KDDI

KDDI employs efforts to increase access to technology through different programmes. One example of this is their Smart education programme that in 2021 provided technology and internet access to 1,300 students in Mongolia. KDDI shows leading practices in its support for people with disabilities by disclosing the number of people with disabilities it employs and supporting accessibility initiatives. The company also has a range of products for people with disabilities, including a tariff discount for mobile service subscriptions.

KDDI has a programme that is aimed to teach seniors how to use smartphones as well as a programme that teaches robotics skills to schoolchildren. The company also provides digital technologies to schools and classrooms in Cambodia, Myanmar and Nepal to support school connectivity.

KDDI demonstrates best practice in monitoring, responding to and reporting on security incidents. Additionally, it has several protective measures for child online safety, including content control, educational initiatives and a child safety website.

KDDI demonstrates support for open innovation through participation in standards organisations and collaboration with universities. It also contributes to the tech innovation ecosystem through a venture capital fund and support for non-profit start-ups. Further, KDDI demonstrates good performance in sustainable innovation. During the COVID-19 pandemic, the company shared big data for track and trace. It also uses the UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) as a framework for its activities. Additionally, KDDI has a public framework for ethical artificial intelligence (AI) that includes human rights considerations.

The company has an opportunity to support digital opportunities for women and girls. Further, while the company reports that it discloses its economic value generated according to international standards, not all the elements needed for this disclosure are reported. The company should clearly report how the economic value it generates is distributed among its stakeholders. It should also report its employment in its markets of operation.

The company has opportunities to support programmes for intermediate skills development. It can also undertake a third-party assessment of its existing skills development programmes to better understand their impact and identify areas of strength and improvements.

KDDI can strengthen its disclosure about how responsibility for cybersecurity is handled at a senior level in the company. Additionally, it can publish yearly transparency reports disclosing government requests it receives for user information.

The company has an opportunity to support start-ups founded by people from underrepresented groups. It can also disclose the proportion of its women employees working in tech roles and how ethics are considered in its research and development (R&D). 

KDDI commits to respecting human rights. Moreover, it identifies, assesses and takes action to address salient human rights issues in its own operations and in its business relationships. It also has a grievance mechanism accessible to workers and external stakeholders to raise human rights concerns and complaints. However, KDDI does not engage with stakeholders whose human rights could be impacted by its operations. KDDI still has an opportunity to commit to respecting the ILO core labour rights.

KDDI expects its business relationships to respect the health and safety of workers, but it does not disclose a policy statement making the same commitment for its own operations. The company discloses the proportion of its workforce covered by collective bargaining agreements. However, while the company expects its business relationships to pay a living wage to their workers, it does not have a commitment on paying its own workers a living wage. In relation to workforce diversity, KDDI provides a breakdown of employees in different employee categories by gender. However, it has an opportunity to disclose employee breakdowns for other indicators of diversity as well, such as age group. KDDI commits to promoting gender equality and women’s empowerment and has established time-bound targets to achieve goals related to this commitment.

KDDI has a policy prohibiting bribery and corruption and has a grievance mechanism for stakeholders to raise concerns and complaints on the topic. However, it does not describe any processes to identify bribery and corruption risks, and it does not include anti-bribery and anti-corruption clauses in its business relationship contracts. KDDI does not provide public information regarding its global tax strategy, nor does it disclose its income tax payments for its individual tax jurisdictions. Further, the company does not disclose its approach to lobbying and political engagement in a public policy statement, nor does it disclose its lobbying expenditures.