The Sumitomo Rubber Group is striving to protect the safety and health of employees and maintain a comfortable operational environment. To this end, the Group is acting in close collaboration with the labor union to promote various activities under the slogan “Occupational safety and health must be prioritized over anything else” in order to reduce the number of occupational accidents to zero.
Occupational Safety & Health Management
The Sumitomo Rubber Group
Promotion Framework
The Central Safety and Health Committee has determined activity policies for the Group. In line with these policies, we will observe “three basic principles for nurturing safety-oriented human resources, namely, (i) complying with rules, (ii) raising safety awareness, and (iii) ensuring that managers and supervisors fulfill their responsibilities.” Moreover, we will uphold “three basic policies for maintaining facility safety, namely, (i) securing mechanisms that automatically put a halt to facility operations when a human operator is present in a dangerous area and, therefore, at a risk of a serious accident, (ii) ensuring that any facility can be suspended immediately by a human operator at will, and (iii) installing equipment designed to draw operators’ attention to potential hazards when they enter a dangerous area, and if this is impossible, giving instructions to draw attention to facility and operational risks.” We believe that,
premised on the practice of these policies, creating an open-minded workplace where everyone cares about one another is a matter of fundamental importance in terms of nurturing safety-oriented human resources. We will thus strive to ensure that the spirit of placing utmost priority on occupational safety and health is entrenched in every corner of our workplace. Moreover, these policies are equally applicable to employees of the Sumitomo Rubber Group, employees of contractors, and stakeholders who visit our facilities.
Organizational Chart of the Sumitomo Rubber Group’s Safety and Health Activities
Acquiring Certification under the ISO45001 Occupational Health and Safety (OH&S) Management System Standard
The Sumitomo Rubber Group had previously acquired certification under OHSAS18001, an international standard for occupational health and safety management system. In 2019, our business bases began upgrading their OHSAS18001 certification to that based on ISO 45001 in a phased manner. With the South Africa Factory having completed this transition in September 2021, all certified factories have successfully shifted to ISO 45001. Currently, 12 factories, which account for 44% of the 27 factories run by the Group, maintain certification under ISO 45001.
Status of Business Bases Certified under ISO45001
Date of certification
Certified sites
September 2021
South Africa Factory
November 2020
Indonesia Factory
October 2020
Thailand Factory (natural rubber processing)
July 2020
Nagoya Factory
June 2020
Shirakawa Factory
February 2020
Hunan Factory, China
November 2019
Miyazaki Factory
November 2019
Izumiotsu Factory
December 2018
Changshu Factory, China
November 2016
Turkey Factory
September 2014
Brazil Factory
January 2009
Thailand Factory
Targets and Results
The Sumitomo Rubber Group
Taking on the Challenge of Achieving Zero Accidents via Thoroughgoing Risk Assessments Focused on Occupational Safety and Health
With the aim of achieving the status of zero danger and accidents, the Sumitomo Rubber Group is engaged in risk assessments focused on safety and health as part of forward-looking safety assurance activities designed to remove dangers and make our operations intrinsically safe. In addition, we proactively utilize web-based safety audits and observations even as we engage in the confirmation of on-site status via physical worksite visits as our basics. In the course of conducting risk assessments of existing facilities, we follow an Occupational Safety and Health Manual established by the Sumitomo Rubber Group to determine the scope of such assessments. However, we prioritize compliance with laws and regulations or applicable management standards depending on the country. When installing (designing/manufacturing), expanding, modifying, relocating, or transferring machinery including for new businesses, it is stipulated that risk assessments
be conducted in accordance with company-wide safety standards in order to prevent workplace accidents, and all workplaces are made aware of this rule. For example, risk assessments of operations employing powered vehicles are conducted based on our Occupational Safety and Health Manual, which provides guidance on the investigation of risks and hazards within facilities. In this way, we strive to ensure that no shortfalls in occupational safety and health measures are left unaddressed while assessing the inherent risks of operations, including those attributable to the facilities themselves and operator actions. Findings from these assessments are utilized to implement optimal countermeasures commensurate with the degree of risks identified. In fiscal 2023, our safety records were virtually unchanged from the previous year. For fiscal 2024, we have set targets of (i) zero major accidents and (ii) 20 or fewer accidents in total (Midterm Plan target for fiscal
2022). Priority measures are as follows:
・Create a workplace environment in which everyone increases their safety knowledge and shares the desired vision.
・Promote safety task force activities, raise safety awareness, and foster a safety culture.
・By promoting new safety indicators (KPIs), deepen understanding of safety among individuals and create an environment in which everyone can ensure safety.
By implementing these measures, we will take on the challenge of achieving zero accidents.
