Foster Electric : Sustainability Report 2021

Sustainability Report 2021 (English version)

				Sustainability Report 2021	1
				(English version)
Corporate Philosophy			Vision
"Sincerity" has been the Foster Group's		Corporate Creed	To make contributions for future society through acoustics
corporate creed since its establishment.
By the term "Sincerity", we mean the act of	Sincerity	Through acoustic products or its solutions, a total commitment to help create a
which shares the same basic philosophy
treating all concerned parties of the Company			Mission
with a sincere approach. The concept of CSR,
as the corporate creed of "Sincerity", has			comfortable life and pleasure of communication around the world. A truly global
		enterprise our future society counts on.
always governed the Company's corporate
management and business operations since
its foundation.
To continue to grow in the coming age, we
Foster Rhythm
believe it is important for each member of the
Foster Group to act in accordance with the	"Foster Rhythm" is our guide to ensure we all move in the same direction to achieve our goals and dreams so we always move closer to our inspiring "Vision".
CSR philosophy, or the corporate creed of	"Our "Mission" motivates us to help people achieve new happiness via acoustic technology and our "Values" are guides to filter our choices so our actions support all
"Sincerity", which we have adhered to since

our establishment.

stakeholders.

Our "Principles" conduct us to create perfect harmony and achieve the best results together.

Our "Management System" of processes and tools helps us to practice, learn and grow as members of the Foster family, evolving new habits for future success.

CONTENTS

Corporate Philosophy	1
Top Message	2
Corporate Profiles/ Financial

I THE LEADING

Sound to Life*

SOLUTION COMPANY

- Our Principles and Values -

ALWAYS	EVER MORE GLOBAL
II IMPROVING	III AND INCLUSIVE

Information/ Corporate History	3
Foster Group ESG Management	5
Environment	10
Social	14
Governance	25

Strive to be number one in the global acoustic fields. Innovate to support ever wider market needs.

1. Trusted: Earn the trust of users and partners.
2. Expert: Take pride in our expertise in acoustic technology
3. Inspiring: Add unique value, motivate partners and excite customers.

Create a more efficient, effective, profitable and better place to work. Always seek new market categories and opportunities.

1. Fast and Flexible: Be fast moving and flexible
2. Reliable Quality: Deliver totally reliable quality via ever more efficient systems
3. Proactive: Embrace learning and proactive leadership
4. Steadfast: Show steadfast dedication in going beyond our promised goals

Embrace diversity and pursue more global synergy at all management levels.

1. Open Mind: Be open-minded and inclusive
2. Responsible: Fulfill our duty to protect people and the environment.
3. Team: Respect others as part of a team with shared goals.

External Recognition

Data Table

CorporateCorporate	Top Message
PhilosophyPhil sophy

30	*Sound to Life	The slogan where Foster Rhythm strives to achieve. In pursuit of our vision "To make contributions for future society through acoustics",
it means "To deliver sounds to life", "To enrich life through Foster acoustics", "Sounds to reach lives and sustain healthy lifestyle".	"
31
	Corporate Profiles/ Financial Information/	Foster Group ESG Management	Environment	Social	Governance	External Recognition	Data Table
	Corporate History

Sustainability Report 2021	2
(English version)

Corporate Social Responsibility and Promoting ESG Management

CEO

Hiromi Yoshizawa

COO

Atsushi Narikawa

The novel coronavirus (COVID 19) has changed the face of today's world. People are forced to restrict movements, business activities are impaired, and logistic movements have been stagnated. Under such conditions, corporations are subject to severe scrutiny on whether they take care of their own em- ployees, contribute to local community, or respond to environmental issues.

Foster Group celebrated 70th anniversary in 2019, and have wished to be a corporate citizen that is relied on and loved by our various stakeholders. We seek to do this by maintaining the consistent spirit of doing business for society and people based on our corporate creed of "Sincerity".

Omi Shonin (merchants from present-day Shiga Prefecture), used to say that in business you should have "three goods"- good for the seller, good for the buyer and good for society. I believe that many corporate entities that have been operating for more than 100 years secure these "three goods" by making reasonable profits and returning them for the good of society. Arguably, these movements are being accelerated globally in response to the pan- demic. Securing these "three goods", we also aim to be a centennial company that has a shining presence in the coming new society.

Society is currently experiencing major changes, and the innovations that fundamentally change our way of life are progressing at a pace that far exceeds anything that we anticipated. We must make major changes as we move forward while continuing to uphold the basic philosophy of "Sincerity" that Foster has adhered to since its founding.

