Enrich Society

Contribute to Society through ICT and Data Usage

Relevant GRI Standards: 103-2/203-1,2

Relevant SDGs

1: NO POVERTY
2: ZERO HUNGER
3: GOOD HEALTH AND WELL-BEING
4: QUALITY EDUCATION
17: PARTNERSHIPS FOR THE GOALS

Policies and Concepts
Organization for Implementation
Main Initiatives

Policies and Concepts

In recent years, various social issues have come to the fore: rapid increase in the global population, growing severity of natural disasters, worsening of food supply and environmental problems, and in Japan, low birthrates and an aging population are leading to a rapid shrinking of the working-age population and shortage of labor. To solve these problems, significant social and economic transformations are being demanded in every society and economy, and the advancement of digital transformation utilizing ICT (Information and Communications Technology) is required in every situation. Collaborating with companies in different industries and local governments as Your Value Partner, the NTT Group has been applying its management resources and capabilities, including human resources, research and development, and the ICT base to promote digital transformation and resolve social issues. Going forward, we will seek to make a greater contribution to society based on our awareness that utilizing the power of ICT and data will be particularly effective for promoting the B2B2X business model, rolling out the 5th generation wireless system, creating new lines of business, and contributing to the vitalization of regional societies and economies, which constitute the pillars of our medium-term management strategy.

Organization for Implementation

The NTT Group has made promotion of the B2B2X business model one of the pillars of our medium-term management strategy and has been taking action by establishing a B2B2X Strategy Committee with the president as chairman to facilitate Group collaboration while expanding projects. We are also deepening discussion about future deployment of the B2B2X business model at regularly held Board of Directors meetings and reporting on progress at general meetings of shareholders.

Main Initiatives

Promoting the B2B2X Business Model

The promotion of the B2B2X business model is an initiative for transitioning from our previous model, in which the NTT Group provided individuals and companies with direct services, to a new model which delivers added value to end users through support for service providers across a range of fields.

Facilitating collaboration with partners

Entered into a business alliance with Mitsubishi Corporation in December 2019 to transform industrial value chains and to generate new value through digital transformation and completed the joint acquisition of HERE Technologies, a global service provider in location-based services based in the Netherlands.
Agreed to form a multi-year strategic alliance with Microsoft Corporation in December 2019 to promote the creation of a Global Digital Fabric, development of digital enterprise solutions, and co-innovation of next-generation technologies to deliver secure, reliable solutions that help enterprise customers accelerate their digital transformation.
Entered into a business and capital alliance with Toyota Motor Corporation in March 2020 to establish a long-term, ongoing cooperative relationship that enables the commercialization of businesses to realize smart cities that continue to evolve in accordance with resident needs.

Developing a Smart Agri-City

Expanded the scope of the Community Development Partnership Agreement, signed with Sapporo City in 2015, to 12 municipalities in the Sapporo Metropolitan Area.
Entered into an industry-government cooperation agreement with Hokkaido University and Iwamizawa City in June 2019 with the goal of creating a smart agri-city.
Entered into a comprehensive cooperation agreement with Chiba City in July 2019 for future community development.
Going forward, as we advance personalization and the realization and deployment of 5G through the expansion of the B2B2X business model, we will support our customers in their digital transformation and contribute to the realization of a smarter society.

B2B2X Business Model

Initiatives for the Realization and Deployment of 5G

We launched our commercial 5G services in March 2020, and we will provide billing plans such as 5G Gigaho and 5G Gigalight, seven types of 5G devices, services in the gaming, music and sports genres, and solutions that contribute to advancing industry and driving digital transformation. Furthermore, we are promoting initiatives that will increase convenience and enrich people's lives by creating new value and offering solutions for social issues toward our goal of introducing 5G services in more than 500 cities by the end of fiscal 2021.

Creating New Lines of Business

Initiatives in the Location Business

There is growing expectation that the connection of all things and people via the Internet will advance intellectual productivity and enhance the quality of offices and daily lives, leading to a broader use of location technologies that make this possible.

Investment in HERE Technologies
NTT will strengthen location information services as a core function of the Industrial DX Platform that is being established in collaboration with Mitsubishi Corporation. As a concrete example, we will seek to develop a service that identifies optimal distribution routes by utilizing the world's largest and most accurate location information database owned by HERE Technologies to visualize vehicle locations and operational status. We are studying alliances with logistics partners involved in home delivery (last-mile delivery) and trunk line transportation (mid-mile delivery), where demand is expected to increase, toward launching several Proof of Concept projects by the end of fiscal 2020.
Capital and business tie-up with ZENRIN
NTT entered into a capital and business tie-up with ZENRIN Co., Ltd. to expand its respective businesses in the fields of infrastructure management, MaaS and autonomous vehicles as well as smart cities and contribute to the 4D digital platform™ envisioned by NTT. Beginning in fiscal 2020, we will jointly construct a high-precision Advanced Geospatial Information Database with an abundance of location information. In doing so, we will draw on the know-how of the NTT Group in high-accuracy positioning and mapping technology as well as infrastructural maintenance and management and ZENRIN expertise in the production of maps incorporating a broad range of collected information.