Status of Occupational Accidents (frequency rate of accidents involving lost workdays*)
*Frequency rate of accidents: The number of individuals who suffered injuries from occupational accidents, including accidents causing fatalities per 1 million hours of actual work. Frequency rate of accidents = The number of individuals who suffered injuries or fatalities / Actual working hours × 1,000,000
Activities Aimed at Educating Employees on and Raising Their Awareness of Occupational Safety and Health
The Sumitomo Rubber Group
The Sumitomo Rubber Group strives to reduce the number of occupational accidents to zero. To this end, we consider nurturing safety-oriented human resources a matter of utmost importance, and we therefore focus on risk assessment education and emphasize the development of risk assessment managers. In fiscal 2023, we completed the development of 119 risk assessment managers. In fiscal 2024, we will continue to develop risk assessment managers.
In fiscal 2023, we promoted BTC activities, creating workplaces in which everyone is encouraged to voice concerns about safety and pursuing safety indicators (KPIs). By such activities, we identified weaknesses at each site, made improvements, and continued to eliminate hazards from our workplaces. In fiscal 2024, with increasing awareness and knowledge of safety among all personnel as the pillar of our activities, we will create workplaces in which everyone can ensure safety, as we strive to make our workplaces free of accidents.
Furthermore, we provide level-based education and hands-on experiential education, and engage in regular safety and health education activities while confirming the degree of mastery of relevant skills and knowledge.
Hands-on experiential education aimed at familiarizing employees with the dangers of being caught in rotating machinery
Equipment designed to provide the experience of walking on a slippery floor
Virtual reality (VR)-based education that provides a glimpse into the real-life experience of danger
Supervision of the Status of Employee Health and Safety through the Companywide Occupational Safety & Health and Fire Prevention Convention
The Sumitomo Rubber Group
The Board of Directors monitors the status of risks in the key areas of safety, fire prevention, and employee health by receiving reports on the activities of the Risk Management Committee (twice a year), the body that deals with these risks, and reports on the status of risk management at each site. Moreover, we hold a twice-yearly company-wide Occupational Safety & Health and Fire Prevention Convention attended by internal directors, including the Representative Director and President, as well as all executive officers and heads of all manufacturing sites, with the aim of ensuring that information regarding safety, fire prevention and employee health is shared among the entire workforce. Through this event, we gather reports on targets for and the status of progress in various measures related to safety and health as well as health and productivity management. By doing so, we endeavor to mitigate the level of risks affecting safety, fire
prevention and employee health.
Activities Aimed at Securing Robust Employee Awareness and Literacy in Fire Prevention
The Sumitomo Rubber Group
Since fiscal 2007, the Sumitomo Rubber Group has conducted fire-prevention audits with the aim of identifying and addressing fire risks at each site. Each site has set up a Fire Prevention Committee to spearhead fire-prevention activities and strive to mitigate fire risks on a day-to-day basis.
In 2024, we resumed on-site, physical fire-prevention audits, which had been suspended for around five years due to the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic.
During these fire-prevention audits, we not only checked whether each site had an organizational structure in place to carry out fire-prevention activities, but also asked questions on-site to assess the fire-prevention awareness of each employee. By checking their understanding of fire risks and mechanisms for engaging in fire-prevention activities, we carefully confirmed that there were no missing elements in their activities.
Looking ahead, we will continue to mitigate fire risks through initiatives like this, and expand effective activities at individual sites to other sites, to enhance fire-prevention KPI scores and take on the challenge of achieving minor or zero fire.
Fire-prevention audit in progress at Hunan Factory, China
Improving the Operational Environment
The Sumitomo Rubber Group
To protect the safety and health of employees, we continuously strive to create a safe operational environment in which everyone can take on their tasks with confidence. In fiscal 2023, we continued to improve the operational environment by addressing issues associated with heat, noise, dust, organic solvents, and other factors as part of efforts to realize a more pleasant workplace environment. In fiscal 2024, we will maintain these efforts, placing emphasis on implementing countermeasures against heat.
Asbestos Countermeasures
Sumitomo Rubber Industries, Ltd.
Sumitomo Rubber Industries does not manufacture tires or any other products incorporating asbestos. Furthermore, at the end of 2006, the Company completed the inspection of spray-applied materials used in its buildings as well as the analysis of mineral-based raw materials, confirming the absence of asbestos-related issues. However, it was confirmed that, among its workforce, a total of 13 people have passed away due to lung cancer, while 54 individuals have succumbed to a mesothelial tumor, with all these cases publicly recognized as occupational fatalities (in another case, an application for such recognition has been submitted) as of July 2024.
On April 1, 2007, the Company established a special compensation program for individuals who have suffered health damage due to asbestos. Thus, we voluntarily provide special compensation to those whose diseases are recognized as being attributable to occupational exposure to asbestos. Moreover, since March 2007, we have striven to reach out to retirees to encourage them to undergo health checkups aimed at diagnosing the presence of asbestos-related diseases. As a result, 41 people have applied to become holders of a government-issued medical certificate for asbestos-related health damage.
Looking ahead, we will proactively respond to consultation requests from employees.