We announced our medium-term business plan last year, under which we set a medium-term goal, "Elevate position from OEM/ODM supplier to strategic partner" and a long-term goal, "World's No.1 'acoustic' solution partner". At the same time, as ESG initiatives, we set "Zero Emissions" as our environmental target for 2050 and the slogan "Be Happy 80%*" for our employees. This slogan is based on our belief that employees are at the root of all corporate activities and companies that cannot make their employees happy cannot promote ESG, either. We will continue to actively promote human resource employment worldwide and diversity to cultivate truly global and sophisticated human re-

sources. In addition, by further promoting "work-style reform", we would like to offer an environment where more employees feel that they can work flexibly and freely, thus cherishing our employees and achieving the goal of "Be Happy 80%*".

*"Be Happy 80%": The ideal environment that we would like to achieve company-wide, which was presented by a team of young employees during internal leadership training. It refers to a working environment and corporate body where 80% of our employees can feel 80% happiness. We agree with that opinion. It is not 100%, which reflects our consideration of our stakeholders other than ourselves.

Recognized for such efforts, we were selected as an outstanding enterprise under the "New Diversity Management Selection 100", "Health and Productivity Management Outstanding Organization (White 500; Large Enterprise Category)" by the Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry, and "Top 100 Telework Pioneers" by the Ministry of Internal Affairs and Com- munications. We were also awarded the "Kurumin Certification" (Ministry of Health, Labour and Welfare) and the "Certification of Excellent Company in Health: Gold Accreditation" (Tokyo Promotion Council for Healthy Company Declaration), among others. We will continue those efforts in the future.

Foster Group has signed the "United Nations Global Compact" since 2017. This year, we joined the Japan Climate Initiative, where enterprises and organizations actively involved in activities to address climate change provide information and exchange opinions.

Further, the foster Group announced its ESG Management Statement in March this year. We vowed to keep the promotion of ESG management at the core of our company policy and declared Foster's commitment to fostering a healthy corporate climate, driving further work style reform, ensuring thorough quality control and risk management, and working to solve social issues.

We will cherish our employees and instill our corporate philosophy further among them to reinforce our corporate foundation.

We will continuously strive to offer satisfaction to our various stakeholders, and to become an enterprise that is loved by society.

Corporate	Top Message
Philosophy	Top Message

Corporate Profiles/ Financial Information/	Foster Group ESG Management	Environment	Social	Governance	External Recognition	Data Table
Corporate History

Sustainability Report 2021	3
(English version)

About Foster

Foster Electric was founded as a loudspeaker manufacturer in 1949.

Since that time, we have established ourselves as a specialist in audio technologies, and have provided the audio industry with many products and technologies. Among them, acoustic transducers have become our mainstay products. We have created a wide array of unique technologies and accumulated broad expertise, including in automotive speakers and other automotive audio products, audio equipment (AV speakers) for home entertainment, high-endHi-Fi speaker systems, headphones and headsets, compact speakers for information equipment, buzzers, and vibration actuators that apply audio technologies. With these technologies and accumulated expertise as our backbone, we provide quality, optimal acoustic experiences that fulfill the expectations of our customers. Products from Foster Electric have been used in many products around the world. They contribute to society by providing audio and vibration solutions through the products of our clients' brands.

Overview by Segment (Consolidated)

Speaker Segment

salesNet ¥56,736 million 66.5%

Group companies

The Group operates 38 bases in 12 countries and regions worldwide as bases for development, manufacturing and sales bases.

We have established a sophisticated production system integration processes from components manufacturing to finished goods manufacturing.

Sales/Development Bases Sales Bases Manufacturing Bases Others

EUROPE

2 bases			JAPAN
			8 bases

AMERICAS

8 bases

ASIA(excluding Japan)

20 bases

Mobile Audio Segment

salesNet ¥21,574 million 25.3%

Other Segment
Net	¥7,244 million	8.2%
sales

Financial Highlights Consolidated Performance for the Fiscal Year ended March 31, 2021

Net sales	Operating income			Ordinary income
¥85,220 million	¥0.7 million			¥219 million
(down 20.6% y-o-y)			(down 100.0% y-o-y)				(down 91.6% y-o-y)

Net loss attributable to owners of the parent

-¥3,363million

(Net income of ¥1,565 million in the previous fiscal year.)

Note: The figure above includes intersegment sales.

