External Evaluations and Initiatives

Overall summary

In addition to disclosing ESG information on SoftBank Corp. website, has compiled its ESG information into three reports: the Integrated Report, the Sustainability Report, and the ESG Data Book, and has separately published the Sustainability Handbook, which provides an easy-to-understand overview.

On the website, the company explains its three management strategies: “Growth Strategy,” “Technology Strategy,” and “Human Resources strategy,” indicating that the company is future-oriented and intends to disclose information that incorporates sustainability. In addition, the company's sustainability-related information disclosure includes a “GRI Guideline Comparison Table” to make it easier to find information.

The “Integrated Report” refers to the “International Integrated Reporting Framework” and “Value Co-Creation Guidance,” while the “Sustainability Report” refers to the GRI Standards, indicating that the company aims to provide a global standard report. The report's organizational boundary is clearly stated as “SoftBank Corp. and Group companies,” and the fact that the report is on a consolidated basis is highly commendable.

The disclosure items are extremely comprehensive. In particular, the ESG Data Book discloses numerous quantitative data from all perspectives-environmental, social, and governance-as well as boundary data. In addition, the number of disclosure items has increased significantly from the fiscal year ending March 31, 2021. For climate change, Scope 3 is also disclosed. From these points of view, it can be said that, in terms of past performance, the company has achieved the disclosure of data required by major ESG assessment organizations.

On the other hand, there is room for improvement in the efficient and effective communication of disclosed information to readers. It would be helpful to organize the location of disclosed information by making better use of the “GRI Guideline Comparison Table” and other tools.

Clarity of strategy

The company has identified six material issues: “Building society and industry through DX,” “Connecting people and information to create new excitement,” “Creating new businesses through open innovation,” “Contributing to the global environment with the power of technology,” “Building high-quality social communication networks,” and “Developing a resilient management foundation. The company has been working to improve the quality of its products and services. The material issue identification process and materiality matrix are also highly commendable. In addition, the vision movie, “Let's improve society as a whole,” is excellent in that it makes it easy to visually visualize the company's goals and path.

In terms of business domains, the integrated report clearly states the company's business direction, indicating that the company's dependence on the mobile telecommunications business will decrease over the next few years, and that the growing corporate business will drive the company's business. The company's “Beyond Japan” strategy, which calls for refining its solutions business in Japan, a country with advanced issues, and expanding overseas, is another clear indication of the direction of its strategy.

With technology as its core business domain, the company is expected to play a leading role in the future, and I hope that it will demonstrate leadership in issues related to sustainability, both in Japan and internationally. I hope that the entire corporate group will design its strategies and businesses in a way that takes into account both positive and negative impacts, and actively disclose information in a way that is easy to understand the company's direction and growth potential.