In recent years, public demand for companies to take a progressive stance on CSR has been rising sharply in China. Under the policies of the Chinese government, CSR implementation guidelines and assessment benchmarks have been formulated, and CSR assessment rankings have been published. Since the fiscal year ended February 28, 2014, Chengdu Ito-Yokado and Hua Tang Yokado Commercial have been taking steps to create structures for promoting CSR more comprehensively and holding periodic CSR Management Committee meetings. The Corporate Culture and Ethics Subcommittee of Chengdu Ito-Yokado established curriculum for an online course that enables employees to acquire operational knowledge and technical awareness to ensure correct corporate behavior. Hua Tang Yokado Commercial's Corporate Culture and Ethics Subcommittee is returning to the origins of business, working to ensure that all employees are aware of the Corporate Creed and Corporate Action Guidelines. The Environmental Subcommittees at both Chengdu Ito-Yokado and Hua Tang Yokado Commercial seek to save electricity and water and have advanced discussions toward store operations that take energy conservation into consideration with specific targets for reduction. The Consumer Affairs and Fair Business Practices Subcommittee works to promote provision of safe and reliable products and services, which helps to make them even better.

In July 2016, Chengdu Ito-Yokado published its first CSR Report, covering its social and environmental activities. In the course of preparing the report, the company referred to the Guidelines on Corporate Social Responsibility Reporting for Chinese Enterprises (CASS-CSR 3.0) developed by the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences and the international Sustainability Reporting Guidelines (G4) of the Global Reporting Initiative (GRI). There is an index of the guidelines at the end of this report. The CSR report for FY2020 was published in June 2020, and it was distributed to attendees at the Sichuan Province CSR report presentation meeting and at meetings for the public, as well as being submitted to a CSR Report Conference held in Beijing by the China Federation of Industrial Economics.

Amid a rise in public interest in the safety and reliability of food, we provide products using quality and freshness management expertise developed in Japan. Sales staff, product departments, and quality control departments receive education on safety laws and regulations, production and processing standards, hygiene standards, and other aspects. About 797 employees of Chengdu Ito-Yokado and 60 employees of Hua Tang Yokado Commercial have acquired knowledge of safety and quality management.
Chengdu Ito-Yokado employees each receive a copy of the "Standard Operation Manual" to establish a unified standard for production and processes. The aim is to improve quality, and a representative from Head Office regularly visits stores to check that they are providing products that meet its standards. Annual third-party audits are also conducted.
Hua Tang Yokado Commercial conducts quality control training for foodstuff employees four times annually to ensure strict compliance with quality control standards.
We also visit our business partners' farms and factories regularly to see that they are meeting our standards for facilities and equipment, hygiene and production management, inspection systems, individual hygiene, and legal and regulatory CSR. In FY2020, Chengdu Ito-Yokado audited 39 business partners, and Hua Tang Yokado Commercial implemented audits of business partners 8 times. (To prevent the spread of COVID-19, the number of audits was fewer than in normal years.)

In 2013 Chengdu Ito-Yokado launched sales of “看得見的放心” food products, which are based on the same concept as the Traceable Fresh Foods with a Face of the Producer products dealt in Japan. Consumers can scan a QR code on these products to confirm on a dedicated website who the farmers are and where and how the products were grown. In FY2020 the company continued to handle “看得見的放心” products and newly developed 17 items in the series, including oranges (four types), watermelon, and pears for fruit, asparagus, carrots, and mushrooms for vegetables, and fresh eggs. These products are popular among customers, whose interest in food safety and reliability is rising.
As a management rule amid the COVID-19 pandemic, the city of Beijing made it obligatory to acquire proof of a negative PCR test when stocking imported frozen food products. In response to this tightening of quarantine inspection rules and sales rules, Hua Tang Yokado Commercial, as a model local enterprise, believes that the safety of customers comes first and thoroughly checks negative certificates. Furthermore, the company continues sales of "放心肉項目" meat products (reliable meat products), which enable customers to confirm the meat producer by using devices installed in sales areas.

