The Company has been strengthening its compliance system. At the same time, we are making sure that everyone at headquarters, subsidiaries, and all AUTOBACS Group stores, including those of franchisees, are fully aware of the importance of conducting business activities in compliance with laws and regulations and ethics.
   Compliance with laws and regulations and corporate ethics is looked upon as a matter of course. Based on this premise, we have clearly defined our Code of Conduct and Guidelines for Action to meet the legitimate expectations of all stakeholders. With these as our basic principles, we promote thorough compliance and education and training activities not only within the Company, but also for our franchise corporations. Our Code of Conduct and Guidelines for Action include matters related to anti-corruption, the prohibition of insider trading, and the prohibition of business with antisocial forces. As a means to monitor the status of compliance, we hold monthly meetings of the Integrated Risk Management Secretariat Council, which consists of relevant departments. We have established a system to check for any deviation from the Code of Conduct and Guidelines for Action and take prompt action if a problem is identified.

AUTOBACS stores nationwide conduct annual compliance checks to continuously identify risks and implement improvements. We conducted a compliance check consisting of 82 items including those on laws and regulations related to our business such as the Fire Service Act and the Act on Recycling of End-of-Life Automobiles, as well as on labor management, franchise management for store safety, and other matters (in FY2022). We implement improvement activities for any deficiencies found and report them to the headquarters.

In accordance with the Code of Conduct and Guidelines for Action of the AUTOBACS SEVEN Group, we operate the Orange Hotline, an internal reporting system for the Group. Internal reporting is handled through an external hotline, not only for internal reporting within the Group but also throughout the AUTOBACS Group, including franchisees. In addition, we have established a system to promptly report all cases of whistleblowing to the Audit and Supervisory Committee through the Audit and Supervisory Committee Office.
*If the whistleblowers wish to remain anonymous, the report will be made anonymously.