Efforts Toward Social Contribution Activities
The social contribution activities of the Advantest Group focus on "preserving the global environment," "developing the next generation," and "contributing to local communities" under our basic policy of "We will respect our stakeholders, promote harmony with society, and contribute to the SDGs in order to achieve a sustainable society" within the "ESG for Sustainability" established in July 2019.
In addition, we use our business activities to meet the needs of our stakeholders and of society, and to fulfill our social responsibilities as a group throughout the world.
Academic Support and Next-generation Development Support
Enabling Leading-Edge Technologies: the business activities of Advantest are supported by the skills of many engineers from around the world and the understanding of the communities in which we operate. With this, Advantest supports academia and science education, mainly in regions that host our research and development sites, to contribute toward the development of human resources for science and technology. For example, in Japan, we have established "The Advantest D2T Research Division" at the Tokyo University Systems Design Lab (d.lab), to provide students in Japan studying design technology of very large scale integration (VLSI) with an integrated education environment from VLSI design to testing, with the aim of developing specialist in test design and supporting research activities for SoC (System on Chip) design. Advantest also makes efforts to promote mutual understanding and exchange between international students and Japanese society, etc. through supporting (by making donations to) the Foundation of Corporate Friendship Network for Foreign Students with the aim of supporting students from around the world studying in Japan. We also are continuing our community-based activities while under the limitations due to the COVID-19 pandemic, such as holding science craft classes for children in elementary schools near our Japan business bases, and hosting "Girl’s Day" workplace experiences by inviting German female students interested in electronics to our offices.
Humanitarian Support
Advantest has been involved with many social support and charitable activities around the world for many years, rooted in "The Advantest Way."
In 2022, when the disruptive effects of the war in Ukraine intensified, we donated a total of JPY 90 million to UNICEF and four other domestic and international organizations as crisis relief efforts aiding people afflicted by difficult situations. In addition to these donations, our German subsidiary has set up an in-house "Ukraine Task Force Team," which is carrying out volunteer activities such as providing accommodation, clothes, and hygiene-related goods to refugees from Ukraine via local aid organizations in Europe.
In 2020, when the COVID-19 pandemic spread across the world, Advantest increased its donation budget across the group to support medical assistance and socially vulnerable citizens in need in Japan, the U.S., Germany, and Singapore, through donations to organizations such as medical and nursing associations, medical institutions, Red Cross Societies, and NPO organizations.
Along with support activities related to the pandemic, Advantest also supports victims of major disasters. Furthermore, Advantest employees around the world continue to engage in charitable activities along with their business activities in order to support disabled people, refugees, and people facing economic hardships.
Framework to promote employee participation
The Advantest Group actively advocates for employee participation in volunteer activities.
Volunteer activities for giving back to society recruit participants through systems such as an intranet message board. Reports on activities in each region are also published in our internal newsletter and social media (My LIFE. ON.), which contributes to attracting new participants.
Employees can save up their unused paid holidays that would otherwise not be carried over to the next year and use them for volunteer activities.
For details on My LIFE. ON., please refer to "Global Educational Activities on Our Internal Social Networking Platform "My LIFE. ON."" (Environmental Education page).
The Advantest Group is engaged in a variety of social contribution activities at its locations around the world so that each individual employee contributes to the betterment of society. In addition to providing diverse support to various regions, many employees participated in nature conservation activities in FY2022 in relation to contributing to biodiversity, one of the key themes of the “E-Environment” aspect of the ESG Action Plan.
Below are a few examples of our social contribution activities.
Welfare Support
U.S.A. (AAI): Housing Project
During the housing project
Advantest employees, their families and friends volunteered with Habitat for Humanity East Bay/Silicon Valley (EBSV) at Habitat for Humanity’s Esperanza Place location. This activity aims to build stronger communities by empowering families through affordable housing solutions. The employees, together with future homeowners and other volunteers helped various tasks including installation of a sub-floor, insulating doors, and others.
Japan: School Meal Support for Developing Countries
TABLE FOR TWO
In Advantest, we participate in the TABLE FOR TWO (TFT) program (a global meal-sharing initiative where one school meal is donated to a developing country for every healthy menu item or beverage purchased in developed countries) as one of our SDGs activities. For every set meal and beverage purchased by an employee at a cafeteria or kiosk at a business site in Japan, 20 yen will be donated. In FY2022, we were able to donate a total of 200,040 yen to TABLE FOR TWO International, a non-profit organization.
Singapore (ASP): Soup Kitchen
Cutting vegetables
Advantest’s employees participated in a non-affiliated charity Willing Heart’s (an activity where meals are provided for free to the needy) Soup Kitchen and helped in cutting vegetables and distributing food. Willing Heart’s kitchen operates 365 days a year, that prepares, cooks, and distributes approximate 11,000 daily meals to the needy in Singapore. Advantest has been actively participating this event for years.
Developing the Next Generation
Japan
The Japanese government has proposed an IP creation education* to enhance society by having children and students understand and enjoy "creating something new" and "respecting what has been created". Schools and communities need to work together to create educational materials in order to promote IP creation education with consideration for their development stage.
Advantest has held classes and workshops based on the concept of invention and great inventions in the history of Japan for elementary school students from 2021. The children learned that people's lives have been enriched by inventions, garnering positive feedback from their schools. We will continue our activities so that more children can receive IP creation education.