Since 2008, Chengdu Ito-Yokado has appointed 10 customers at each store (5 customers each at Meishan Store and Huafu Avenue Store) to act as quality supervision monitors to help improve its products and stores with the customers’ standpoint. The quality supervision monitors meet at each store twice a quarter to give their opinions, and are encouraged to make proposals on matters that they have noticed at any time. Quality supervision monitors commented on the use of mobile phones by employees during work, and a new rule on the use of mobile phones during work was established, leading to improvement.
In addition to quality supervision monitors, Chengdu Ito-Yokado asked for cooperation from 95 customers and received 871 opinions. Based on these opinions, it reviewed product volumes and took other steps to provide even better products. Other efforts included making home visits to 1,000 customers living in its stores' neighborhoods to ask their opinions. In March, June, and September it conducted customer satisfaction surveys, asking for opinions from 7,435 customers.
Chengdu Ito-Yokado and Hua Tang Yokado Commercial also collect opinions via the Internet, telephones, opinion boxes, and instore conversations. In FY2020, Chengdu Ito-Yokado received 19,101 opinions and Hua Tang Yokado Commercial received 6,845. Based on the opinions received, a series of simple and reasonably-priced bedding products were created, and the products have been well-received by customers. We value customers' opinions and we are establishing systems to create stores that reflect their wishes.

Chengdu Ito-Yokado is involved in providing educational support and in assisting households in poverty. The company makes annual donations to Sichuan University; in 2020 it made donations on 23 occasions, and so far it has supported an aggregate total of 646 students. In FY2020, students studying Japanese at Sichuan University who achieved excellent results were given 72,000 yuan in scholarship, and 20,000 yuan was donated to the Department of Japanese. In addition, since 2007 Chengdu Ito-Yokado has targeted elementary schools for support, selecting four schools and making donations to improve school facilities and equipment for the purpose of assisting less fortunate children. Company personnel visited the four schools and donated stationery and school supplies, physical education equipment, and other items based on the schools' requests. In other efforts, the stores make seasonal visits to local households experiencing poverty, people with disabilities, and elderly people living alone, giving them gifts of living essentials.
Amid the COVID-19 pandemic, the scheduled summer camp of Yu’ai Elementary School and school visits to make donations were cancelled in 2020. Instead, a donation of 50,000 yuan each to Chongzhou Dao Elementary School and Jintang San Elementary School was donated for improving reading room infrastructure, purchasing books, repairing doors and windows that posed a problem to safety, replacing curtains, and so on. In addition, 25,000 yuan was donated to Pengzhou Elementary School for the purchase of equipment for extracurricular activities. In December, uniforms were donated to educational personnel in the Pidu district of Chengdu to help improve their image. A total of 2,816,000 yuan was expended for social contribution activities in 2020.

On the third Wednesday of every month, Chengdu Ito-Yokado employees at every store clean up the areas around the stores. The stores have also set up rest areas where external staff engaged in road cleaning can freely drink water.
Hua Tang Yokado Commercial conducts cleanup activities every day, with employees taking the lead to beautify the neighborhood.

Since opening our first stores in China, we have been actively appointing local employees with the aim of developing stores that are deeply rooted in the local community. At Chengdu Ito-Yokado and Hua Tang Yokado Commercial, Chinese store managers have been appointed. For the most part, local employees operate stores: the ratio of Chinese employees in management positions, excluding executives, is 99.1% at Chengdu Ito-Yokado and 98.3% at Hua Tang Yokado Commercial.
In addition, we have been making progress on the appointment of women in China. The ratio of female managers, excluding executives, is 59.5% at Chengdu Ito-Yokado, with female store managers at four of its 10 stores, and 46.6% at Hua Tang Yokado Commercial.

