Third-Party Opinion

Executive Director
Center for Public Resources
Development
A specified nonprofitorganization

Sachiko Kishimoto
After gaining invaluable experience working for a private-sector
company, a research institute and studying abroad, participated in theestablishment of the Center for Public Resources Development (URL
http://www.public.or.jp), a nonprofit organization in 2000. Engages
in a wide range of activities including corporate sociality assessment
as a part of efforts to promote socially responsible investment (SRI);
social contribution activity project evaluation and consulting, and;NPO management support. A part-time instructor at the Graduate
School of Social Design Studies of Rikkyo University, the International
Graduate School of Social Sciences of Yokohama National University
and the Faculty of Law at Meiji Gakuin University.

Drawing on a review of the Group’s CSR Report 2010 and
an interview with Tetsuya Sato, Chief Social Responsibility
Officer, I would like to comment on Furukawa Electric’s CSR
and information disclosure activities.
In his opening remarks in this Report, the president
outlined efforts to contribute to society through the creationof new markets, businesses and technologies; adherence tocompliance; the strengthening of environmental initiatives,and; the expansion of social contribution activities as
the Group’s priority objectives under the medium-term
management plan “New Frontier 2012” that commenced
in April 2010. In the context of the Group’s ongoingcommitment to fulfill its CSR, each contention is essential.
Needless to say, a key issue for management overthe foreseeable future is its ability to capture growing
infrastructure demand from newly emerging nations witha particular focus on the BRICs and ASEAN. Of equal
concern are considerations toward raising the ratio of
local production and procurement in the face of therecent sharp spiral in the value of the yen. Under thesecircumstances, and also in the context of its CSR initiatives,
the Furukawa Electric Group will necessarily confront a
broad spectrum of social and environmental issues in theconduct of its business activities. As a result, the Group
must actively disclose its progress and performance in its
CSR Report. In my discussions with Mr. Sato, Chief Social
Responsibility Officer, I learned that the Group had alreadycommenced a wide range of global CSR initiatives withrespect to environmental, compliance and human resourcedevelopment across each of its operating fields. In addition
to ensuring compliance with local environmental rules andregulations, Furukawa Electric has published and distributed
among its employees English and Chinese language
editions of its compliance guidelines and is conducting

41 Furukawa Electric Group CSR Report 2010

training for local senior executives at the head office.
Looking ahead, I would like to see the Company clarify its
policies toward each initiative and to continue efforts inenhancing Group-wide awareness and understanding. At
the same time, I would also hope that Furukawa Electric willmore actively promote CSR among its overseas subsidiaries
by utilizing supply chain management that encompasses
green and CSR procurement; global human resource
development and; local community contribution activities.
Furthermore, in recognizing dirty mining as an industrywide problem, I would expect the Company to maintain full
disclosure and to outline details of the Group’s progress.
In the “Past and Future Environmental Businesses”
feature, I was impressed by the concise and easy-tounderstand manner in which the Company outlined its
efforts to meet those requirements imposed by society. I
am counting on the Furukawa Electric Group to contributeto society through the creation and development of a lowcarbon society, particularly in the three fields identified ofnext-generation vehicles, energy / smart grids and highdensity optical telecommunications. In addition, I have now
learned that Furukawa Electric Ecotec Co., Ltd., building on
its long-standing experience in the recycling of electric andtelecommunication cables, has achieved a recycling ratioof 100%. I have also come to better appreciate the efforts
made by the company to further enhance its materials
recycling ratio. In moving forward, I expect the Group tobolster its endeavors in the collection of discarded cables
as well as the development of recycling systems.
A CSR report is among many things a medium forconveying information to external parties and an important
communication tool. Accordingly, presenting exceptions
to the scope of environmental data collected as well as
explanations for technical terms in an easy-to-understandmanner is essential. In the section of society-based
measures, Furukawa Electric mainly provides an explanationof its overall systems and measures implemented. In similar
fashion to the section dealing with the environment, I would
like to see the Company provide details and a comparative
analysis of targets and performance for each fiscal year
as well as an evaluation of the level of achievement. In
particular, I would ask the Company to go beyond a simple
explanation of the various systems employed to promote
work-life balance. This would included the disclosure ofhuman resource-related data such as overtime trends andthe number of paid leave days taken.

At the conclusion of the interview with Sachiko
Kishimoto. Tetsuya Sato, Chief Social Responsibility
Officer on the right