Providing Services that Support Healthcare Management

In April 2020, NTT Life Science launched the "Genovision" corporate wellness support service to help companies promote healthcare management and boost employee health. In Japan, low birthrates and the aging population have led to rising medical costs, with expenses for treating lifestyle diseases accounting for a major proportion. Meanwhile, companies are being required to consider maintaining and improving employee health from a management standpoint and conduct healthcare management as part of their corporate management strategy. To address these needs, Genovision will help improve lifestyles optimized for each individual employee by harnessing the NTT Group's accumulated technologies in ICT and security to conduct big data analysis based on healthcare data and genomic information.

Contributing to the Vitalization of Regional Societies and Economies

We endeavor to resolve social issues faced by local governments and regional companies as our contribution to the vitalization and development of regional societies and economies. We are engaged in creating completely new value across broad areas, including agriculture and medical services, by utilizing the NTT Group's total capabilities and ICT in collaboration with our partners.

NTT AgriTechnology Corporation was established in July 2019 as the first company specializing in combining agriculture and ICT in the NTT Group toward revitalizing agriculture-based communities by utilizing IoT/AI technology.
NTTe-Sports was established in January 2020 in a joint venture with SKY Perfect JSAT Corporation and Taito Corporation toward contributing to local communities by combining ICT and eSports.

Advancing Personalization by Supporting the Transformation of Lifestyles

We support customers as they transform ever-diversifying lifestyles by providing personal solutions centered on DOCOMO that closely align with individual needs. Subscribers to Gigaho and Gigalight, which are simplified and reasonable billing plans introduced in June 2019, totaled 17.87 million as of the end of June 2020.^* In terms of service, we are enhancing electronic payment and contents while utilizing AI and big data to improve communication with every customer.

^*The number of subscribers is the combined total for the Gigaho, Gigalight, 5G Gigaho, 5G Gigalight, Keitai Plan, Kids Keitai Plan, Data Plus and 5G Data Plus billing plans.

Promoting Digital Transformation

We are raising operational efficiency by introducing robotic process automation (RPA)^*1. The operational process has been adopted in approximately 2,900 cases within the NTT Group as of the end of June 2020. We are also recommending the use of RPA among our customers, and more than 5,200 of them have adopted the process as of the end of June 2020. We also sought to advance our Group management by actively introducing a unified enterprise resource planning (ERP)^* system for our personnel, finance, and procurement operations.

^*1Solution for automating operations previously handled by humans by establishing procedural rules to replace humans with robots.

^*2Management method for implementing centralized management of corporate resources to achieve optimization across the entire company.

Initiatives for Universal Design^*

The NTT Group actively encourages the broader adoption of universal design, which ensures that products and services are easy for all customers to use, regardless of age, gender or physical abilities.

^*Products and services that can be used by senior citizens, children, persons with disabilities, and foreign visitors facing language barriers (includes expanded functions)

Examples of Universal Design Products and Services in Fiscal 2019

Oshaberi Annaiban, an AI-based information board capable of engaging in natural conversation
Smart Room Mimamori, a system for monitoring elderly citizens
Home Currency Anywhere, which allows consumers to use their own country's currencies anytime, anywhere
Face Sharing, a technology that reproduces the mouth movements and facial expressions of someone else onto the user's own face
Small self-driving mobility technology and free rental service for next-generation electric wheelchairs

Establishment of the NTT Group Web Accessibility Policy

The NTT Group is working to ensure and improve the accessibility of its websites for a wide spectrum of customers, including senior citizens and persons with disabilities.
Specifically, the Group established the NTT Group Web Accessibility Policy. The policy for official websites of the Group companies with head office functions in Japan is set according to JIS X 8341-3:2016^*1 and each works to comply^*2 with Level AA.

^*1JIS X 8341-3:2016: "Guidelines for older persons and persons with disabilities--information and telecommunications equipment, software and services--Part 3: Web content" of Japanese Industrial Standards

^*2Refers to compliance with the description defined in the "Compliance Performance Announcement Guidelines for JIS X 8341-3:2016. March 2016 Edition (published on March 22, 2016)" of the Web Accessibility Infrastructure Committee, Info-communication Access Council. This means that we have established and disclosed an accessibility policy and confirmed that the pages fulfilled all the requirements through the tests implemented and based on JIS X 8341-3:2016.

About the Web accessibility efforts of the NTT Gro

Japanese version only

User-Friendly Service Lineup

We offer a broad range of discount services for various users, including senior citizens and persons with special needs, to facilitate access to ICT services.

Special discounts on dedicated lines for educational facilities (NTT East and NTT West）

Since January 2001, NTT East and NTT West have offered special fees for schools on FLET'S services suitable for using the Internet at a fixed sum in an effort to promote educational use of the Internet.

NTT East

Japanese version only
NTT West

Japanese version only

Discounts on mobile phone use for persons with special needs (NTT DOCOMO）

NTT DOCOMO offers the Hearty Discount programs for encouraging more social participation by persons with disabilities.

Examples of Hearty Discount Programs

370-yen discount on DOCOMO's GIGA plans (includes discount for sp-mode usage)
1,700-yen discount on basic plans such as the Kake-hodai (unlimited calling) plan
60% discounts on FOMA payment plans and monthly fees on various services
Partial elimination of charges for some subscription options
Setting of video phone call charges at the same level as voice call charges
No charge for dialing and obtaining information via 104 directory assistance

What is the Hearty Discount?

Japanese version only