Top Message

Concerns over climate change, the widening of economic, racial and gender inequality and other challenges are becoming increasingly global and are threatening the perpetuity of not only companies but humankind itself. Also, the recent global upheaval has significantly impacted economic activities and the lives of people around the world.

Our history shows, however, that humanity can utilize its collective wisdom and do its utmost to solve any issue when confronted by a crisis. I believe the SoftBank Group will continue to help solve global challenges and support the sustainability of humankind and the planet by continuously leading the Information Revolution to accelerate innovation that drives technological evolution.

Our corporate philosophy, “Information Revolution — Happiness for everyone,” embodies our determination to bring happiness to everyone, even to future generations 300 years from now.

To create a world where people can live in harmony with the earth and realize a sustainable society, the SoftBank Group will fulfill its responsibilities as the leader of the Information Revolution.

Corporate responsibilities on sustainability, including climate change and human rights, are becoming even more important. In fiscal 2020, SBG started establishing its internal foundation and has been steadfastly promoting sustainability initiatives, and over the past year, I feel we have taken another vital step.

With respect to the environment, in June 2022, we disclosed information in line with recommendations of the Task Force on Climate-related Financial Disclosures (TCFD), along with the Group’s greenhouse gas emission reduction targets. SBG has already achieved Carbon Neutrality. We will continue to work together as a Group to promote these initiatives, having our several major subsidiaries set their own targets.

Regarding social responsibility, we are stepping up efforts concerning human rights, such as identifying human rights risks, and also we are putting more focus on human capital. We believe people are the most valuable capital for the investment business, and continued qualitative improvement of our employees will drive our future growth. For this reason, we will continue to support every employee to elevate the talent and become a global player.

As for governance, SBG’s Board of Directors consists of highly diversified and skilled members from global business leadership and academia. Since June 2021, the ratio of External Directors exceeded 50%, further strengthening the supervisory functions of the Board.

In addition, we also promote the integration of ESG into our investment business, recognizing its significance as an investment company. Many of our portfolio companies are already working to address climate change, recycle resources, ensure diversity and inclusion, and eliminate inequality and discrimination. We believe that an important challenge for the future is how to integrate ESG seamlessly into our investment criteria. Companies that have an insufficient ESG perspective are considered to be more likely to deliver limited growth over the medium to long term, so investing in such companies could adversely affect our investment performance. It is indispensable that we address social needs head on. We will not simply integrate ESG into our investment criteria; we will continue to monitor the ESG efforts of those companies we choose to invest in and engage with them as necessary.

While these activities have already been highly rated by third-party ESG evaluation organizations, the Group plans to further deepen its initiatives with more substance. We will continue to promote ESG to enhance our vision while considering social demands and making sure of continuous improvements.

I was appointed as Chief Sustainability Officer in June 2022 and have been serving as the chair of the Sustainability Committee since then. As head of Investor Relations, I have been actively supporting sustainability initiatives. Now that I take on the dual responsibility in both sustainability and investor relations, I am committed to taking even greater ownership of our sustainability efforts.

To begin with, I would like to further accelerate our dialogue with investors and other various stakeholders. As a “Vision Capitalist for the Information Revolution,” SBG aims to continue investing in AI-driven innovation and supporting growth to realize its vision. We believe such business activities and our business model itself lead to the creation of social value and solutions to global risks. We will continue to widely communicate these matters to promote thorough understanding of our efforts.

We also seek to understand the expectations of our stakeholders well and capitalize on the findings in developing our measures. In particular, as our business activities spread globally, so do our stakeholders, we will continue to generate solutions on the front lines of the global market. The Sustainability Committee plays a very important role in this effort. We need to create a roadmap to achieve our stated vision and connect with our daily efforts. I believe it is imperative to share and convey policies and measures throughout the entire Group while SBG as an investment company and our subsidiaries/portfolio companies in various businesses as members of the Group work on sustainability.