Human Rights Due Diligence

Process

In accordance with the United Nations Guiding Principles on Business and Human Rights, the Company has established a human rights due diligence* process to ensure respect for the human rights of all stakeholders affected by its business activities. The Company also regularly monitors and reviews the operational status of its human rights due diligence process, as well as related policies and initiatives, taking into account changes in the business environment and trends in human rights issues.

[Note]
  1. *
    Human rights due diligence refers to appropriate and ongoing initiatives undertaken by a company to address human rights.
Human Rights Due Diligence Process

Mapping human rights risks

The Company mapped human rights issues where its business activities could give rise to negative impacts. The Company has identified the following items as human rights risks that should be prioritized for action. For these risks, the Company has identified and evaluated the actual and potential human rights impacts through the human rights due diligence process.

When actual human rights risks are identified, the Company works to resolve the problems by eliminating negative impacts and, if necessary, implements appropriate remedies for victims. The Company also implements appropriate measures to mitigate potential risks.

The mapping is conducted by assessing residual risk after various countermeasures have been implemented for each risk item. The Company will continue to review the mapping items on an ongoing basis.

[Note]
  1. *
    Since FY2022, the Company has revised its assessment criteria for human rights risks to incorporate the difficulty of remediation, namely the possibility that a human rights violation can be remedied.
Human Rights Risk Mapping

Identification and assessment of
negative human rights impacts

As part of the Company's human rights due diligence, the Company has been conducting assessments to identify human rights risks in key segments since FY2020. In FY2025, the Company reviewed the overall status of human rights risks and confirmed not only negative impacts on human rights, but also management systems and the status of initiatives related to respect for human rights. The key themes, targeted segments, and assessment results for the FY2025 assessment are as follows.

Key assessment themes
  1. Ⅰ.
    Basic stance on human rights and major initiatives
  2. Ⅱ.
    Prohibition of forced labor, human trafficking and child labor including avoidance of complicity in human rights abuses
  3. Ⅲ.
    Prohibition of harassment and discrimination
  4. Ⅳ.
    Reduction of working hours
  5. Ⅴ.
    Appropriate wages and benefits
  6. Ⅵ.
    Employees' freedom of association and right to organize
  7. Ⅶ.
    Other human rights and social responsibility

Human Rights Self-Assessment Item
Targeted segments
  1. 1.
    Value chain
    1. (1)
      Key suppliers
    2. (2)
      Sales agents operating SoftBank stores and Y!mobile stores
  2. 2.
    The Company's group companies: Own business (SoftBank Corp. and its subsidiaries), joint ventures (associates, etc.)
  3. 3.
    Investment targets at the time of considering investment
  4. 4.
    Employees of the Company

List of assessment results

Category Domestic / Overseas Number of targets Companies assessed % of total assessed Companies with identified risks % of total assessed where risks have been identified Companies with risk mitigation plans and implemented mitigation plans % of companies with mitigation plans implemented
Value chain
Key Suppliers Domestic / Overseas 82 80 98% 0 0% 0 0%
Sales agents operating stores*1 Domestic 64 64 100% 11 17% 11 100%
Overseas Sales Agents Overseas 1 1 100% 0 - - -
Total 147 145 99% 11 8% 11 100%
Own operations
SoftBank Corp. and its subsidiaries*2 Domestic 74 64 86% 20*3 31% 20 100%
Overseas 24 24 100% 2 8% 2 100%
Total 98 88 90% 22*3 25% 22 100%
Joint ventures
Associates, etc. Domestic 19 19 100% 2 11% 2 100%
Overseas 2 2 100% 0 - - -
Total 21 21 100% 2 10% 2 100%
Grand Total 266 254 95% 35 14% 35 100%
[Notes]
  1. *1
    Shop business is conducted only in Japan
  2. *2
    Only subsidiaries with at least one employee were assessed
  3. *3
    In FY2025, the Company revised the assessment criteria for grievance mechanisms at subsidiaries and associates. The revised criteria assess whether appropriate consultation and grievance mechanisms are available to all stakeholders. Consequently, the assessment criteria are not directly comparable with those used in FY2024 and earlier fiscal years.

