Corporate Governance

Continually revise management systems, strengthen internal controls as part of efforts to fulfill the company’s social responsibilities.

Basic Approach

From the outset, one of Toray Group's managerial principles has been that the purpose of a company is to contribute to society. The Group has developed the Toray Philosophy that incorporates this principle.
The Toray Philosophy is structured with the following components: the Corporate Philosophy, Corporate Missions, and Corporate Guiding Principles. The Corporate Missions specify the Group's commitment “To practice sincere and trustworthy management,” and the Corporate Guiding Principles stipulate the Group's commitment to “Acting with fairness, high ethical standards and a strong sense of responsibility while complying with laws, regulations and social norms to earn trust and meet social expectations.”
In establishing its corporate governance structure, the Group seeks to fulfill these philosophies as its basic policy.

Structure

Toray Industries, Inc. operates as a company with a Board of Corporate Auditors and Board of Directors. The Board of Directors, which includes outside directors, decides on the business execution and supervises the execution of duties by the directors. The Board of Corporate Auditors includes outside auditors and independently audits the execution of duties by the directors, separately from the Board of Directors and the executing organization. This framework is designed to secure the transparency and fairness of decisions made by the Board of Directors. In addition, there is a Governance Committee, which serves as a voluntary advisory body to the Board of Directors. The Governance Committee deliberates on all matters relating to corporate governance, enhancing the effectiveness of governance by the Board of Directors.
Toray Group operates in a broad spectrum of business fields at a global level. Business management and decision-making, as well as oversight, require assessment of a wide variety of risks from multiple perspectives based on expertise related to the day-to-day operations of the Group’s worksites. To that end, the composition of the Board of Directors is designed to ensure that members bring a diverse range of perspectives to management oversight and decision-making based on their expertise in the Group's businesses. Meanwhile, outside directors are elected to the Board to ensure transparency and fairness, to ensure oversight from an even broader perspective, and to obtain appropriate managerial advice from a medium- to long-term perspective.
The Board of Corporate Auditors is entirely independent of the Board of Directors. Based on professional expertise in finance, accounting, and law, as well as an understanding of the Group's businesses, the Board of Corporate Auditors exercises oversight over directors' execution of their duties. The Governance Committee consists of three internal members of the Board, and four outside directors, and an outside director serves as a chairperson. In fiscal 2021, the Board of Directors held 14 meetings¹ and the Board of Corporate Auditors held 11 meetings².

1. 1 For each director's attendance, please refer to pages 10 and 11 of Notice of the 141st Ordinary General Meeting of Stockholders.
   https://www.toray.com/global/ir/pdf/sto/sto_051.pdf
2. 2 For each auditor's attendance, please refer to page 47 of Annual Securities Report -141st Period
   https://www.toray.co.jp/ir/pdf/lib/lib_a587.pdf

CSR Roadmap 2022 Targets

Looking to the Future

Toray Industries’ Board of Directors conducted a “Questionnaire Survey to Evaluate the Effectiveness of the Board of Directors in the Fiscal Year Ended March 31, 2022.” The survey had among 17 respondents, comprising all of the Board members and corporate auditors. Additional interviews were also conducted with seven outside directors and outside corporate auditors to hear their opinions in relation to their responses to the questionnaire. In order to ensure transparency and objectivity, the Company contracted a third-party organization to collect and tabulate the questionnaires and conduct the interviews.
Analysis and evaluation of the effectiveness of the Board of Directors based on the above process concluded that the Board had generally fulfilled its roles and responsibilities in fiscal 2021. With regard to the matter of “diversity on the Board of Directors,” however, discussions continue to be held on the issue of appointing human resources who will contribute to the realization of the Toray Philosophy, based on the premise of ensuring quality. In terms of “further activating Board of Directors discussions, ” specific measures for improvement are being taken in fiscal 2022 and beyond, continuing from fiscal 2021, to further improve the effectiveness of the supervisory function of the Board of Directors.
With respect to the opinions, etc., received from the members of the Board and corporate auditors in the course of evaluating the effectiveness of the Board of Directors, the Governance Committee will hold in-depth discussions based on those opinions with a view to further improving the effectiveness of the Board of Directors, as necessary.

Fiscal 2021 CSR Activity Report

Click below on activity reports for fiscal 2021