Stakeholder Engagement

The JFE Group strives to maintain agreeable and favorable relationships with all stakeholders, including Stakeholder Engagement shareholders, customers, clients, employees, and local communities, for the sustainable growth and medium- to long-term increase of corporate value.

JFE Group Standards of Business Conduct

Be open to society

Proactively disclose corporate information and engage in constructive dialogues with diverse stakeholders to enhance our corporate value.

Engagement with Stakeholders

Engagement with JFE’s Major Stakeholders

Stakeholder	Major Communication Methods, etc.	Others
Stakeholder	Major Communication Methods, etc.	Frequency (per year)	Scale, etc.
Scale, etc.	Ordinary general meeting of shareholders	1	Approx. 230,000 shareholders
	Individual meetings, primarily with institutional investors and securities analysts	In Japan: 54 companies (181 meetings) Overseas: 86 companies (150 meetings)
	Meetings with shareholders, primarily ESG managers or those with voting rights at institutional investors	In Japan: 25 companies (44 meetings) Overseas: 18 companies (25 meetings)
	Investor meetings and ESG Briefings for analysts and persons responsible for ESG	5	Approx. 1,100 persons in total
	Web-based briefings for individual investors	Over 2,000 views
	Business site and plant tours for individual shareholders	14	Approx. 1,900 persons
	Newsletters (JFE Dayori)	2 (mid-year and year-end)	Approx. 300,000 copies per issue
	Various reports, including integrated reports and sustainability reports^*1	1	Approx. 23,000 copies
	Information via websites, etc., for shareholders and investors	As needed
Customers	Communication through sales activities and sales support for quality assurance	As needed	Conducted at each operating company
	Interviews and questionnaires, such as those related to customer satisfaction	As needed	Conducted at each operating company
	Information via websites (product information), etc.	As needed
Suppliers	Communication through purchasing activities	As needed	Conducted at each operating company
	Briefings and exchanges of opinion	As needed	Conducted at each operating company
	Information disclosure and other communication through the website	As needed
Employees	Communications through daily operations and in the workplace	As needed
	Internal newsletters and intranet	As needed
	Various labor-management committees	2 to 4	Management and labor unions at each operating company
	Corporate Ethics Hotline	As needed	FY2023: 134 cases
	Various training sessions	As needed	Position-specific, compliance, human rights, etc.
	Family days^*1 (visits by employee families, lunch at employees’ cafeteria), etc.	As needed	Conducted at each operating company
	Corporate Ethics Awareness Survey	Once every 3 years (once every 2 years starting in FY2024)	Conducted at JFE Holdings and operating companies
	Engagement Survey (employee satisfaction survey)^*2	1	Conducted at JFE Holdings and operating companies
	Management feedback (360 degree analysis)^*3	1	Conducted at JFE Holdings and JFE Steel, and JFE Engineering
Local communities	Communication through local residents’ association, events, etc.	As needed
	Events at manufacturing bases (festivals, etc.)	1 per region	Approx. 170,000 persons per year
	Plant tours	As needed	More than 80,000 persons per year
	Cleanup activities (vicinity of manufacturing bases, regional cleaning, etc.)	As needed
	Sports promotion (baseball or jogging workshops, various sports competitions, etc.)	As needed
	Others (dispatch of lecturers to elementary schools, craft workshops, workplace experience events, etc.)	As needed
	Information via websites (environmental info, etc.)	As needed
	Social contribution through JFE 21st Century Foundation (various research support, regional activity support, etc.)	As needed

*1Number of issues published is for the integrated report, and the sustainability report is only posted online.
*2Questionnaire targeting all employees for surveying the level of satisfaction and applying results to initiatives and operations.
*3Corporate officers and managers are evaluated by co-workers and subordinates and receive feedback.

Engaging Our Shareholders and Investors

We work to disclose information accurately, fairly and in a timely and appropriate manner as well as strive for active communication.

We established the Investor Relations and Corporate Communications Department as an organization responsible for communication with domestic and international shareholders and investors, and to promote constructive dialogue as well as provide management with the information acquired, with the aim of maintaining and improving the relationship of trust.

Returns to Shareholders

The JFE Group regards returning profits to shareholders as a top management concern and follows the basic policy of actively paying dividends while establishing a sustainable and highly profitable structure for the Group as a whole, investing in growth, and improving its financial position. The Group’s basic policy under the Seventh Medium-term Business Plan is to achieve a payout ratio of about 30%.

General Meetings of Shareholders

General meetings of shareholders are opportunities for dialogue with shareholders, so JFE sends invitations at the earliest possible date to maximize attendance and avoid overlapping with the shareholder meetings of other companies. The company has been posting an invitation on its website at the earliest possible date while allowing online voting for shareholders who are unable to attend. JFE also strives to provide the same information to overseas investors as it does in Japan by, for example, disclosing the convocation notice in English.

For more information on the General Meetings of Shareholders, please refer to the following.

General Meetings of Shareholders

Policy on Constructive Dialogue with Shareholders and Investors

The JFE Group endeavors to enhance corporate value sustainably through dialogues with shareholders and investors, and it has established the Investor Relations and Corporate Communications Department to be responsible for promoting such constructive dialogue. The director supervising the department and director in charge are also responsible for promoting constructive dialogues with shareholders and investors, and the department takes the lead in ensuring organic collaboration between relevant departments by appropriately sharing information.

To promote active dialogue, JFE holds various briefings for institutional investors, including announcements of medium-term business plans and financial results by executive directors, and also arranges for visits to investors in Japan and overseas. With regard to individual shareholders and investors, JFE organizes briefings on corporate activity and tours of plants and other sites. Opinions, questions, and other information obtained through these dialogues are regularly collected and reported to directors, Audit & Supervisory Board members, and corporate officers.

In conducting the dialogues, JFE prevents any leaks of insider information and ensures fair disclosure by adhering to its disclosure policy. In addition, important press releases and IR materials are disclosed in English to provide the same information to overseas investors as to those in Japan.