Please refer to the following for past assessment results.

Mitigation efforts for major risk items

In the FY2025 assessment, in addition to companies determined to require improvement support based on the overall assessment, the Company also provided support to targets determined to require improvement in priority assessment items in order to reduce risks for each assessment item. The major assessment items and initiatives are as follows.

Potential human rights risks
Absence of commitment to respect for human rights Overall human rights risks for employees Inadequacies in the grievance mechanism*1 Prohibition of forced labor, human trafficking and child labor
Overview of potential risks There is no established human rights policy demonstrating the commitment to fulfilling the responsibility to respect human rights as a company, and there is a possibility that the management's awareness of human rights is low. There is a possibility of human rights issues arising due to inadequate surveys among employees of each company and insufficient awareness campaigns aimed at prevention and mitigation. There is no established consultation service, which is a mechanism for understanding and addressing human rights issues related to business activities, and there are cases where remedial actions cannot be taken when problems arise. The existence of technical intern trainees in the supply chain and whether their human rights are being protected are not being monitored, raising the possibility that forced labor and other abuses are occurring.
Mitigation measures, mitigation remediation plan, companies covered Key Suppliers 0 companies 0 companies 0 companies 0 companies
Store operation sales agents 3 companies 5 companies 1 company 6 companies
Subsidiaries 1 company 6 companies 15 companies 0 companies
Associates, etc. 2 companies 1 company 2 companies 0 companies
Mitigation measure Common
  • Request for improvement efforts on risk items: Request for submission of improvement plans as necessary.
  • Providing SoftBank's response procedures, samples, and usage formats.
  • Introducing response procedures and best practice examples at seminars for Group companies.
  • Tracing improvement status based on this year's assessments.
Individual
  • Establishment of human rights policies
  • Conducting human rights surveys for employees
  • Conducting training sessions for employees
  • Establishment of a human rights consultation office*1
  • Conducting investigations into the supply chain
    <Investigation items>
    • ①Hiring status
    • ②Management of third-party fraudulent salary deductions
    • ③Verification of employment routes beyond legal compliance
    • ④Proper management of passports
    • ⑤Establishment of consultation service for technical interns
[Note]
  1. *1
    In FY2025, the Company revised the assessment criteria for grievance mechanisms at subsidiaries and associates. The revised criteria assess whether appropriate consultation and grievance mechanisms are available to all stakeholders. Consequently, the assessment criteria are not directly comparable with those used in FY2024 and earlier fiscal years.

Please refer to the following for past evaluation results.

Human rights assessment by segment

Human rights assessment for the value chain

As part of the Company's value chain initiatives, FY2020 and onwards, the Company has been conducting ongoing self-assessments of its key suppliers and sales agents who operate SoftBank stores and Y!mobile stores, which are the Company's main sales channels and points of contact with customers. These assessments cover their human rights initiatives and whether they are complicit in human rights abuses. When human rights risks are identified through these assessments, the Company works to resolve and correct the issues. The Company will conduct these assessments regularly and will continue to monitor and propose improvements in order to further reduce risks.

Key suppliers

Since FY2020, the Company has conducted annual sustainability procurement assessments for key suppliers. Since FY2024, the Company has used EcoVadis1, a third-party assessment platform, and the Sustainable Procurement Common SAQ2, a self-assessment questionnaire jointly developed by NTT, KDDI and SoftBank, to identify and assess sustainability risks, including human rights risks, among the suppliers covered by the survey*3. When issues are identified through the surveys, the Company requests the relevant suppliers to formulate improvement plans and encourages improvement through ongoing dialogue and monitoring. The Company will continue to strengthen engagement and work to reduce risks across the supply chain.

