CSR Management as Our Foundation

  In fiscal 2011, ASICS launched the ASICS Growth Plan 2015(AGP2015), a medium-term management plan focused on a policy of implementing customer-centric business operations throughout our Group companies worldwide.
  AGP2015 identifies the sales territories we will target as well as our global strategy. Our goals, in terms of our consolidated financial statements for the year ending March 31, 2016, are net sales of ￥400 billion; an operating income ratio greater than 10%; a return on equity (ROE, or net income divided by shareholders’ equity) greater than 15%; and a return on assets (ROA, or net income divided by total assets) greater than 8%. AGP2015 also identifies our corporate social responsibility (CSR) and corporate governance as the business foundations that support our business operations.
  For all companies, of course, sales and income are also essential indicators of economic value; nevertheless, we cannot fulfill our social responsibilities unless we identify environmental and social sustainability as our priorities.
  At ASICS, our mission is to provide products and services as a sporting goods manufacturer, thus contributing to the health and happiness of people around the world. However, we should not pursue this mission at the expense of stakeholders or the environment.
  In the effort to implement CSR management, we emphasize the common desire of our 6,000 employees worldwide to contribute to the emergence of a sustainable society with better products and services, and the power of sport, through the ASICS Spirit (p. 1) and ASICS CSR Policy (p. 8). We build on this foundation each and every business day.

Our CSR as a Sporting Goods Manufacturer

  The Great East Japan Earthquake struck in March 2011, at the end of our preceding fiscal year. This was also a great shock to ASICS, as our head office is located in Kobe, a city with its own history of earthquakes.
  In the immediate aftermath of the disaster, we provided assistance in the form of 66,000 donated items including shoes, training wear, and windbreakers, as was mentioned in CSR Report 2011.
  In fiscal 2012, we undertook an initiative to provide continuous support for the healthy growth of children left orphaned by the earthquake. In keeping with the spirit of our founder, who long sought to assist the younger generation, our future leaders, through sports, we started this project in part to return the kindness we received from across the country in the aftermath of the Great Hanshin-Awaji Earthquake of 1995. Sport has the power to give people courage; therefore, we believe that we can support the ongoing reconstruction effort through sports (p. 7).
  Moreover, through CSR initiatives that are unique to us as a manufacturer, we are contributing to the sustainable development of society through our products and technologies.
  In fiscal 2011, we conducted collaborative research with the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) ? an organization with a particularly high level of expertise in environmental sustainability ? in an effort to determine ways of reducing the environmental impact of the footwear industry.
  As a result, we intend to monitor carbon dioxide emissions in each phase of the product lifecycle, including raw material procurement, production, transport, use and end of life. We use this knowledge to adhere to our sustainability targets as set forth in our medium-term environmental targets. As one result of this initiative in fiscal 2012, we are releasing products that contribute to around 20% reduction in CO2 emissions while maintaining the same functionality. In the future, we plan to extend this initiative to our other business divisions (p. 5).
  The application of CSR to our manufacturing operations is not limited to environmental issues. In addition to maintaining rigid compliance with laws and regulations, we are taking steps to protect the rights of those who work throughout our supply chain.
  At present, this initiative is primarily the responsibility of the CSR department at our head office. In future, however, we intend to devise a system that our offices outside Japan which handle production, production management, and quality control could become the basis for CSR initiatives related to labor, the environment and the management of chemical substances.
  ASICS was the first Japanese company to join the Sustainable Apparel Coalition (SAC), having become a member in fiscal 2011. We are now working actively in the industry to reduce adverse impacts on the environment and society. As a member of SAC, we are also able to address CSR issues that are difficult for individual companies to solve on their own.

Enhancing Communication and Creating Social Value

  We believe that the main focus of CSR in the future will be "to create economic value by creating social value."
  ASICS has always been proactive about considering social value at the heart of our business operations; in this spirit, we hope to strengthen communication with stakeholders so that more members of society come to recognize our initiatives.
  We believe that this approach will not only increase the transparency of management and provide accountability, but also improve the quality of our CSR management and contribute to the emergence of a sustainable society.
  We look forward to your continued support as we demonstrate our commitment to our stated goals.

＜2012 CSR REPORT＞Click here