Why it matters

Respecting human rights is an important foundation for creating a safe, secure, prosperous and sustainable society, and striving to correctly understand and recognize each country and region's laws, cultures, religions, and values is the social responsibility of companies.

What can be accomplished

We will respect the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and other internationally recognized human rights in all our corporate activities. We will strive to ensure that we are not directly or indirectly involved in discrimination or other human rights violations.

Future vision

The NTT Group is making every effort for implementing internal training to ensure that there are no violations of human rights. Based on the Guiding Principles on Business and Human Rights, we will use the human rights due diligence process to identify, prevent, mitigate, and correct human rights issues on a global scale, and strive to raise awareness of human rights and improve human rights management throughout the Group.

Human rights due diligence will be conducted throughout the entire value chain, including business partners, to ensure that the NTT Group is not indirectly involved in human rights violations.

Business Activity 22
Compliance with the NTT Group Global Human Rights Policy

Business Activity 23
Encouraging society as a whole to respect human rights

Our commitment

The NTT Group will work toward eradicating human rights violations, while also developing a lively employee-friendly work environment for a diverse range of personnel

Our objectives

Policies and Concepts

NTT is committed to respecting global human rights and believes it is an important corporate social responsibility. The NTT Group will strive to correctly understand and recognize each country and region's laws, cultures, religions, and values. We aim to create a safe, secure, prosperous and sustainable society by fulfilling this responsibility.

We included parts of NTT Group's existing Human Rights Charter in the NTT Group Global Sustainability Charter, and established the NTT Group Human Rights Policy in November 2021.

The NTT Group discloses its global human rights policies both internally and externally, in addition to meeting the requirements of international laws and evaluation organizations. This policy applies to all employees and officers of the NTT Group. We also ask our suppliers and business partners to support this policy and strive to respect human rights.

Organization for Implementation

NTT is committed to supporting its Group companies in their efforts to raise awareness on human rights issues. We believe it is important for the entire NTT Group around the world to instill an understanding of respect for human rights and undertake business activities with a full awareness of human rights. Accordingly, NTT has established the Human Rights Committee, headed by a senior executive vice president, under the Executive Officers Meeting.

Through this framework, we are working to heighten human rights awareness across the NTT Group and reinforce human rights management, including conducting human rights due diligence, training on human rights issues (training for officers including those at Group companies, training for all employees, etc.), and establishing and operating contact points for human rights.

Group-wide Human Rights Training and Education Programs

To disseminate the concept of respecting human rights and basic human rights, and to instill an awareness of global standards on human rights, at key points in employees' careers (joining the Company, receiving promotions, etc.), we provide training on human rights issues connected to business activities. In addition, for those in top management of Group companies or in other management positions, we offer programs that include lectures by outside experts on global trends in human rights. To foster awareness of human rights in employees, we issue invitations to employees and their families to submit human rights slogans, while the board member responsible for human rights issues delivers a message to mark Global Human Rights Day.

Since fiscal 2014, the NTT Group has worked to disseminate its Human Rights Policy by sharing the content of e-learning with Group companies in Japan and continuously carrying out educational activities during training for all employees as well as on other occasions. In the training, we communicate the importance of respect for human rights and the significance of addressing the issue throughout the NTT Group.

Reviewing Our Initiatives with Human Rights Experts Stakeholder Dialogue

During the dialogue, the participants exchanged views on a broad range of topics, including the need to address privacy and human rights issues, development of a grievance mechanism and incorporation into the management system, establishment of a human rights management system linked with overseas Group companies, and the need to disclose information on these initiatives. This was our first dialogue with experts on human rights. We renewed our awareness of the importance of promoting human rights initiatives by considering measures in response to this review and by continuously engaging in dialogue with stakeholders as we pursue these issues in the future.

Addressing critically important human rights issues

Risk identification and assessment

At the NTT Group, human rights managers from domestic and overseas companies discuss and select human rights issues to be addressed by NTT and determine priority issues to be addressed each year.

We will also hold dialogue with experts to obtain advice regarding our initiatives. In our human rights management survey in fiscal 2016 covering all Group companies in Japan and overseas, and based on the Guiding Principles on Business and Human Rights, we checked up on their human rights policy, management systems and priority human rights issues. The results identified priority human rights issues for 250 of the 258 companies surveyed and indicated that 248 companies are working on specific initiatives to raise awareness about these human rights issues.