*: For details of IP creation education, please refer to the materials on IP creation education of the Cabinet Office.
Held Science Craft Classes and Nature Observation Event
Educational workshop
held at
an elementary school
We conduct various educational support activities in the areas where our offices are located, with the aim of supporting the education of schoolchildren who are future leaders of our society and contributing to local communities. In FY2022, while taking measures to prevent the spread of COVID-19, our employees taught elementary school students in the vicinity of Advantest Gunma R&D Center how to make a mechanical kitchen timer whose parts are mostly made of wood. In addition, we held science craft classes such as speaker making at elementary schools in Gunma and Miyagi prefectures where our business sites are located. We also held a nature observation event for local elementary school students at the Gunma R&D Center biotope, one of the largest company owned biotopes in Japan, as an opportunity to learn about biodiversity.
25,000 Sheets of Recycled Paper Donated to Local Elementary Schools
Handover of
recycled paper
Advantest Gunma R&D Center has installed a dry process office recycle machine, which processes discarded copy paper into recycled paper. We also made notebooks from these recycled paper and distributed them to local elementary school students who visit our biotope and to students and teachers at special needs schools who visited our company as souvenirs. In FY2022, we donated 25,000 sheets of recycled paper to a local elementary school.
Usage of The Interactive Digital Globe
We have installed an interactive globe at Advantest's Gunma R&D Center, displaying real-time Earth data, for use in environmental education for children who, we believe, are the generations that will bear the responsibility of shaping the world's future, our employees, and our stakeholders. This tool not only allows us to learn about global atmospheric temperature changes, but also about the past, present, and future of the Earth.
In FY2022, this globe was also set up in the ESG corner of our booth at SEMICON Japan, a premier international exhibition offering latest insights into semiconductor manufacturing equipment and materials. It was well received by our visitors and provided an opportunity to discuss various social issues such as climate change. Likewise, we used the globe for environmental learning during the training of new employees in FY2023, following on from FY2022. We will continue to make effective use of this tool for environmental learning for a wide range of our stakeholders.
Advantest Participates in Edu Town SDGs Alliance
In addition to science classes for elementary school students, Advantest has also participated in the "EduTown SDGs Alliance" (produced by Nikkei Business Publications and TREE / operated by Tokyo Shoseki) project since fiscal 2021, which provides education on the SDGs to elementary and junior high school students.
The "EduTown SDGs Alliance" is a project that supports the development of creators of a sustainable society, and has created and operates the educational website "EduTown SDGs" as well as freely distributes supplementary materials (booklet).
China
Under the theme of "Social Contribution", Advantest (China) Co., Ltd. continuously strengthen the collaboration with universities and research institutes to develop talents for IC industry, especially on their IC test knowledge, even amid the COVID-19 pandemic and also in the post pandemic era.
In 2022, our engineers, together with our partners (from universities, research institutes, and private companies), carried out IC test trainings online 3 times, covering more than 90 trainees. Also, we developed a new partnership with a university and opened "CloudTesting™ Service based IC test fundamental" class.
In 2023, we visited several universities and invited the professors to our office to discuss new collaboration opportunities. As of May 2023, we opened IC test classes in 3 universities for more than 60 students. We also have a busy worklist for near future; prepare seminar with professors focusing on IC test class setup in universities, develop more partner universities and look for various collaboration models.
Other Examples of How We Support the World
Malaysia (AMY & ASM): COVID-19 Humanitarian Give Back Society
Recipients of the Food Aid
Through its corporate social responsibility (CSR) initiative, Advantest has donated RM20,000 to the CovidCareMy 3.0 Covid-19 Response Fund, an immediate crisis response initiative launched by the Malaysian non-profit organization Development of Human Resources for Rural Areas (DHRRA). The contribution will go towards supporting families across Malaysia whose livelihoods have been impacted by the pandemic. Also, we contributed emergency aid baskets worth RM150 comprising groceries, food items, face masks and sanitizers to DHRRA Malaysia.
Malaysia (AMY & ASM): Contribution to The National Autism Society of Malaysia
Packing goodies bag
Advantest decided to give contribution-in-kind to help to meet the needs of the people living with autism and donated stationeries, bookshelves and fans to the National Autism Society of Malaysia (NASOM). We also donated goodies bags using cash collections at approximately RM 2,000 (approximately 60,000 yen/470USD) from our employees containing a variety of toys, snacks, beverages, stationeries, and home accessories. Moreover, environmentally friendly bags made from 80% recycled from plastic bottles were used to pack these items.
Korea (ATK): Donation of Fixed-asset Disposal Profits
During the handover
Advantest donated fixed-asset disposal profits of 2,474,800 KRW, raised by selling steel waste, to Cheonan City Welfare Foundation. Retired 10 devices of 4-year-old laptops were contributed to our local community and were delivered to people in need such as local students.
Germany (AEG): Donated Laptops to Ukraine Refugees
Using the laptop
provided by AEG
After the outbreak of war in Ukraine in February 2022 many women, children and older people fled to Germany with only few belongings and no money. AEG management and members chose to help and support these very unfortunate refugees, and provided used laptops to Freundeskreis Degerloch, an organization that helps refugees. Upon receival, the refuges were not only able to access schooling material and but also empowered them to prepare diverse applications (job, recognition of qualifications, flat etc.) they need to submit.
