We aim to be a “new, comprehensive lifestyle industry” that continues to respond to a variety of needs in the midst of dynamic societal changes.

The financial crisis triggered by the U.S. subprime mortgage problem in 2008 has developed into a global economic crisis that is said to be the worst in a century. Moreover, Japan faces a number of domestic issues that are becoming more and more serious, including the declining birth rate, aging population, shortage of employment and increasing concern over food safety and reliability, in addition to global issues such as global warming, the surge in resource and energy prices, the widening gap between the rich and the poor, and the outbreak of infectious diseases.
In response to these changes, we in the Seven & i Holdings Group (“our Group”) are aiming to create a new, comprehensive lifestyle industry that continues to respond to the needs of each of our customers. In this process, we make use of the synergy of our Group, centering on seven core operational areas that are closely connected to the daily lives of our customers: convenience stores, superstores, supermarkets, department stores, food services, financial services, and IT/services.

We work under three committees to take our groupwide CSR activities to the next level.

We undertake our corporate social responsibility (CSR) activities together with our Group companies based on the idea of our corporate creed: “We aim to be a sincere company that our shareholders trust.” In fiscal year (FY) 2008, we set up three committees - the CSR Management Committee, the Risk Management Committee and the Information Management Committee - to take our groupwide CSR activities to the next level.
Each committee analyzes and verifies global issues—their relationship with domestic issues and the sustainability of our Group’s operations—identifies the issues we should tackle, and determines future policy. In this way, each committee reviews the Group companies’ activities on a timely basis from the point of view of CSR in an effort to take our CSR activities to the next level.

We strive to help develop a sustainable society through dialogues with our stakeholders.

Dialogues with diverse stakeholders are essential for resolving global and domestic issues. We at Seven & i Holdings and our Group companies are tackling these issues by holding proactive dialogues with our stakeholders—including customers, shareholders, business partners, local communities, employees and stakeholders in our stores, on our sales floors and other business sites—and by attempting to respond to them sincerely.
To make these efforts, we ensure that each of our employees recognizes the importance of the issues via the committees. To ensure our sustainable growth and development as a business group, we are striving to incorporate into our daily activities such action assignments as compliance with laws, rules and social precepts, maintenance of fair trade, respect for diversity, coexistence with local communities and awareness of the global environment.
We at Seven & i Holdings aim to harmonize our sustainability with that of society by responding to public expectations through our efforts in our regular operations. We also intend to maximize our corporate value by undertaking sincere business management based on the ideas of CSR.
We look forward to your continued support.

Contributing to resolving social issues through our regular operations by focusing the infrastructures and expertise of our Group.

Every day, around 36 million customers visit our Group stores in Japan and overseas.
The operations of our Group, including retail sales, food services, and financial services, serve as social infrastructures that are essential for our customers in their daily lives. With full awareness of our responsibilities, we have been thinking seriously about what we can do to resolve social issues through our regular operations and tackling the issues, by concentrating the infrastructures and expertise of our Group companies without being constrained by our past experiences.
In FY2008, we developed and began to provide a variety of products and services that ensure safety and reliability for our customers, including products under the label Seven Premium, a private brand that was developed jointly by our Group companies across business categories. In response to the declining birth rate and aging population, and to help women advance in society, we expanded our internet operations (Seven-Eleven Net and Net Supermarket), which integrate actual stores with the internet. We also established Seven Farm Tomisato, a new agricultural production corporation aimed at developing agriculture in a closed-loop recycling system. To help create a low-carbon society, we developed a program for reducing CO2 emissions with the International Tropical Timber Organization (ITTO) and dedicated our efforts to opening eco-friendly stores.

Raising employee awareness of our Corporate Action Guidelines and fulfilling our commitment to compliance throughout our Group.

To be a sincere company trusted by our stakeholders, we at Seven & i Holdings have been increasing employee awareness of our Corporate Action Guidelines through the Corporate Ethics Committee of each group company. We have also been striving to ensure our full compliance with the laws and regulations related to the operations of our Group companies.
To strengthen compliance throughout our Group, we established a dedicated Help Line for all our business partners in December 2007. Moreover, in addition to the existing internal notification systems of our group companies, in September 2009 we established an external help line that can be used by all the employees of our Group companies.
While improving our systems in this way, we ensure that all our employees give careful consideration to CSR. We will continue to commit to further strengthening our compliance through dialogues between our various stakeholders and operating companies at individual operating sites so that we are trusted as a sincere company

Improving transparency and objectivity in disclosing our CSR information.

In disclosing a variety of CSR information this year, we aimed to improve the transparency and objectivity of the Report by picking out information based on the opinions and suggestions of professional external advisers. We also added Seven Bank, Ltd., 7-Eleven, Inc. and our superstore operations in China in light of the profit structure of the entire Group and the expansion of our business overseas. We would like to ensure that our Group’s business activities are widely understood, with this Report serving as a tool for our dialogues with our stakeholders.
The Seven & i Holdings Group will continue to improve our CSR activities through our regular operations to maximize our corporate value and be a sincere, trustworthy company.
We look forward to your continued support.