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Corporate GovernanceCorporate Governance

Basic policy of corporate governance

In accordance with its corporate philosophy of "appreciation," "nature" and "corporate openness," we aim to achieve sustainable growth and improve the mid- to long-term value of the Company. We acknowledge corporate governance to be a critical management issue toward these objectives.
Kagome considers further strengthening of "autonomy" complemented by "heteronomy" to be the fundamentals of our corporate governance. This will ensure objectivity and transparency, forming a basis by designing its own concept of corporate governance adapted to the present day, while incorporating diverse outside viewpoints by working to attract more "Kagome Fan Shareholders" and leveraging the function of external directors among other things.
We aim to deliver a high degree of accountability and achieve "corporate openness" in interactions with stakeholders, while employing the unique attributes and originality of Kagome.

Corporate governance system

We are separating executive functions from supervisory functions to accelerate managerial decision making and help clarify business responsibility. The Company has specified that the Board's primary duties are determining the company's management strategies and policies and monitoring the implementation of such strategies and policies. The Board enhances the advisory and supervisory functions and increases the effectiveness of such functions by electing one third or more external directors, who satisfy the Standards for Judging the Independence of Independent External Directors, as the members of the Board.
The Audit & Supervisory Committee has set a policy of having one or more standing Audit and Supervisory Committee members, and uses internal control systems to audit the legality and appropriateness of the operations implemented by the directors.
The nomination and remuneration of directors are deliberated by the Remuneration and Nomination Advisory Committee; more than half of whose members are independent external directors. The results of the deliberations are advised to the Board of Directors, which then determines the nomination and remuneration of the directors, thereby enhancing fairness and appropriateness.
Under our executive officer system, we are using set criteria to delegate implementation responsibilities and authority to our departments regarding the execution of business. In addition, we have established the Meeting of Executive Officers in order to convey and make known Board resolutions and reported matters as well as to facilitate communication and coordination among the executive officers. Furthermore, the Management Meetings have been established under the leadership of the president to ensure that business is executed in an agile manner and through mutual coordination. Deliberations at the Management Meetings enable appropriate risk taking and also produce clear allocations of responsibilities, while enabling us to make decisions in an expedient manner.

Standards for Judging the Independence of Independent External Directors of the Company

We deem an external director to have sufficient independence in the event that he/she meets the Standards for Judging In-dependence as described below:

  • 1) A person who is not or was not in the past a director, corporate auditor (excluding outside officer), executive officer or employee of the Kagome group
  • 2) A person who is not or has not been a major shareholder of the Kagome Group in the past five business years (pertains to a shareholder who holds 10% or more of the total voting rights of the shares of the Kagome Group), or a person who is not director, corporate auditor, executive, executive officer or employee of an entity for which the Kagome Group is a major shareholder
  • 3) A person who is not director, corporate auditor (excluding outside officer), executive, executive officer or employee of a major business partner of the Kagome Group (pertains to a business partner whose amount of transactions with the Kagome Group is 2% or more of the consolidated net sales of the Kagome Group in any of the past three business years)
  • 4) A person who is not director, corporate auditor (excluding outside officer), executive, executive officer or employee of an entity for which the Kagome Group is a major business partner (pertains to a business partner whose amount of transactions with the Kagome Group accounts for 2% or more of the consolidated net sales of the business partner in any of the past three business years)
  • 5) A person who is not officer or employee of corporations or organizations that receive a large amount of donations* from the Kagome Group
    * An average of 10 million yen or more annually in the past three business years, or an amount that is 2% or more of net sales or total revenue of the recipient
  • 6) A person who is not director, corporate auditor (excluding outside officer), executive, executive officer or employee of a corporation which mutually exchanges directors, corporate auditors or executive officers with the Kagome Group
  • 7) A person who has not been representative partner, partner or employee of the accounting auditor of the Kagome Group in any of the past five years
  • 8) A person who is not an attorney-at-law, a certified public accountant, a certified tax accountant, consultant or other professional who receives a large amount of remuneration* from the Kagome Group, other than compensation as an officer
    * On the average in the past three business years, 10 million yen or more in the case of an individual and 2% or more of consolidated net sales in the case of a corporation
  • 9) A person who is not the spouse, a relative within the second degree of kinship or a relative living together of any person described in 1. through 8. above
  • 10) A person whose total term of tenure as External director is within eight years
Note: The Kagome Group refers to Kagome Co., Ltd. and its subsidiaries


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