Respect for Human Rights

As a group, we have positioned respect for human rights as one of the foundations of our business continuity. All executives and other employees have worked to respect the human rights of everyone involved in our business activities, in line with the guiding principles of the Sumitomo Seika Group Charter for Business Conduct. To further clarify our responsibility to respect human rights, and to promote greater efforts in this area, we formulated the Sumitomo Seika Group Human Rights Policy in March 2024, with reference to the UN’s International Bill of Human Rights (formed of its Universal Declaration of Human Rights and International Covenants on Human Rights), the ILO Declaration on Fundamental Principles and Rights at Work, the ten principles of the UN Global Compact, and the UN’s Guiding Principles on Business and Human Rights. In accordance with the policy, we endeavor toward business activities and to create workplaces that respect human rights, and should there be any cause to suspect a breach, we will strive to remedy it.

Human Rights Policy

Sumitomo Seika Group hereby adopts its Human Rights Policy (“the Policy”) based on the United Nations Guiding Principles on Business and Human Rights with the aim of fulfilling the Group’s responsibility to respect the human rights of every stakeholder who is affected by the Group’s business activities.

Basic Principles
We will support and respect human rights as declared internationally in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, the International Labour Organization (ILO) Declaration on Fundamental Principles and Rights at Work, etc. With Sumitomo Seika Chemicals Company, Ltd. becoming a signatory to the United Nations Global Compact, every company of Sumitomo Seika Group will support and respect its Ten Principles, which include human rights and labor.
Scope for Application
The Policy applies to every executive officer and employee of all Sumitomo Seika Group companies, including non-regular employees. In addition, we will continually ask our business partners, including those across our supply chain, to collaborate with us in respecting human rights through acting in conformity with the Policy.
Human Rights Due Diligence
We will identify adverse impacts caused on human rights in our business activities and seek to prevent or mitigate such impacts through implementing human rights due diligence based on the United Nations Guiding Principles on Business and Human Rights.
Correction and Access to Remedy
We will have grievance & complaint mechanisms in place in order to respond to concerns about adverse impacts on human rights. Should it become evident that Sumitomo Seika Group’s business activities have caused adverse impacts on human rights or contributed to such impacts, we will strive to take corrective action and provide remedy for the impacts through appropriate procedures.
Disclosure
We will report on our initiatives toward respecting human rights on the website of Sumitomo Seika Chemicals Company, Ltd. or through its Integrated Reports and other avenues

Date of enactment March 28, 2024

Promotion Framework

To promote efforts toward respect for human rights in our business activities, we have established the Human Rights Promotion Meeting, with a membership comprising representatives from different departments and group companies, under the control of the president-chaired Sustainability Committee. The meeting’s members follow action guidelines related to respect for human rights set by the Sustainability Committee, and investigates and implements necessary measures. It then reports back on these to the committee. The Board of Directors also oversees human rights initiatives by the Sustainability Committee and the Human Rights Promotion Meeting.

Human Rights Due Diligence

In accordance with our Human Rights Policy, the Group identifies and assesses the negative impacts of our business activities and works on appropriate responses based on the assessment results. Through the Human Rights Due Diligence Digital Survey conducted in fiscal 2024 with cooperation from external experts, we identified human rights risks within the Group and presented response policies to mitigate those risks.
Since fiscal 2025, we have been promoting concrete initiatives to mitigate identified risks through cross-departmental collaboration, in accordance with our response policies. Furthermore, to deepen all employees' understanding of human rights, we provide company-wide education such as e-learning.
Going forward, we will continue to explain and disclose the results of these initiatives and foster dialogue with our stakeholders.

Overall picture of respect for human rights initiatives

Identification and Assessment of Adverse Impacts

We conducted a human rights due diligence digital survey in cooperation with external specialists to identify and assess adverse impacts on human rights in fiscal 2024 (Response rate: 95.5%, 1,285 out of 1,346 eligible employees). In this survey, we quantitatively assessed the Group employees’ awareness of human rights risks and created a benchmark based on four assessments items of: (1) perceptions and frequency of occurrence regarding 25 types of human rights risks, (2) accessibility to remedies in cases of human rights violations or unfair treatment, (3) psychological safety, which is believed to correlate with human rights risks, and (4) unconscious bias, regarded as a potential root cause of human rights violations.

