Mizuho's Stakeholders
Mizuho is determined to promote our CSR activities still further by realizing high quality communications with our stakeholders.
Basic Approach
Financial institutions have a public role to play, which means they not only have a major impact on society but also bear heavy responsibilities toward society. If Mizuho is to contribute to the sustainable development of society as a good, responsible corporate citizen, we must be aware of society's expectations towards it. For this reason, we must improve the quality of our communications through dialog with stakeholders, whose interests vary widely.
To win society's true understanding and recognition, as well as accurate assessments and feedback based thereon, we must endeavor to further improve our information disclosure and secure the transparency of our management. At the same time, we must work to ensure well–balanced corporate management by realizing highly responsive communications as one of our priority CSR areas. Since fiscal 2006, we have also been engaging in regular stakeholder dialogs with experts, utilizing the resulting opinions and views in Mizuho's CSR activities.
Mizuho classifies our stakeholders as follows: customers, shareholders, employees, regional/local communities, suppliers, competitors and government authorities.
- Classification of the Stakeholder
Customers
Mizuho's customer base is extremely broad, including depositors, borrowers, trust consignors and trust beneficiaries, and ranging from individuals to enterprises. It is also geographically diverse, since we have customers around the world.
As well as paying careful attention to the comments we receive from customers through mechanisms such as customer feedback cards, call centers and customer satisfaction surveys, we use television, newspapers, our website and other media to transmit information. At the same time, we carry out two–way communication via direct dialog at branches and through our sales staff. The results of our communications are used in various ways, from improving products and services to enhancing the quality of our management.
Shareholders
As of the end of March 2011, MHFG had 21,782,185,320 shares issued and 783,880 shareholders. We intend to maintain and expand our assets and improve our profitability with a view to keeping the trust and meeting the expectations of our shareholders. We rigorously maintain the accuracy and reliability of our financial, taxation and accounting practices, are strengthening our independent internal audit control functions and working to build a stringent internal control system. Since our listing on the New York Stock Exchange, we have followed US accounting rules when disclosing information.
Employees
On a consolidated basis, there were 56,770 employees working for the group in 34 countries, centered on Japan, as of the end of March 2011.
Personnel are Mizuho's most important business resource — the unrivaled cornerstone of the group's competitive advantage. We believe that enhancing the value of each and every employee through proactive investment in human resources will lead to the creation of permanent value for Mizuho. In line with this approach, we are working to create a free and open workplace environment that is attractive to employees because it is work–friendly and rewarding.
We also provide compliance education and training, ensure rigorous observance of labor laws, pay close attention to safety and health in the workplace, provide a hotline to address discrimination and sexual harassment, and conduct motivation surveys at the workplace.
Regional/Local Communities
Mizuho maintains deep ties with regional and local communities via our business activities at 994 locations (domestic and abroad) in 34 countries/regions (as of the end of March 2011) and through each and every employee, to the extent that in many ways these communities may be considered the backbone of Mizuho's existence. For this reason, we believe it is extremely important to contribute to the development of local communities through business activities that harmonize our own profits with society's interests.
In addition to normal business activities, we endeavor to interact with local communities through proactive social action programs.
Suppliers and Competitors
Mizuho's transactions with suppliers arise through orders for IT systems and purchases of goods and services.
We maintain healthy and transparent relationships with suppliers in order to ensure mutual prosperity by treating them as business partners who provide us with the best quality and services. To maintain trust in the Mizuho brand, we ask suppliers to understand "The Mizuho Code of Conduct."
In line with the principles of self–responsibility on which the market economic structure is premised, we compete in a fair, transparent and free manner based on a strong sense of self–help and independence.
Government Authorities
Mizuho has multifaceted relationships with the governments of Japan and many other countries around the world. Whether it is a matter of following laws and regulations in conducting business, using public services necessary for business, lending funds for government or national projects, or borrowing funds from central banks, we endeavor to observe all national laws and maintain sound and normal relationships with domestic and foreign regulatory authorities and politicians with jurisdiction over our operations.
Maintain Sound and Normal Relationships with Government Authorities
Relationships with Public Officials, etc.
The group has adopted a basic stance of maintaining healthy, transparent relationships with political and administrative entities and personnel, and avoiding acts that encourage mutual dependence or collusion. To sustain this basic stance, it operates a strict compliance mechanism based on its compliance stance. The compliance manual also provides clear explanations of this basic stance and the compliance mechanism, and promotes dissemination of knowledge about them through compliance training, etc.
For example, strict performance standards have been laid down to ensure that entertainment and exchanges of gifts with public officials, etc., (including politicians) do not promote expectations of special favors or encourage suspicions of bribery and corruption in relationships with politicians and administrators. Compliance officers at each unit and compliance control division are also obliged to implement a priori checks.
Relationships with Foreign Public Officials
With regard to relationships with foreign public officials, employees are obliged to check for conformity with the Unfair Competition Prevention Law, the criminal codes of host countries, and host country domestic laws based on the OECD Convention on Combating Bribery of Foreign Public Officials in International Business Transactions.
Involvement with Political Activities
Concerning contributions to political activities, our policy is to carefully review such contributions to ensure that they are legal and do not imply a provision of interest.