Corporate	Top Message	CorporateCor rate Profiles/Profiles/FinancialFinancial I formation/	Foster Group ESG Management	Environment	Social	Governance	External Recognition	Data Table
Philosophy	Information/CorporateCorporate History	History

Sustainability Report 2021	4
(English version)

Company Information

Stock Information

Company Profile (As of March 31, 2021)

Directors and Corporate Auditors (As of June 23, 2021)

Status of Shares

(As of March 31, 2021)

Major Shareholders

Company Name	Foster Electric Company, Limited
Founded	June 20, 1949
Common Stock	¥6,770,360,135
Listed on the First Section of the Tokyo Stock Exchange
Headquarters	1-1-109, Tsutsujigaoka, Akishima City, Tokyo, 196-8550, Japan
Phone: [phone] (main number)
Number of Employees:	18,611 (Number includes our outsourcee in Panyu, China)
URL	https://www.foster-electric.com/

CEO	Hiromi Yoshizawa
COO	Atsushi Narikawa
Senior Managing Director	Lu San Tie
Managing Director	Kazuhiro Kishi
Director	Hiroki Miura
Independent Director	Minoru Matsumoto
Independent Director	Yasuhiro Goto
Independent Director	Kaoru Chujo
Independent Corporate	Satoko Kimoto
Auditor (Standing Corporate Auditor)
Corporate Auditor (Part-time)	Tsutomu Inokuma
Independent Corporate Auditor	Takuma Ino
Independent Corporate Auditor	Takashi Suzuki

Senior Executive Officer	Hidetoshi Shirakawa
Senior Executive Officer	Tatsuhito Tanaka
Senior Executive Officer	Yasuhide Takahara
Senior Executive Officer	Akihito Mochizuki
Executive Officer	Terushige Nagasawa
Executive Officer	Naoki Kanai
Executive Officer	Yuji Harada
Executive Officer	Yuji Sakuta
Executive Officer	Hiroyuki Asada
Executive Officer	Oh In-Yong
Executive Officer	Nguyen Quan Hoang
Executive Officer	Tan GuiHai
Executive Officer	Wong Wing Chung

Total number of shares authorized to be issued by the Company

80,000,000 shares

Total number of shares issued

25,000,000 shares

Number of shareholders

5,755

Distribution of Shareholders by Shareholder Type

Foreign entities, etc.	Financial	Individuals
institutions	and others
38 %	40.1 %	14.8 %

Securities companies 3.4%

Domestic corporations, etc. 3.7%

* Excluding treasury stock

Shareholder's Name	Number of Shares Held	Ratio of Shares Held
(thousands)	(%)
The Master Trust Bank of Japan, Ltd. (trust account)	2,643	11.8
Custody Bank of Japan, Ltd. (trust account)	1,037	4.6
Mizuho Bank, Ltd.	1,016	4.5
MUFG Bank, Ltd.	945	4.2
Custody Bank of Japan, Ltd. (trust account 9)	857	3.8
State Street Bank and Trust Client Omnibus	606	2.7
Account OM02 505002
The Bank of New York Mellon 140042	478	2.1
Mizuho Trust & Banking Co., Ltd.	405	1.8
The Bank of New York Mellon 140044	388	1.7
State Street Bank and Trust Company 505001	336	1.5

Treasury stock (2,645,024 shares) is excluded for the calculation of the "Ratio of Shares Held".

Corporate History

1988

2012

1989

2006

Headquarters

1949

functions

relocated to the

1982

1959

Began production in

current location,

S. Nishimura and

Began production

Tsutsujigaoka,

2019

Vietnam to meet rising

H. Shinohara

Akishima City

of headphones,

demand for

(headquarters

established

Began supplying car

microphones, and

headphones and

relocated in 2013)

Shinano Onkyo

speakers

speakers in Panyu,

headsets

70th anniversary

Institute

China

Renamed Foster Electric

Co., Ltd.

G-205 Speaker loaded into Japan's rst transistor radio

1955

Fostex Corp.	Merged with Tonegen	Transferred from the
established	Co., Ltd.	Second Section to
		the First Section of
		the Tokyo Stock
		Exchange

1973

1986

1999

・Converted Korea-based ESTec CORPORATION into a consolidated subsidiary

・Began online sales of custom-made headphones "KOTORI"

2009

・Took over the micro acoustic components business from STAR MICRONICS CO., LTD.

・Acquired shares of SUZUKI KANSHI (THAILAND) CO., LTD.

2014

2017

Hiromi Yoshizawa was appointed as CEO Atsushi Narikawa was appointed as COO

2020

Corporate	Top Message	CorporateCor rate Profiles/Profiles/FinancialFinancial I formation/	Foster Group ESG Management	Environment	Social	Governance	External Recognition	Data Table
Philosophy	Information/CorporateCorporate History	History