Mitsui & Co. has identified "Secure sustainable supply of essential products" as one aspect of our materialities. We handle a wide range of products such as resources, materials, foods, pharmaceuticals, and products that are vital for the development of society. We recognize that some of the foods, pharmaceuticals, and other products that we handle carry the risk of harming our customers' lives. For this reason, we have established our own management standards. We make sure that the safety standards set by each country for foods, pharmaceuticals, and other products we handle are maintained, as ensuring customer safety is essential. As part of our work in this area, we have established our Consumer Product Handling Policy and our Consumer Product Handling Regulations. Not only do we seek the manufacture, importation and sale of high-performance and/or low-cost products; we also carefully consider the consumer's position. We trade in products that consumers can safely use, and we strive to prevent harm or injury to consumers.

The Consumer Product Handling Policy (PDF 87KB)

By securing and supplying food and food products, we contribute to the realization of livelihoods that guarantee diversity, convenience, nutritional support, economy, and affluence. In our distribution business, we are expanding not only in the supply and distribution of raw materials for processed foods but also in the retail and merchandising sectors in Japan and overseas. We are working to make our quality assurance system more visible and set up a quality assurance governance system on a group basis that will include our affiliated companies, to serve as a basis for various initiatives.

By 2050, the global population is projected to reach 10 billion. Ensuring that people get the nutrition needed to live a healthy life and ensuring the quality of their food are major challenges facing the world. At Mitsui & Co. we are contributing to the sustainable supply of food by building an optimal supply chain from upstream to downstream, involving procurement, production, and logistics. We are promoting the creation of societies in which people can live affluently by improving nutrition through the reliable supply of food and providing products and services with high added nutritional value.

We recognize that it is important to create a better tomorrow where people smile and live healthy, enriched lives. Medical expenditure is growing globally, alongside population growth in emerging countries, population aging in developed countries, and changes in disease patterns such as an increase in chronic disease patients accompanying economic development. With the increase in the number of people in middle-income-level groups and the spread of the COVID-19, health consciousness is increasing. There are growing calls for burgeoning medical expenditure to be brought under control and for digital technology to be used to a greater extent. We recognize trends toward achieving improvement of access to healthcare and the quality and efficiency of healthcare in each country and region, introducing more telemedicine services, changing healthcare through the use of digital technology such as healthcare data and AI, and further accelerating the shift to a focus on outcomes for optimizing medical expenditure and the expansion of services in the wellness field including non-illness and prevention. In accordance with such global trends, we will lead and accelerate the paradigm shift in healthcare from a treatment-based and hospital-centered to a prevention-based and individual-centered approach, and expand high-quality and efficient "Value Based Healthcare^*".

* In value-based healthcare, each stakeholder aims to achieve the best outcomes and optimize costs to provide high-value medical care to patients.

We are committed to carry out fair and responsible marketing and advertising, in full awareness of our social responsibilities, and in accordance with our Mission, Vision, Values, the Mitsui & Co. Group Conduct Guidelines –With Integrity, and the Business Conduct Guidelines for Employees and Officers. In addition, we always strive to listen to our stakeholders, to accept their views with humility, and to reflect them in an appropriate way in our business activities.

As for advertising and promotions, in consideration of the views of our various stakeholders, we make our best efforts to ensure accuracy and modesty without causing misunderstanding or discomfort, not to mention observing laws and regulations on relevant matters such as the Copyright Act and Trademark Act. When carrying out advertising and promotions, we implement proper risk management under our ringi (circular executive approval) deliberation system on advertising and marketing, which covers compliance risks, internal control risks, and reputation risks.

In marketing, we comply with the relevant laws and in-house regulations and in-house training, and we carry out responsible marketing activities using content and expressions that do not infringe on the trust or sense of honor of others and do not cause misunderstandings or discomfort.

• Improve access to nutrition through the stable supply of food.
• Increase the ratio of certified materials we acquire and carrying out employee training programs to ensure the sustainable supply of safe and secure products.

The Sustainability Committee works under the Corporate Management Committee to plan, formulate and provide recommendations on basic management policies, business activities, and corporate policies and strategies related to our responsibilities to customers.
The Sustainability Committee is structured so that its activities are appropriately supervised by the Board of Directors, and matters discussed by the Sustainability Committee are regularly discussed and reported to the Corporate Management Committee and the Board of Directors.

Please refer to the links below for more information on Mitsui's Sustainability Management Framework and the activities of the Sustainability Committee.

