In nominating candidates for Directors, the Company shall include a person who satisfies the definition of Outside Director, aiming at reinforcing decision-making functions from various perspectives and enhancing the supervising function for execution of operation. Outside Directors/Audit & Supervisory Board Members are required to ensure their independence from the Company.
On March 31, 2014, Board of Directors (the Board) and Audit & Supervisory Board resolved “Criteria for independence as Outside Directors/Audit & Supervisory Board Members” as follows:

  1. A Director or an Audit & Supervisory Board Member shall be determined to be independent from the Company and not to have a conflict of interest with general shareholders of the Company unless he or she falls into any of the following categories:
    1. (1) A candidate or his or her immediate family member* who:

      2. ①is or has been an Executive Person, of the Company or its parent company, companies under the common control or its subsidiary (referring to a director other than outside director, executive/corporate officer or other employee; provided, however, limited to those who are important persons in terms of relationship with immediate family members. The same shall apply hereafter.); or

      ② has received during any of the last three fiscal years more than ¥10 million in direct compensation for his or her services as a consultant, a specialist in law, accounting or tax, or a healthcare professional, etc. from the Company, other than director or audit & supervisory board member compensation.

      *An “immediate family member” includes a person’s spouse, parents, children, siblings, grandparents, grandchildren, mothers and fathers-in-law, sons and daughters-in-law, spouses of siblings, grandchildren-in-law, and brothers and sisters-in-law. The same shall apply hereafter.

    2. (2) A candidate or his or her immediate family member who is or has been within the last ten years, an Executive Person, of a corporation or other association falling into:

      3. ① Business relationship

      1. (a) a company that has made payments to, or received payments from, the Group for products or services in an amount which, in any of the last three fiscal years, exceeds 2% of any of the companies’ consolidated gross revenues;
      2. (b) a consulting firm, law firm, auditing firm, tax accounting firm or school corporation that receives remuneration from the Group exceeding 10% of its gross revenue in any of the last three fiscal years; or
      3. (c) a lender from whom the Group obtained a loan of more than 10% of its consolidated total assets at the end of the fiscal year immediately before nomination.

      ② Major shareholder

      1.      A corporation or other legal entity that is a major shareholder of the Company or a corporation of which the Company is a major shareholder at the time of determining the independence. A major shareholder means a shareholder holding at least 10% of total shares outstanding of the Company.

      ③ Recipient of charitable contributions

      1.      An organization to which the Company’s discretionary charitable contributions in any of the last three fiscal years are more than ¥10 million and 2% of annual gross revenues of that organization or other associations.

      ④ Accounting auditor

      1.      An audit firm that is or has been for the last three years an accounting auditor of the Company Group.

      ⑤ Cross-directorship arrangement

      1.      When an Executive Person of the Company is a current Outside Director or Outside Audit & Supervisory Board Member in a cross-directorship arrangement with the listed company.
    3. (2) Even though a candidate for an Outside Director/Audit & Supervisory Board Member falls into any of the above, when the Board or Audit & Supervisory Board judge him or her to be ensured of independence after a comprehensive review, he or she may be determined to have no problem with criteria for independence as an Outside Director/Audit & Supervisory Board Members.