Since fiscal 2017, we have brought in external specialized institutions to implement risk assessments based on results obtained from in-house surveys. In fiscal 2017, a potential human rights impact assessment was carried out which assigned an evaluative score to the degree of negative impact of the NTT Group's businesses on the human rights of stakeholders from the perspective of "the likelihood of future human rights risks in each country" and "severity of human rights risks arising in each business." The results of this led to us identifying Asia as a priority area for tackling human rights issues and establishing 21 human rights indicators for ICT business.

In fiscal 2018, a manifest human rights impact assessment was carried out to verify the initiatives implemented in the previous fiscal year. After considering factors such as country risk for each country in Asia and impact on business, India was selected as the country to be assessed. Interviews were conducted with our local subsidiary and a local NGO that deals with human rights risk associated with specific business activities. The results of this confirmed there are currently no serious human rights issues that present a major risk to business operations. Meanwhile we identified priority issues out of the 21 human rights indicators mapped to be addressed in India in the future.

In fiscal 2019, we conducted a second human rights management survey following the first one in fiscal 2016 to confirm the management status of human rights contact points at each company and to set the NTT Group's human rights priorities. The survey was conducted targeting the NTT Group and our supply chain regarding the following items.

As a result, we identified "women's rights," "privacy rights," "working hours," "occupational health and safety" and "the right to organize and collective bargaining" as our top five issues and became aware of the urgent need to reconfigure management to address global human rights issues. We also held a stakeholder dialogue involving five experts from three overseas organizations (Verisk Maplecroft, World Benchmarking Alliance and Corporate Human Rights Benchmark) and one Japanese organization (Japan Research Institute) with the head of the Human Rights Office. And we received advice on the NTT Group's overall human rights initiatives, human rights in the ICT industry, related challenges, information disclosure and Group-wide promotion of initiatives.

In fiscal 2020, we held an in-house lecture for each issue with external experts from the organization, BSR. We held these lectures with the aim of fostering an understanding of the priority human rights issues we face as a united NTT Group company, including our global operations, and we also considered the reporting efforts of each company within the group. This dialog was conducted several times. We also researched the human rights management content required of us as a global ICT company, and worked with staff in charge of human rights including at global group companies to focus on particularly important issues and select four themes.

In fiscal 2021, we will continued to hold dialogues with each company in Japan and overseas to determine specific courses of action, and also established a globally standard human rights policy.

Promotion of "Diversity & Inclusion"

"D&I Statement"

The NTT Group has established the D&I Statement as a means of promoting Diversity Equity & Inclusion.

We will be promoting D&I in line with this statement.

Promotion of "Technology that is based on high ethical standards," which balances both high ethical standards and technology

The NTT Group views the appropriate use of technology as a valuable way to support the future development of live, society, and the universe as a whole.

The development of technology increases the diversity and closeness of communications, making the movement of people and things more efficient, and creating a safer, more comfortable lifestyle--all for a better future.

Until now, NTT has rolled out communications services and communications infrastructure on a global scale as a universal service based on its mission from both a public utility and a corporate viewpoint.

In addition to employing high ethical standards for advancing the use of technology, the norms of countries, regions and communities need to be respected for fair and appropriate implementation as well as to ensure the technology can continue to be provided for future generations.

We believe that human autonomy should be applied when seeking ways to adopt AI. The operational results of AI systems may contain bias depending on the characteristics of the data and algorithms being used. Efforts are being made to better understand those characteristics so that there are no undesirable consequences like prejudices held by people making use of AI, and we are advancing research and development to increase transparency when AI is being used.

We will continue to promote technology based on constant dialogue with all members of society and high ethical standards to ensure the development of trusted technology into the future.

Healthy work in daily life (health management)

A diverse range of working styles is vital to ensure that a diverse range of personnel are able to harness their full potential. The NTT Group is home to diversity that cannot be defined by any single characteristic alone. As employees are drawn from an increasingly diverse pool, being accepting of others, building a relationship of trust and working together to achieve a common goal is vital in order to maintain ongoing growth of the company. Transforming work styles helps to boost each individual employee's capabilities and provides for greater opportunities. To achieve this, we believe it is important to create a safe and secure workplace, and promote a variety of work styles suited to a diverse range of lifestyles and life events.

In September 2021, NTT announced "Transformation to a New Management Style." This policy was established based on remote work as employee's work style, where we give employees the freedom to chose their work location. As we work toward maximizing well-being for all, the NTT Group will be implementing Healthy work in daily life by creating workplaces where employees can work energetically in good health.