Building a sustainable supply chain

Sales agents operating stores

Self-assessments were conducted for all 64 sales agents operating SoftBank stores and Y!mobile stores (including stage stores in electronics retail stores) nationwide. As a result, no apparent human rights impacts were found. On the other hand, for the 11 companies where potential human rights risks were observed, the Company requested improvements to items where initiatives were insufficient and requested surveys of their suppliers as risk mitigation measures.
The Company also requested all sales agents that conducted parallel surveys to further promote their initiatives by introducing examples of the Company's human rights initiatives and providing other reference information.

[Notes]
  1. *1
    EcoVadis: A sustainability assessment service composed of four parts: "Environment," "Labor Practices and Human Rights," "Ethics," and "Sustainable Materials Procurement."
  2. *2
    Sustainable Procurement Common SAQ: A sustainability questionnaire standardized in FY2023 by NTT, KDDI and SoftBank. The SAQ extracts items related to the environment, human rights and labor, occupational health and safety, fair trade and ethics, quality and safety, information security and other areas, and is structured so that it can be shared between buyers and suppliers regardless of industry.
  3. *3
    Target suppliers for the survey: key suppliers selected based on a guideline of 80% or more of purchase amounts in the previous fiscal year.

Human rights assessment for Group companies

The assessment covered the Company, 88 domestic and overseas subsidiaries and 21 associates. In FY2025, the Company added items related to customer harassment and heatstroke prevention to the existing questionnaire reviewed the status of each company's initiatives. As a result of the assessment, no actual human rights violations were identified. Based on the overall assessment, however, the Company determined that 20 companies, including 2 associates, required improvement support. For these companies, the Company went beyond simply requesting improvements and provided practical support, including manuals, necessary survey forms and awareness-raising content for each company's employees, in order to reduce risks. The Company also provided improvement support for items that were determined to require improvement among the priority assessment items. The Company will continue its efforts to reduce human rights risks and enhance group-wide awareness through ongoing monitoring and improvement proposals.

Investment targets at the time of considering investment

In addition to human rights assessments for existing business activities, the Company conducts human rights assessments for new business activities when developing new businesses from the perspective of respect for human rights. The assessment items cover important issues related to human rights, such as prohibition of forced labor, prohibition of discrimination, prohibition of harassment, respect for the right to organize, and prohibition of child labor, and passing the assessment has become one of the Company's investment criteria.

Human rights assessment items when considering investment in joint ventures

  1. Whether policies are in place to prevent human trafficking, forced labor, child labor, land grabbing, deforestation and mineral conflicts involving suppliers and business partners, including outsourced workers.
  2. Whether a policy is in place that seeks to eliminate discrimination in hiring, placement, evaluation, compensation and promotion practices based on race, ethnicity, religion, nationality, origin, gender, sexual orientation, gender identity, gender expression, age, disability, or disease and to ensure equality of opportunity and fairness in treatment including equal pay for equal work.
  3. Whether a policy is in place that respects the right of employees of the company to organize as a means of achieving labor-management consultation on working conditions and wages.

Human rights assessment for the Company's employees

As part of the Company's human rights due diligence, the Company conducts HR interviews and surveys with employees and takes direct or indirect remedial measures when problems are found.

HR interviews and roundtable discussions with employees

The HR Division conducted HR interviews with employees from FY2015 to FY2021 to understand the conditions of employees with a cumulative total of 26,100 employees interviewed.
If any risks related to human rights were identified, the Company promptly took remedial action in cooperation with the relevant divisions. Furthermore, since FY2022, the Company has been holding roundtable discussions between the Head of the Human Resources and General Affairs Division and employees at nine major offices nationwide. In FY2025, to facilitate more in-depth dialogue, the Company focused the sessions on four key offices, with a total of 93 participants. By engaging in direct dialogue with employees, the Head of the HR Division is also helping to drive prompt improvement initiatives.
The Company will continue to place importance on dialogue with employees to understand and improve the actual situation onsite.

