Concept of Sustainable Management＆Promotion Structure

The CITIZEN Group’s Sustainable Management

The CITIZEN Group has been operating for over 100 years based on its corporate philosophy of "Loved by citizens, working for citizens." Starting in FY2019, our 101st year in business, we have been promoting "sustainable management" to solve social issues through our business. Sustainable management means not only providing good products and services but also expanding our business while earning the trust of our stakeholders and continuously improving our corporate value through management that takes into consideration social issues, such as human rights and the global environment, throughout the value chain.

The CITIZEN Group identifies material issues based on its recognition of social issues and leverages its technological prowess as a driver for its value-chain-wide efforts to realize the "sustainable factory" concept and provide sustainable products, thereby creating economic and social value. By doing so, the Group aims to achieve sustainable growth and realize its corporate philosophy.

Sustainability Promotion Structure

Sustainability Committee

In April 2020, The CITIZEN Group established a Sustainability Committee for strategically and comprehensively promoting its overall sustainability policy and its initiatives to address material issues. This Committee is chaired by the President and CEO of Citizen Watch Co., Ltd. and comprises the full-time directors of the company and the presidents of the major Group companies in Japan.
The Sustainability Committee meets quarterly to identify and review the material issues that the Group should address, define measures and indicator targets based on each material issue, monitor and assess the progress of activities as well as the challenges faced during the activities, and deliberate on the direction of policies and measures as needed. In addition, the Committee holds study sessions with external experts and other events to deepen attendees’ understanding of social issues, regulatory trends, and what stakeholders expect from the Group, thereby enhancing the entire Group’s capabilities to ensure sustainability.
The Committee’s secretariat, which is operated jointly by the Corporate Planning Department and Sustainability Promotion Department of Citizen Watch Co., Ltd., organizes the Sustainability Secretariat Meeting in collaboration with the corresponding departments of the respective Group companies, as well as the secretariats of other materiality-related committees. This meeting provides the opportunity to regularly monitor and share each company’s awareness of sustainability-related challenges and the progress of its measures, thereby enhancing the effectiveness of the Group-wide efforts.
The Sustainability Committee gives a report to the Board of Directors every six months on the Committee’s deliberations, the progress of its activities, key challenges faced during the activities, and its policy on how to address those challenges. Based on this report, the Board of Directors performs its management and supervisory duties from the perspective of whether the Group’s sustainability strategy and the sustainability-related risks and opportunities it has identified are aligned with its medium- to long-term management strategy, as well as giving the Committee instructions and advice as needed. This process ensures the effectiveness of the Group-wide sustainability promotion structure.

Sustainability Promotion Structure

As its subcommittees, the Sustainability Committee has in place the Group HR Committee, the Group Environmental Committee, and the Group Sustainable Procurement Committee.
In addition, the Sustainability Committee Secretariat and the Secretariat Meeting, which comprises members from the Corporate Planning Departments and the Sustainability Promotion Departments of the respective Group companies, ensure that the content of the deliberations by the Sustainability Committee is shared with the sustainability promotion organization in each business.

Raising Sustainability Awareness among Employees

As a prerequisite for Group-wide sustainable management, The CITIZEN Group works, with the Sustainability Committee Secretariat playing a central role, to spread among all employees awareness of the connection between the Group’s business activities and its material issues, as well as the SDGs. We implement various rank-specific initiatives to raise employee awareness of our corporate philosophy and the ESG functions. Specifically, those initiatives, which have continued since FY2019, use such media as study sessions, e-learning programs, the president’s messages, and company newsletters to reach every employee and heighten their awareness. In FY2026, we held workshops for new Citizen Watch Co., Ltd. and CITIZEN SYSTEMS JAPAN CO., LTD. employees to deepen their understanding of sustainability initiatives.

Internal Promotion Activities

The CITIZEN Group holds lecture sessions targeting key personnel responsible for driving materiality initiatives, with the aim of ensuring their accurate grasp of social trends.
In FY2025, a lecture on the latest trends in international disclosure standards was held in August for executives and sustainability personnel in the Group. In addition, each Group committee holds study sessions on specific themes to increase the capabilities of each Group company’s secretariat. In FY2025, the Group Sustainable Procurement Committee and the Group HR Committee jointly held a study session led by an external lecturer on the OECD Due Diligence Guidance for Responsible Supply Chains of Minerals from Conflict‑Affected and High‑Risk Areas. In the same year, we also provided all employees of our Group companies with an e-learning program on response to climate change. Every June, our company newsletter carries an Environment Month feature story. The FY2025 feature story focused on environmental disclosures to complement the e-learning program, thereby ensuring the thorough spread of knowledge.