Message from Advantest’s Director of Sustainable Management

Towards a "safe, secure, and comfortable society"

Looking at the international situation as U.S.-China trade war and struggle for technology supremacy continue, dragging impact of China’s Zero Covid policy pummeling on the world's economic activities, the turmoil in the global supply chain and the shortage of materials and parts due to the tense situation in Ukraine, and soaring energy prices, concerns of the global recession and rising inflation have escalated further uncertainty. In addition, social issues such as climate change and population problems are becoming apparent on a global scale, requiring us to take appropriate long- or short-term actions in our corporate activities to address these concerns. In a highly uncertain business environment, we are striving to maximize customer satisfaction by accurately grasping customer needs and providing solutions in our core semiconductor test equipment business, all while improving our corporate value by ensuring sustainable management that emphasizes the aspects of "Environment", "Social", and "Governance".

The following are our ESG initiatives from the Second Mid-Term Management Plan (MTP2), which was formulated and launched in FY2021. As for the "E," the environmental aspect of ESG, together with setting goals focusing on key issues such as greenhouse gas reduction, introduction of renewable energy, shortening production time by optimizing production processes, strengthening development and sales of green products, and initiatives addressing resource recycling and biodiversity, we have also evaluated and improved our KPIs. As for the "S," the social aspect of ESG, we enhanced our activities concerning human rights and occupational health and safety, conflict minerals elimination, respecting and observing fair trade practices and procurement policies aiming for increased transparency and reliability of the entire supply chain as a means to fulfill our corporate social responsibilities. In addition, as global human resource measures, we are making efforts to promote diversity, instilling human rights policies and strengthening relevant education, and enhancing employee engagement. Also for our customers, we strive to improve customer satisfaction. As initiatives for the "G," or governance aspect, we held business strategy briefings for the Board of Directors with the intention of increasing the Board's effectiveness, provided full-scale introduction of management succession plans, promoted further penetration of the Advantest Way to our employees worldwide, and are working to reinforce our compliance and risk management systems.

On the other hand, innovations in the areas of digital infrastructure such as communication networks and data centers represented by rapid changes in technology, and the evolution of semiconductors used in a variety of electronic devices lay at the core, spurring the acceleration of digital transformation in the world we live in. In line with our purpose of “Enabling Leading-Edge Technologies,” we will continue to support the digital transformation of society with the goals of delivering safety, security, and comfort to people’s live. Under such circumstances, as a semiconductor test equipment manufacturer, we are developing high-performance test equipment and providing solutions that respond to challenges of technological and production evolution in the semiconductor market such as the "improvement of test efficiency in response to the dramatic evolution of semiconductors due to miniaturization", "securing device quality/performance accompanying the development of amplified 2.5D/3D packaging", "early yield improvement and mass production launch of advanced manufacturing line", "increasing demand for high reliability of semiconductors," and "dramatic improvement in operating speed". Accurately grasping technology megatrends and providing valuable products/support to customers will ultimately lead to contributions to future global environmental conservation and the formulation of efficient social infrastructures and supply chains. On top of these contributions, it is crucial to strengthen our corporate governance to bring about sustainable management and the improve our corporate value.

As for our future ESG activities, we will create a roadmap for our participation in the RE100 initiatives to further strengthen our response to climate change issues and aim to reduce greenhouse gas emissions by 60% by FY2030 compared to FY2018. We are determined to work together with our customers, business partners, and other stakeholders to help realize a decarbonized society. In terms of human rights and the working environment, we will work to ensure that our entire value chain understands our ways of thinking, and to continue to work towards respecting human rights, diversity, and occupational health and safety. In addition, we will focus on human resource development and engagement improvement for our employees. On our business side, we will support a wide range of technological innovations in society and build a robust foundation to promote sustainable management by enhancing our existing, core semiconductor testing business while expanding our business into peripheral business areas.

We appreciate your continued support.