Conducted human rights survey for employees

Every year, the Company conducts training and provides awareness-raising content to employees on human rights, with a focus on discrimination and harassment. In addition, all employees are informed of a consultation service in the event of human rights violations, and the Company makes efforts to prevent human rights violations before they occur. In cases where human rights violations do occur, the Company handles them strictly in accordance with the regulations.
Furthermore, the Company conducts an annual survey of all employees to identify any potential human rights violations. In FY2025, a survey was conducted with 27,300 employees, and no responses were received requesting remedy for human rights violations in the workplace.

However, based on the results of the survey, the Company has identified eight issues, five of which are key issues, that could become human rights risks, and the Company is working with the divisions in charge to examine and implement measures to reduce these risks.
The results of this survey and risk mitigation measures are made available to employees. The Company will continue to respect the human rights of its employees through continuous surveys and monitoring.

Subjects Potential risk items, including key issues Risk mitigation measures
Discrimination /
Harassment		 Abuse of authority
  • Continuous training for employees and further expansion of content
  • A company-wide notice issued by the Head of HR
  • Harassment prevention e-learning for managers
Sexual harassment
  • Ongoing employee training and further enhancement of training content
  • A company-wide notice issued by the Head of HR
  • Harassment prevention e-learning for managers
Discrimination on the basis of gender Ongoing training for employees (Unconscious Bias)
Age-related discrimination and harassment
  • Ongoing training for employees
  • Verification of age-related systems / ongoing consideration of their framework
Customer harassment
  • Enhancement of consultation services and mental health support systems
  • Hosting lectures and dialogues for departmental representatives by external experts
Survey on Human Rights for Employees

Individual surveys on specific themes where business-related human rights risks are anticipated

Since FY2020, as part of the Company's human rights due diligence, the Company has confirmed initiatives to reduce human rights risks by focusing on specific themes in its business where the Company expects the human rights risks to be particularly high.
The survey was conducted in the form of interviews conducted by human rights staff with managers in charge of the relevant themes, and included confirmation of on-site business processes and operational realities that are difficult to ascertain through quantitative questionnaires.

  1. Personal data management
  2. Safety management for contractors involved in the construction of base stations and other facilities
  3. Human rights management for AI utilization

Personal data management

As a telecommunications carrier, the Company holds personal data, including information about customers themselves and information related to customers' use of the Company's services. The Company recognizes the management of such personal data as a human rights issue specific to the Company's business.

As a result of the survey, the Company has confirmed that it is appropriately managing personal data through the following measures.

Person in charge and organizational structure

In managing the personal data held by the Company, the Company has appointed the CISO (Chief Information Security Officer) as the responsible officer and has established a company-wide specialized organization to handle personal data from diverse perspectives, including laws and regulations, public opinion, and customer sentiment.

Privacy policy and consultation services

The Company has established a privacy policy in which it specifies the purpose and scope of the use of personal data held by the Company, and disclose it.
Furthermore, the Company has set up a customer consultation service to handle complaints regarding the disclosure of held data and the handling of personal data.

Information Security Policy
Privacy Policy / Handling of Personal Information

Preventing human rights violations through privacy impact assessments

When using privacy-related information, the Company strives to prevent human rights violations by assessing not only whether the information will benefit its customers and serve the public interest, but also whether it will infringe on privacy and cause disadvantages to the Company's customers.

Privacy and customer care

Protection of personal data

In order to protect its customers' data, the Company is strengthening its system by assigning persons in charge of security, data utilization, and information systems.
Furthermore, the Company has established an information security policy and rules for data utilization, and conducts education and training for employees on a regular basis to disseminate and raise awareness of the concept and cautions related to data protection.

Continuous Security Enhancement

Safety management for contractors involved in the construction of base stations and other facilities

The Company is actively upgrading its wireless base stations to further improve the quality of its calls.