In FY2020, special attention was devoted to the reduction of plastics. In order to switch to degradable plastic shopping bags, responsible personnel from Chengdu Ito-Yokado attended the 21th IE Expo China, a trade fair for environmental technology, as well as a degradable forum organized by the China Chain Store & Franchise Association, to obtain information on such issues as the domestic production of degradable plastics and degradable standards. In addition, the company produced an educational video for internal use to deepen the understanding of employees and informed customers through posters displayed in stores and in-store broadcasts. Chengdu Ito-Yokado also actively publicized its use of degradable plastics outside the company.
In November 2020, Hua Tang Yokado Commercial and Chengdu Ito-Yokado jointly switched to shopping bags, called Super-Bags, made from degradable plastic. These degradable Super-Bags are provided at 2.0 yuan per bag, 6.7 times more than the previous shopping bags, which cost 0.3 yuan per bag for the largest size. At the same time, we are putting a lot of effort into the sale of eco-bags.

In the fiscal year ended February 29, 2016, Chengdu Ito-Yokado began operating a Self-Recommendation Program as a show of respect for the autonomy of employees in order to provide an outlet for their motivation. The program is for employees who have worked for the company for at least one year and allows them to put themselves forward as candidates for the jobs they seek.
Applicants who pass assessments are assigned to their desired workplace after a training period.

Training programs have been enhanced to boost the motivation of local employees and enable them to demonstrate their abilities to the fullest.
Chengdu Ito-Yokado conducted education on improving employees' primary qualification capabilities and workplace operational skills as well as other functional curricula (form production, packaging, beef products, register operation). It uses an online remote education system to facilitate training with enhanced content including at remote sites.
Furthermore, practical skills training sessions are open for all employees to observe if they wish, even if they are not undertaking the training, so they are able to learn directly from the instructor. It also holds in-store operational skills contests and operate a program where on-site customers score employees to select winners, encouraging employees to improve through friendly competition.
In FY2020 Hua Tang Yokado Commercial implemented special education programs on such themes as the Corporate Creed and management philosophy, store assistance, and customer service on three occasions. By having everyone read together the Corporate Action Guidelines at the president’s general meetings held every Monday, the company endeavors to increase understanding of its stance. Training related to everyday customer service is implemented using the morning and afternoon assembly. Staff who receive words of praise (including not only full-time employees but also part-time workers, tenant store employees, cleaners, and security guards) are commended at weekly store morning assemblies for all staff, which serves to raise overall motivation.

To pass on the Ito-Yokado ethos and foster human resources befitting Ito-Yokada, in 2020 we held classes on 523 occasions. These classes were divided into 11 subjects in accordance with the three themes of passing on Ito-Yokado’s corporate culture and ethos, training to improve skills, and the strengthening of customer service. An aggregate total of 8,881 employees attended the classes. (Of them, the number of executives totaled 1,065 persons, and the number of employees who were promoted after receiving the training was 186 persons.)

To respond to the needs of young employees, share company policy more efficiently, and develop human resources capable of working autonomously, we strengthened e-learning in 2020, implementing it 57 times in total. Course content, frequency of implementation, number of viewers, and number of views were as follows: corporate culture and company policy—18 times, 13,897 viewers, 166,764 views; skill improvement—39 times, 5,578 viewers, 83,382 views. The aggregate number of employees receiving correspondence education, including both stores and head office, totaled 13,897 persons (company employees and tenant store employees), and the number of views was 250,146.

In 2020, the Chengdu municipal government proposed the creation of low-carbon scenes as a priority, and in June government officials conducted surveys of the Shuangnan Store, Jianshe Road Store, Jinhua Store, and High-tech Store. The data collected at each store was used as base data in preparation for the building of low-carbon commercial facilities in Chengdu. In December, Ito-Yokado stores were selected as low-carbon models, and we concluded a contract with the Chengdu municipality, promising to continue to expand the use of energy-saving equipment and reduce our environmental load.
Hua Tang Yokado Commercial, meanwhile, controls store temperatures through the rationalized operation of air-conditioning systems. By adjusting the operating time and area covered by air conditioners as necessary in response to weather and temperature changes, it reduces the consumption of gas and electricity. Hua Tang Yokado Commercial requests a facility management business to keep track of store temperatures carefully, so it can constantly detect temperature changes and adjust the operating modes of air-conditioning equipment accordingly.