Promotion of "Appropriate expression, speech, and display" in consideration of human rights

As the Internet becomes more and more widespread, the negative impact of harmful websites and slanderous content on social media on young people is becoming a social problem. One aspect of communications technology like social media is that it leads to platforms created solely by individual preferences or sense of values. In this context, companies are required to be more appropriate in their communications than ever before. The General Manager of the Sustainability Promotion Office concurrently serves as the Chief Privacy Officer (CPO) and acts as a contact point for complaints of privacy violations in the company.

Specific Initiatives

DOCOMO gives careful consideration to protecting the freedom of expression and privacy rights of people communicating via the Internet, social media and digital communication devices, which are ICT industry specific issues that have been gaining more recognition by most telecommunications carriers in Europe and the U.S. With reference to the Principles of Freedom of Expression and Privacy established in 2013 by the Global Network Initiative, a global network of telecommunications companies, we take a stance to fulfill our own responsibility to respect and protect the freedom of expression and privacy of our users. This includes protecting the globally recognized rights of our users, even in situations where we need to provide customer information under special circumstances, such as a matter of national security requested by the government.

Penetration into the business

We make improvements aimed at stopping, preventing or reducing any negative effects related to human rights. We also establish common global targets for human rights issues to be addressed and promote their penetration into the NTT Group's business operations.

We continued to hold dialogue with group companies in Japan through fiscal 2021, and after reassessing the situation, established globally standard targets for the way our management needs to be enhanced. We also created internal guidelines for human rights due diligence, which serve to foster a common understanding as well as outline the appropriate procedures to take.

Confirmation of viability and effectiveness

To confirm the viability and effectiveness of the measures and check progress, performance targets (KPI) have been set and will be followed up. This process will be held regularly, with sustainability liaison meetings held to check progress of viability and effectiveness.

Disclosure and evaluation

The Sustainability Committee and global conferences are held once a year to share progress and results around the world.

The details of due diligence are disclosed in "Human Rights Reports" together with reports of activities.

The NTT Group also endeavors to broadly communicate its "Business and Human Rights" initiatives. In fiscal 2019, we shared an overview of the business and human rights activities of the NTT Group at an international conference hosted by the Caux Round Table Japan. We also reported on the results of human rights due diligence and risk assessment conducted from 2017 to 2018 as well as on how these processes are being applied across Group companies. Moreover, we expressed our intention to continue assessing risks, bolster educational programs on business and human rights, and establish an effective management system. The conference was attended by 97 people from 54 companies and 8 organizations, including companies, NGOs, NPOs, and universities.

Dialogue with third parties

In each process, when risks are discovered, we will hold dialogues with experts and other third parties and work with everyone in the value chain to make improvements toward a broad and fair solution.

Even now we seek advice from outside experts and other specialists to discuss our Human Rights Policy and measures related to human rights.

Suspension of transactions

As a result of due diligence, if forced labor, inhumane treatment, child labor, discrimination, or wages below the minimum wage are recognized, we will consider suspending transactions as a viable option, after first making improvements together with everyone in the value chain. The entire NTT Group is working toward creating a better future by cooperating with partners to resolve issues related to human rights. In addition to the Human Rights Policy, we will also require third parties to comply with the "NTT Group Supply Chain Sustainability Promotion Guidelines" provided separately.

Accusation and Remedy

In an effort to ensure awareness and prevent recurrence, we have set up a Corporate Ethics Action Q&A section on our employee-oriented corporate website to explain nine representative examples of ethics violations. Each example action is described and laws and regulations that are the basis of reasoning are explained. When the NTT Group has taken disciplinary action related to human rights, we publish excerpts of the cases and expound the cases on the site to raise employee awareness and prevent recurrence by calling for their attention and organizing training and other educational opportunities.

Contact Point for Human Rights Issues

The NTT Group provides internal and external contact points that employees can consult on various concerns related to human rights.

One of these, the Corporate Ethics Help Line, is an external consultation desk outsourced to a law firm that responds to consultation by third parties or by employees, on a confidential basis, for situations that cannot be reported internally. Consultations are accepted in various forms, including email, telephone and letter. All consultations are thoroughly kept confidential to protect the privacy of the person and ensure they are not subjected to disadvantageous treatment.