• Our Approach to Sustainability: Sustainability Governance and Oversight
• Our Approach to Sustainability: Sustainability Committee

For projects in which we invest that are considered to be highly relevant to our responsibility to our customers (food, pharmaceuticals, etc.), we carry out ESG risk assessments, formulate improvement plans when necessary, and conduct risk management.

ESG Risk Management

Our modern eating habits include cooking at home and the use of processed and prepared foods from around the world. Moreover, the routes and circumstances by which food reaches us have become more international and diverse. This requires us to ensure the safety and security of food both in Japan and overseas. In our Retail Business Unit, to further enhance our system to ensure food safety and security by preserving the quality of goods and services sold or provided on a group basis, we have affiliated companies appoint a quality assurance manager and set up a quality assurance governance system on a group basis, seeking to strengthen cooperation within the Mitsui Group.

In our Food Business Unit and Retail Business Unit, we have set up a centralized contact point for information sharing and crisis management in the event of an emergency. In 2002 the Units set up the Food Safety Management Committee in 2002 with the objective of firstly, studying food safety-related laws and regulations and how related industries have responded; and secondly, formulating codes of conduct. The Committee is chaired by the General Manager of the General Affairs Office of our Food Business Unit and Retail Business Unit and has one Food Safety Management Committee member from the Food Business Unit and one from the Retail Business Unit. In principle, Committee meetings are held monthly. The members share information about amendments to laws and any violations that have occurred. The Committee analyses the causes of violations and considers measures to prevent them from recurring. External experts are invited to attend Committee meetings and give advice relating to food safety. The Units has also set up a food safety database to enhance the level of self-management, and all imported foods are managed. The database is reviewed annually.

In the fiscal year ended March 31, 2022, there were two violations related to pesticide residues, but no serious violations of the Food Sanitation Act.

Group Companies that Have Gained Product Safety Management Standards

Mitsui conducts risk management for food safety and security, promoting compliance with laws and regulations and encouraging proper labeling through its monthly Food Safety Seminar for employees of Mitsui and our affiliated companies. The seminar was launched in October 2002 and has been held a total of 220 times as of March 2022. The table below summarizes the content of the seminars that were held during the financial period ending March 31, 2022, and the number of attendees to each. A total of 698 employees from our company and our affiliated companies attended the seminars over this period.

Food Safety Seminar (FY Mar/2022)

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We export and import APIs and pharmaceutical intermediates. We are also an importing agency and a domestic distributor. As such, we have prepared procedure manuals for API and intermediate export, import agency, and domestic distribution, to handle each step — from order receipt to delivery to the customer — safely, reliably, and promptly. In addition, we have established business guidelines and business procedure manuals, to ensure the proper management of APIs. We carry out regular self-inspections once a year to ensure that our business is carried out according to the procedure manuals, and we thoroughly comply with a range of commercial laws. Recently, in April 2020, a pre-license inspection of pharmaceutical manufacturing and drug sales businesses was conducted, but there were no serious points to be flagged, and a business permit was issued.

At Mitsui, we have appointed a person to be in charge of education and training. We regularly give in-house training on important topics to staff involved in API or pharmaceutical intermediate work. These include the Pharmaceutical Affairs Law and related laws, the operation of Good Supplying Practice (GSP), information about the APIs handled, business guidelines and business procedures established by the Company, and emergency situations that can arise in accidents.

We are promoting and expanding our efforts to address our responsibilities to customers through participation in initiatives. Participation in each initiative is decided after confirming that it is consistent with our basic policy and initiatives for our responsibilities to customers.

In the area of distribution, we are working on supplying safe and secure processed food products in accordance with the guidelines and manuals set out by them. Japan Processed Foods Wholesalers Association.

The Japan Pharmaceutical Traders' Association Co., Ltd. is an incorporated association whose objective is to support its pharmaceutical-importing member businesses. The Association works to promote pharmaceutical trade and ensure the safety and quality of imported medicines and their stable supply, to contribute to the improvement of public health. To ensure the safety and quality of imported pharmaceuticals, the Association operates laboratories that are officially registered with the Ministry of Health, Labor and Welfare as inspection facilities. The Association also holds workshops, seminars, and briefings on laws and regulations concerned with ensuring the quality, effectiveness, and safety of pharmaceuticals and medical devices. We have been a member of the Association since its founding in 1963, and play our part to ensure the steady import of outstanding APIs and pharmaceutical intermediates.

Handling Certified Materials (FSC^®, PEFC, SGEF Certification, etc.)

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