Anti-corruption initiatives

Promoting sound organizational management and fair business practices is extremely important in order to make our corporate philosophy a lasting reality throughout the Group.

The Yakult Group operates in full compliance with the anti-corruption laws, regulations, guidelines and guidance applicable in the countries and regions in which we operate and has put in place our anti-corruption policy based on the Yakult Ethical Principles and Code of Conduct, a Group-wide set of guidelines for compliance. We comply with all internal rules relating to this policy and the Yakult Ethical Principles and Code of Conduct.

Compliance Committee

Our Compliance Committee, established in 2000, is composed of independent outside experts. This committee regularly meets with directors of Yakult Honsha to discuss such themes as the compliance promotion situation of each department. Members provide wide-ranging opinions and recommendations related to overall corporate activities from the perspective of compliance, as well as practical advice regarding the theme of each meeting.

In fiscal 2024, the committee met in September to discuss the status of accounts and finances as well as circumstances around internal auditing, and again in February to discuss initiatives addressing　sustainability challenges and the status of compliance promotion.

Corporate Ethics Committee

Our Corporate Ethics Committee, established in 2002, is primarily composed of independent outside experts. This committee convenes regularly for checking on the implementation status of our corporate ethics activities (such as refusing to engage with organized crime groups). Through oversight by committee members, we work on ensuring sound management. In fiscal 2024, this committee met in November.

Internal reporting system

In Japan, we set up the Yakult Compliance Hotline in 2006 as an internal reporting system for quickly discovering and correcting any violations of laws and internal rules during the execution of business.

We have established internal and external (law office) contacts for this hotline, and work to protect whistleblowers through Internal Reporting Regulations that assure the confidentiality of reported information and prohibit the adverse treatment of whistleblowers.

In April 2025, to make our internal reporting system even more effective, we engaged a specialist company to operate new contact points, allowing solo proprietors of Group marketing companies and subcontracted Yakult Ladies to use the system, too.

We conduct periodic compliance surveys every three years to verify the level of awareness of this internal reporting system within the Group. According to the results of our most recent survey in fiscal 2023, awareness is at 90.6%.

Employees are informed about this system during training for new employees and level-specific training, as well as regularly via groupware. We also gather feedback from employees via the aforementioned compliance surveys.

In addition, we are striving to ensure this system’s effectiveness by raising awareness of the system among management and eligible persons within the Group that have implemented it and we are educating people about how to use it.

In Group companies outside Japan, we have established internal reporting systems at 14 business sites.

Number of reports, consultations and queries received by internal reporting system (Yakult Compliance Hotline)

Fiscal	2020	2021	2022	2023	2024
Number of reports	9	16	14	24	27

Internal reports by type (fiscal 2024)

Type	Number of reports
Harassment	13
HR/labor	3
Quality	0
Other	11
Total	27