The contact point also handles consultations on compliance issues. Please see here for details.

Value Chain Management

Policies and Concepts

In recent years, companies find themselves required to monitor the ESG risks and impact on sustainability, including consideration of human rights and mitigation of environmental impacts, of not only their own group companies but also throughout the entire value chain, from raw materials and supplies procurement to disposal and recycling. Also, we are seeking to expand the B2B2X model and global businesses under the medium-term management strategy "Your Value Partner 2025" that we established in 2018. We expect our value chain to expand further globally, requiring us to enhance our value chain management initiatives.

The NTT Group's value chain management focuses on requiring suppliers to adhere to the various guidelines under the "Procurement Policies" established by NTT. For this reason, it is important for us to build partnerships of trust with all of our suppliers.

In 2013, we formulated the NTT Group Supply Chain Sustainability Promotion Guidelines to further promote sustainable procurement, and we carry out risk assessments of suppliers following these guidelines. Additionally, we have formulated the "NTT Guidelines for Green Procurement" and the "NTT Group Energy Efficiency Guidelines" as specific guidelines on the environment and we require all suppliers to comply with the provisions therein.

Organization for Implementation

NTT's Technology Planning Department has formulated the NTT Group Supply Chain Sustainability Promotion Guidelines as a guide for promoting sustainability in the supply chain throughout the Group. In coordination with procurement divisions at each NTT Group company, we ensure that a supplier's compliance with key items within the guidelines is a basic condition of procurement and we regularly check that this condition is being met and follow-up with suppliers.

NTT Group Supply Chain Sustainability Promotion Guidelines

A number of supply chain issues have recently come to light, including serious human rights violations such as forced labor and child labor, unlawful disposal of waste, response to stricter regulations on controlling chemical substances, bribery, and other examples of malpractice.

In light of this, we formulated the NTT Group Supply Chain Sustainability Promotion Guidelines in 2013 that contain detailed requirements for suppliers in the six areas of human rights/labor, health/safety, the environment, fair trade/ethics, quality/safety, and information security to guide our efforts as we work together with suppliers in order to conduct procurement activities in a socially responsible manner.

We have published these Guidelines in Japanese and English, seeking to communicate to a broad range of the NTT Group's suppliers both in Japan and overseas. We expect suppliers to adhere to these guidelines along with our Procurement Policies and the NTT Group Guidelines for Green Procurement, which contain our basic approach to green procurement at the NTT Group.

Request to Business Partners for Compliance and Risk Assessment

The NTT Group Supply Chain Sustainability Promotion Guidelines, the operational guidelines we issue to our suppliers, clearly outlines fair trade practices and business ethics (nine articles). With respect to critical suppliers, we conducted a survey on the status of sustainability procurement. We checked activities concerning compliance in general, including their response to preventing corruption, illegal political contributions and antisocial forces, and also requested further improvements where necessary.

ESG Education for Procurement Department Staff

The NTT Group implements training on ESG for staff in procurement departments to reduce the burden of procurement activities on the environment and ensure they persistently comply with the laws, regulations, and norms of society.

VA Proposal System and Supplier Awards System

NTT East and NTT West engage in value analysis activities in which we invite our suppliers to submit proposals for enhancing quality, safety and workability, and for contributing to environmental protection, and then we incorporate their ideas in product specifications. We award suppliers that offer particularly outstanding proposals. In addition, we participate in improvement presentations held by suppliers and work with them to make improvements based on dialogue and cooperation.

Since fiscal 2006, we consolidated contact points for a simpler proposal system and established an environment for further developing improvement activities, including adding a new scheme for VE (Value Engineering) & VA (Value Analysis) proposals from telecommunications construction companies and suppliers. We will remain active on improving our products and services.

Assessment of Social and Environmental Risks

We assess social and environmental risks by conducting the Supply Chain Sustainability Survey using the Supply Chain Sustainability Promotion Check Sheet to confirm the status of compliance with various guidelines and technical requirements.

The survey targets all of the NTT Group's critical suppliers that account for at least 90% of total procurement value, supplier of non-substitutable products and supplier of important products. The survey includes 140 items covering the seven areas of human rights and labor, health and safety, the environment, fair trade and ethics, quality and safety, information security, and social contributions. For example, in the area of human rights, we also conduct monitoring of child labor and forced labor as well as compliance with the freedom of association and collective bargaining rights. We assess the responses from suppliers, and designate those with a certain percentage of low-rated responses, or those with a low rating for specific items, as high sustainability risk suppliers.

