence of bribery or other corrupt practices, and to prevent anti-competitive behavior.
Prevention of Bribery and Other Corrupt Practices
As a supplement to the ADVANTEST Way, Advantest has also formulated an Anti-corruption and Anti-bribery Policy, which clarifies, in detail, Advantest's rules in relation to the prevention of bribery and other forms of corruption throughout the world.
To ensure that all Advantest employees fully understand the Policy, and to ensure that they do not engage in behavior that violates law or regulations in any country, all employees throughout the Advantest Group are required to undergo Anti-corruption and Anti-bribery Training (e-learning) every year.
In fiscal 2019, there was no incident that violated the internal regulations related to anti-corruption and anti-bribery.
Compliance with the Anti-Monopoly Act
Advantest educates its employees about all aspects of anti-competitive behavior prevention as part of its Code of Conduct training, with particular emphasis being placed on the need to comply with the Anti-Monopoly Act; education regarding the Act is provided to new personnel in all relevant departments, including purchasing departments. In the future, Advantest intends to continue providing education and training aimed at ensuring the realization of fair and equitable transactions. In addition, Advantest's Internal Auditing Department undertakes sampling of purchasing transaction content, to verify that there are no violations of any kind.
In fiscal 2019, Advantest was not the subject of any legal action relating to bribery or other corrupt practices.
Social Contribution Activities
Stance towards social contribution activities
In July 2019, Advantest stipulated in the "ESG for Sustainability" the following: "We will respect our stakeholders, promote harmony with society, and contribute to SDGs in order to achieve a sustainable society." Based on this stance, Advantest conducts social contribution activities focused on the areas of preserving the global environment, developing the next generation, and contributing to local communities.
In addition, we use our business activities to meet the needs of our stakeholders and of society, and to fulfill our social responsibilities as a group throughout the world.
Promotional Structure
Advantest has promoted CSR and environmental initiatives in every country and region. However, the importantance for more global CSR and environmental initiatives is increasing as a company that contributes by itself or through its supply chain to a broader range of societies. We continue contributing to global societies through our CSR and environmental initiatives.
Framework to promote employee participation
At Advantest we are actively promoting employee participation in volunteer activities.
Volunteer activities provide a way to contribute to society, and we recruit participants through our intranet. We also include reports on activities in each region and participants' views in our internal newsletter which contributes to attracting new participants.
Employees can save up their unused paid holidays that would otherwise not be carried over to the next year and use them for volunteer activities.
Examples of Social Contribution Activities in Fiscal 2019
In the United States, Advantest has participated in activities for NPO Rebuilding Together Silicon Valley over 15 years to promote housing repairs for disadvantaged people.
In Taiwan, young people with hearing impairments were invited to our office to consider their future academic and career paths. (Photo on the left)
In Germany, we took part in "Girls' Day," offering young women insight into career opportunities in technical professions. In 2019, 27 students from 10 to 14 years of age participated in the event. (Photo on the right)
In our Gunma R&D Center, craft classes by employee volunteers have been held 30 times since 2005, and a total of 2,409 children have participated in the classes. We convey the joy of science to children through crafts and experiments.
In the United States, volunteers from Advantest's employees and their family members participated in the beach clean-up program held by the Pacific Marine Mammal Center at Aliso Creek Beach in California. (Photo on the left)
In Japan, we have been participating in forest conservation activities in Gunma Prefecture for 14 consecutive years. In 2019, 28 employees participated in activities such as thinning trees or setting up nets to protect trees from animals. (Photo on the right)