Cell phone wireless base stations are often installed on steel towers and buildings, so it is important to create a system to protect the safety of workers and ensure reliable operation at the site. Therefore, the Company positioned the safety of workers involved in base station construction as a human rights risk specific to its business, and confirmed that appropriate measures are being taken through the following initiatives.

Safety management of field workers

Human rights management for AI utilization

At the Company, the utilization of AI is advancing in various fields of business, and the Company has conducted investigations into its impact on human rights, considering the expected diversification of utilization methods and the advancement of technology in the future.
The results of the survey confirmed that the Company has established an ethical policy on AI and is developing a governance structure based on the policy, and has put in place a system to manage human rights risks while improving convenience for customers through the introduction of AI.

Establishment of the SoftBank AI Ethics Policy

In July 2022, the Company established and published the "SoftBank AI Ethics Policy."
This policy establishes guidelines for six principles, including "Human-Centered Approach" and "Protection of Privacy and Security." It outlines the Company's commitment to conducting business operations and service development in accordance with these guidelines.

SoftBank AI Ethics Policy

Application of the policy at Group Companies

The Company has established a framework that enables the policy to be applied to Group companies, and as of April 2026, 87 companies have decided to apply the SoftBank AI Ethics Policy.

Initiatives on AI ethics and governance

The Company has established a governance framework to ensure that policies are effectively embedded into operations, and has put in place operational processes to ensure that service development is conducted in accordance with these policies, thereby strengthening related regulations and management structures.
Furthermore, with regard to the development and use of AI, the Company advances AI ethics governance with a strong focus on ethics, safety, and fairness, thereby ensuring the responsible use of AI.

AI Ethics and Governance

Implementation of human rights awareness activities

Human rights awareness training

PRIDE Index Gold Rating

"SoftBank Code of Conduct" stipulates respect for human rights and the prohibition of discrimination and harassment, and the Company conducts human rights awareness training for all employees, including content from the SoftBank Human Rights Policy, in order to foster an awareness of respect for human rights within the company. In addition to training for new employees and new managers by job level, employees in managerial positions and above receive regular training on how to deal with reports of bullying and harassment, as well as consultations, and training at the time of appointment.
In 2025, the Company received the highest "Gold" rating on the PRIDE Index*, an evaluation index for LGBTQ+ initiatives, for the ninth consecutive year.

[Note]
  1. *
    An indicator developed by the voluntary organization "work with Pride."

List of training programs (FY2025)

Content title Target participants Training type
Pledge to the SoftBank Code of Conduct All employees Other
Compliance training for new employees New employees / Mid-career employees e-learning training
Training for newly appointed managers Newly appointed managers e-learning training
Compliance Test All employees e-learning training
Harassment prevention course (Abuse of authority / Sexual Harassment / Sexual Orientation and Gender Identity (SOGI) Harassment) All employees e-learning training
Harassment prevention course
(What to do if you witness sexual harassment: office parties edition / Communication that helps prevent power harassment)		 All employees e-learning training
Harassment prevention course
(Distinguishing between power harassment and appropriate supervision / Sexual minorities and harassment)		 All employees e-learning training
Unconscious bias training All employees e-learning training
Diversity management training Managers Online training
Harassment training for managers in the Enterprise Business Unit Managers e-learning training

Raising awareness among Group companies

As an initiative to mitigate human rights risks for subsidiaries and associates, the Company provides a self-assessment tool on human rights and improvement support for each company based on the results. Based on these assessments, the Company provides individualized improvement support to each company, aiming to mitigate human rights risks and enhance their commitment to human rights.
In FY2025, in addition to information on human rights due diligence and regular information-sharing for human rights officers, the Company distributed newsletters to Group companies on practical issues such as the operation of grievance channels, supplier surveys, and disclosure of human rights initiatives, thereby supporting each company's initiatives.
The Company will continue strengthening the foundation for human rights promotion activities by sharing knowledge and information in close collaboration with Group companies.