The Sumitomo Corporation Group promotes the establishment and integration of Business Continuity Management (BCM), which goes beyond the development of Business Continuity Plans (BCPs). The goal is to ensure employee safety in the event of major disasters and other emergencies, minimize the impact of business interruption, opportunity loss and reputational damage caused by earthquakes, floods, infectious diseases, cyberattacks and other events, and secure business continuity and medium- to long-term resilience.

The Governance of BCP and BCM in the Sumitomo Corporation Group is incorporated into the overall governance framework for sustainability management and is operated under that framework.
The Disaster Response & Safety Management Dept. of the Tokyo Head Office takes the lead in developing Emergency Response Plans (ERPs) with the aim of ensuring employee safety and minimizing companywide damage in the event of major disasters or other emergencies. In line with the integrated trading company’s diverse business operations, Business Continuity Plans (BCPs) have been developed by SBU and unit. These plans empower each organization to maintain business operations to the extent possible, guided by the directives of their respective heads during emergency situations.
Regional organizations and Group companies in Japan and overseas have also developed ERPs and BCPs tailored to their respective regions, industries and business characteristics in preparation for emergencies.

Governance of Sustainability Management

In the event of a major natural disaster or other crisis event occurs in Japan, such as an earthquake directly beneath the Tokyo metropolitan area, a Nankai Trough earthquake, or an eruption of Mt. Fuji, Sumitomo Corporation promptly activates a Crisis Management Team headed by the Head of Human Resources, General Affairs & Legal Group. The team takes proactive measures to ensure the safety of its employees and to facilitate the swift recovery of business operations.
Specialist teams in the Corporate Groups gather and consolidate information on damage and other impacts across the Sumitomo Corporation Group and promptly report such information to executive management.

To ensure the effectiveness of this structure, we continuously conduct Crisis Management Team exercises based on large-scale natural disaster scenarios in cooperation with domestic regional organizations. These exercises are designed to enhance our response capabilities, aligning with the fundamental policy of ensuring employee safety, mutual assistance and prompt recovery of business operations.

The Sumitomo Corporation Group emphasizes Business Continuity Management (BCM), not merely the development of BCPs for each organization, but efforts to ensure their effectiveness and embed them into the organization. To this end, we are pursuing autonomous and continuous initiatives.
As part of these efforts, each organization of Sumitomo Corporation, as well as regional organizations and Group companies in Japan and overseas, conducts an annual BCP self-check. This mechanism enables them to review their BCPs and self-check the status of training and exercises. The Disaster Response & Safety Management Dept. is responsible for consolidating the results of these self- check and reporting them to management. The company also shares company-wide trends and areas for improvement internally. It also supports organizations and Group companies by providing BCP templates and guidance for tabletop exercises. This contributes to strengthening the foundation for promoting BCM. Furthermore, Group companies subject to Basic Elements (BE) dialogue acknowledge BCM as a pivotal management issue and consistently engage in discussions with leading organizations to enhance its effectiveness.

Through its BCM initiatives, the Sumitomo Corporation Group aims to continue critical operations to the extent possible and promptly resume business operations even when the operating environment is significantly constrained by major disasters or other emergencies.
To achieve this objective, we regularly monitor the status of BCP development and exercise in each organization through self-check and other means. By implementing a PDCA cycle of review and improvement as necessary, we work to enhance resilience across the Group.