We visit these designated suppliers to perform additional checks, and when corrective action is necessary, we have them prepare an improvement plan and monitor its implementation. While the survey covers critical suppliers, we seek to assess risks that exist further upstream by also including items that check whether the supplier is making efforts to educate secondary suppliers about social responsibility. The goal of the survey is to request and receive responses from all critical suppliers.

Requests to Suppliers on Environmental and Social Concerns

We have established the following guidelines as requirements under the NTT Group Supply Chain Sustainability Promotion Guidelines and seek compliance from suppliers. We also ask all suppliers that participate in procurement, whether they are a new supplier or not, to comply with our Notes Regarding Participation in the Procurement Process, including not having any past involvement with organized crime groups or demonstration of improper conduct related to procurement.

We revised the NTT Group Guidelines for Green Procurement in April 2021, and added environmentalrelated requirements that suppliers should comply with.

As part of environmental activities announced by the NTT Group such as the Environment and Energy Vision, this revision includes a declaration of environmentally friendly procurement (green procurement), and stipulates that all suppliers are requested to cooperate with the NTT Group's environmental activities aimed at conservation of the global environment. In the past these guidelines applied to products procured by the NTT Group, however following this revision, these guidelines have been expanded to apply to products and services sourced by the NTT Group. It also specifies the requirements of initiatives for suppliers for reducing their environmental impact, such as reducing greenhouse gas emissions, their commitment to resource recycling, and the conservation of biodiversity. The NTT Group will continue to implement initiatives for reducing its environmental impact throughout the entire supply chain.

Conducting Risk Assessment for the Supply Chain

We assess the sustainability activities of suppliers through surveys referencing various guidelines, and conduct risk assessments from various angles, including society, quality and the environment. We will continue to scrutinize the survey method, survey content, and analysis method and use the findings of these questionnaires to provide feedback and continue discussions with suppliers in order to reduce risks across the value chain of the NTT Group.

Communicating with Suppliers

The NTT Group strives to build better partnerships with each of its suppliers by mutually exchanging views and proposals through various modes of communication.

In July 2018, we started introducing a system that enables faster assessment of damage to suppliers following a major earthquake or other disaster. By exchanging information more quickly and accurately, we will continue to work with suppliers on the prompt restoration of telecommunications equipment. The NTT Group companies also engage in various forms of communication with their suppliers.

Specifically, these companies inform their suppliers of their business environment and exchange views on how they can continually work together to provide a stable supply of high quality, competitive products.

Other Human Rights Initiatives

Introduction of B-BBEE

South Africa, where Dimension Data, a subsidiary of NTT, is headquartered, adopts the Broad-Based Black Economic Empowerment (B-BBEE) policy to enhance the status of people who had been disadvantaged by discriminatory treatment during the apartheid era. Under B-BBEE, which the Government of South Africa uses as an assessment standard, companies are rated on a scorecard for their level of contribution to ownership, management, employment equity, skills development, preferential procurement, enterprise development, and socio-economic development. As a result of its efforts in the areas of ownership, employment equity and skills development, Dimension Data was recognized as a Level 2 contributor in March 2020, the second highest recognition in the eight level B-BBEE system, two ranks higher than the previous year.

Assessment of Risks Associated with Conflict Minerals

In accordance with the NTT Group's Approach to Conflict Minerals, we conducted written surveys and inspected the offices and factories of suppliers to determine whether or not these minerals are used in their products.

Initiatives to Address Gender Pay Gap

NTT Security (UK) Limited, which serves customers around the world by providing total solutions incorporating advanced technologies and services related to security, has been publishing a gender pay gap report since 2017. NTT Security discloses the gender gap in its hourly wages and bonus payments to employees in response to the Equality Act 2010 (Gender Pay Gap Information) Regulations 2017 enacted by the British government in 2017.

Modern Slavery Act Statement

NTT Group companies have published their statements in accordance with Article 54, Item 1 of the Modern Slavery Act 2015 enacted in the United Kingdom. With the "Modern Slavery Statement," companies set out their actions to ensure that slavery and human trafficking are not taking place in their business operations or in their supply chain.

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  NTT DOCOMO

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  NTT
  Communications

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  NTT EAST

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  NTT WEST

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  NTT DATA

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  NTT DATA, Inc.

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  NTT Ltd.

Group Companies