Management of Chemical Substances

Many of the raw materials we utilize are chemical substances, and to ensure "the safety of our production workers" and "the safety of our printing company customers when using our products," we have designated "substances that we will not use as raw materials" and "substances we will use with appropriate management", and have established a management structure based on the respective risks and hazard assessments (classified into management levels 1 - 4).
We are a member of the Japan Printing Ink Makers Association, which has compiled a Negative List (NL) Regulations (voluntary restrictions related to printing ink). The NL Regulations selects substances that are not desirable as raw materials for printing ink from the viewpoints of human safety, health, and environmental impact, and prohibits their use, and our manufacturing complies with this regulation
We have also introduced a chemical substance management system for comprehensive management of chemical substances used throughout the company, to resolve issues such as responding appropriately to the latest legal and regulatory revisions, obtaining the latest hazard information, and compliance with regulations on chemical substances to be implemented by EU and countries in Asia.
In addition, the Chemical Substance Management Committee meets as is required. The Committee is attended by members from the development, sales, production, logistics, and administrative departments from across our business divisions, and works to improve and strengthen our initiatives for our use and management of chemical substances while referencing regulations on chemical substances such as those in Europe and the United States.

The Act on Confirmation, etc. of Release Amounts of Specific Chemical Substances in the Environment and Promotion of Improvements to the Management Thereof (the PRTR Law; PRTR stands for Pollutant Release and Transfer Register), the Industrial Safety and Health Act, and the Poisonous and Deleterious Substances Control Act all require the submission of Safety Data Sheets (SDS) when providing products containing covered chemical substances to other business operators. The SDS contain essential information for customers such as the dangers of the inks, cautions when handling them, and their storage conditions.
The created SDS are integrated for management in a database, allowing the sales department to securely distribute pertinent information. The PRTR Information Management System provides users with aggregated data on the amount of PRTR substances contained in delivered products. We also comprehensively manage chemical substances used throughout the company, to resolve issues such as responding appropriately to the latest legal and regulatory revisions, obtaining the latest hazard information, and compliance with regulations on chemical substances implemented by EU and countries in Asia.

The following chart shows PRTR Law Class 1 Designated Chemical Substances handled by the Saitama Headquarters with an annual volume of one ton or more (half a ton in the case of Class 1 Specified Substances) with records of atmospheric emissions. We also state the emissions of Class 2 organic solvents not covered by the PRTR Law (we do not use Class 1 organic solvents and hence there are no such emissions).
PRTR substances and Class 2 organic solvents with atmospheric emissions from the Saitama Headquarters often volatilize from solvents used for cleaning, so we conducted a review of such tasks from 2009. We were able to reduce the total emissions of PRTR substances and Class 2 organic solvents from 41 tons in 2009 to 3.9 tons in fiscal 2020, less than one-tenth of the original amount, even with the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic.

We appropriately stored 1,285 kilograms of high-concentration polychlorinated biphenyl (PCB) products for use in transformers and condensers, but following appropriate disposal by an outside vendor in June 2020, as of the end of March 2021 we no longer store this substance.