Assessment Items	Assessment Method	Results	Detailed Accounts of the Risks
(1)Types of human rights risks	For the 25 types of human rights risks (A to S), employee perceptions and the actual frequency of occurrence within the Group were measured	See the four-quadrant plotting diagram	Identified 11 priority issues by analyzing frequency of occurrence and employee perceptions Of the 11 areas, three, “B: Excessive/Unreasonable Working Hours,” “J: Power Harassment,” and “K: Sexual Harassment,” were found to be of particularly high priority (inside the dotted frame on the diagram below)
(2)Risks associated with accessibility to remedies	Using a five-point risk assessment scale and percentage data, the level of risk for each item was evaluated, with “5” representing the highest risk	Score of 2 on the five-point scale (low risk)	Employees can exercise their rights to access remedies Issues with consultation services, etc. were identified
(3)Risks associated with psychological safety		Score of 3 on the five-point scale (medium risk, slightly below the organizational average)	High risks were identified for the following two items ①Risk taking : High risk ⇒ Difficult to take risks and act with confidence ②Demonstration of individuality : High risk ⇒ Inability to fully demonstrate individuality or skills, leading to low evaluations
(4)Risks associated with unconscious bias		Score of 3 on the five-point scale (medium risk, slightly above the organizational average)	High risks were identified for the following two items ①Authority bias : Tendency to believe that persons with authority (e.g., supervisors and experts) must be right ②Expertise bias : Tendency to think only within one’s own field of expertise

住友精化グループの人権リスク類系4象限プロット結果 — ●労働者の人権に関する項目　▲ハラスメントに関する項目　◆その他の人権に関する項目

Prevention and mitigation of adverse impacts

Policy on Responses to the Results of the "Human Rights Due Diligence Digital Survey"

Assessment Items	Actions
(1)Types of human rights risks	In the three areas of “Working Hours,” “Power Harassment,” and “Sexual Harassment,” which are of particularly high priority, measures will be implemented to mitigate risks through dialogue and collaboration with relevant departments, while continuing current education and training sessions. To mitigate other human rights risks, efforts will focus on improving understanding and raising improving through education and training, while also checking trainees’ ownership of the issues through questionnaires and surveys after each activity.
(2)Risks associated with accessibility to remedies
(3)Risks associated with psychological safety
(4)Risks associated with unconscious bias

Details of "Vibrant Workplace Creation 2025," an Initiative to Mitigate Risks

Initiatives	Objectives	Issues Identified
1.Develop a shared understanding of what constitutes harassment	Recognition of the present state of harassment within the Group Dissemination of harassment response policies Dissemination of harassment prevention bodies and consultation desks	Understanding is high but has yet to be translated into action Concerns about communication and guidance Insufficient awareness of internal rules, response systems, and procedures
2.Business and human rights education	Acquisition of basic knowledge Assessment of learning status and of employees' understanding of policies related to business and human rights
3.Harassment training	Training by job level (for all employees as well as for managers) Training for the Production Sector
4.Review	Review of initiatives 1 to 3 above Gathering requests and opinions on respect for human rights, including harassment

Future Actions

Initiatives	Details
Mitigation of risks	Based on the results of the "Vibrant Workplace Creation 2025" initiative, the root cause of the priority risks identified in the Human Rights Due Diligence Digital Survey is considered to be a lack of smooth communication. Therefore, from fiscal year 2026, we will begin efforts to improve communication.
Implementation of risk identification and assessment	We will conduct a Human Rights Due Diligence Digital Survey every two years. Combined with the annual stress check results, we will continuously identify and assess risks through analysis of these results.

Human Rights Education

To raise awareness and educate our employees, we deliver human rights education as part of our position-based training (new employee training, new manager training, and so on). Furthermore, to deepen employees' understanding of human rights, we provide e-learning to all employees and distribute educational video content covering various aspects of sustainability, including human rights, to further raise awareness. By sharing information on respect for human rights throughout the Group, we encourage each and every employee to consider the human rights of various stakeholders in their day-to-day business activities. We are also working to embed awareness of respect for human rights throughout the organization.

2025 Fiscal Year Education and Training Results

Content	Number of Sessions	Total Participants
Harassment Training	5 sessions	2,637 participants
Business and Human Rights	4 sessions	1,232 participants

Sustainability