Group Companies in Japan
NIPPON NYUKAZAI CO., LTD.
| Principal business | Manufacture and sale of surfactant and other chemicals |
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In FY2022, we at Nippon Nyukazai promoted RC initiatives regarding occupational safety and health by analyzing all the cases of industrial injuries that had occurred in the past at our company, and identified trends from specific perspectives, including age brackets. In consideration of these trends, we will continue to promote our basic safety initiatives steadily to reduce injury risk.
In terms of quality, we analyzed the quality hiyari hatto (near miss) incidents reported in and after FY2019. From among the items describing the conditions of the relevant employees when such incidents occurred, “Did not notice at all” and “When performing familiar routine tasks” ranked high. Considering that there may be some risk factors hidden behind familiar routine work, we will utilize what we have learned from past near miss incidents to prevent the occurrence of similar near miss incidents.
For environmental protection, we implemented measures to reduce atmospheric emissions of substances subject to the PRTR Law. Regarding the issues that we are currently considering for improvement, we will proceed with our investigation to further promote the reduction of emissions.
Regarding communication with society, a clean-up activity was carried out by the Kashima Plant for the first time in three years, in which 29 people (including 12 families of our employees) cleaned Nikkawahama Beach.
We will continue to further promote our RC initiatives while pursuing safe operation.
InterviewReplacement of UPS (uninterruptible power-supply system) under equipment replacement plan
Chief, Kashima Machinery & Equipment Maintenance Sect.,
Engineering Dept.
Nippon Nyukazai Co., Ltd.
The Kashima Plant of Nippon Nyukazai Co., Ltd. is working on the replacement of various types of equipment under its equipment replacement plan. The UPS of the plant was working stably thanks to regular maintenance. Considering it plays an important role in the case of power failure, the UPS was replaced in FY2022 as planned.
In October 2022, after the replacement of the UPS, the plant and the surrounding area suffered a power outage due to damage to power transmission lines caused by a rainstorm. Until the plant’s emergency power-generating facilities were activated, the UPS supplied power in a stable manner, enabling the plant to be controlled safely without interruption of the DCS (distributed control system).
We will continue to make efforts to ensure the stable operation of the plant by promoting the replacement of equipment in a planned manner.
NISSHOKU TECHNO FINE CHEMICAL CO., LTD.
| Principal business | Manufacture and sale of (meth)acrylic acid derivatives and photo/electro chemicals |
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In FY2022, Nisshoku Techno Fine Chemical had one injury without loss of workdays involving a young employee, and it immediately took countermeasures against the recurrence of such an injury, including re-education on the handling of equipment. To prevent industrial injuries, we are continuously carrying out KY risk prediction and hiyari hatto (near miss) campaigns, and reviewing the risk assessment of the tasks to which any change was made. In addition, we are conducting various events to promote safety activities, including a safety convention in July and a health convention in October.
In an effort to promote environmental protection, we are striving for even more efficient operation of production facilities by setting the target of reducing waste intensity, the emissions intensity of substances subject to the PRTR Law, and the energy use intensity to below the FY2021 levels. Under the medium-term plan, we are also working to reduce environmental impact by converting fuel in steam boilers from heavy oil to city gas to reduce CO2 emissions.
For process safety and disaster prevention, we carried out a disciplinary drill under the guidance of the Ichikawa Collaborative Disaster Control Center, partly due to a recent increase in the number of young employees. In addition, a comprehensive emergency drill was held, including an evacuation drill on the assumption of a tsunami caused by an earthquake and a disaster response drill.
In FY2023, we will continue to conduct safety and disaster control activities while taking measures against COVID-19.
NIPPON POLYMER INDUSTRIES CO., LTD.
| Principal business | Manufacture and sale of acrylic resins |
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Regrettably in FY2022, Nippon Polymer Industries had one injury with loss of workdays and four injuries without loss of workdays (one of which occurred in a contractor). We take seriously the fact that there was an increase in cases involving new employees and less experienced workers. As part of efforts to prevent such occupational injuries, we are working on the revitalization of hiyari hatto (near miss) campaigns, including drastically improving the near miss report format and its submission system. We are also reviewing on-site warning signs (consideration of adoption of universal design) and education curriculums.
For process safety and disaster prevention, we held a joint emergency drill with the fire department in a way similar to a “blind” method, in which the fire department controls the timing of event occurrence to make the drill more practical, rather than a drill based on conventional scenarios. As a result, we were able to identify many challenges to be resolved and learned a lot.
We will continue to work on RC initiatives with full participation whenever possible, aiming for zero accidents and zero injuries.
NIPPOH CHEMICALS CO., LTD.
| Principal business | Manufacture and sale of iodine, iodine compounds, raw materials for pharmaceuticals and pesticides, and natural gas |
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In FY2022, Nippoh Chemicals formulated a three-year medium-term RC plan, and has since been promoting RC initiatives.
For occupational safety and health, regrettably, we had four injuries without loss of workdays. By type of injury, one case fell in the category of “cuts,” and the other three in “exposure to harmful substances,” all of which were caused by unsafe behaviors resulting from familiarity with tasks and carelessness. We will strive to prevent the occurrence of such industrial injuries by ensuring basic safety behavior and enhance the safety awareness of employees. In FY2022, moreover, we created a poster titled “safety declaration at the workplace” by involving Group company employees working in the same workplace to enhance a spirit of teamwork and promote mutual awareness raising.
We launched an environmental protection sub-committee to implement initiatives toward carbon neutrality. To achieve the GHG emissions reduction goal, we determined how much gases were being emitted, identified self-flowing methane from a well for extracting groundwater (brine water) that contains iodide ion and natural gas as another source of GHG, and calculated its emissions.
We will further promote RC initiatives with full participation.
TOKYO FINE CHEMICAL CO., LTD.
| Principal business | Manufacture and sale of antiseptics, antifungal agents, disinfectants, brine, stabilizers of vinyl chloride resins, etc. |
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In FY2022, the first year of the 8th RC Promotion Plan, we at Tokyo Fine Chemical engaged in RC initiatives under Nippon Shokubai’s safety philosophy “Safety takes priority over production,” as in the previous fiscal year. Regrettably, however, we had two industrial injuries, both of which involved young employees. We, together with young employees with less experience, are currently reviewing the task risk assessment made in the past. We will promote our initiatives toward zero industrial injuries.
For environmental protection, we continuously worked on waste reduction and sorting, resulting in a significant enhancement of the recycling rate of waste plastics.
In February 2023, our Yokosuka Plant was commended by Yokosuka City for being an excellent plant. Mayor Katsuaki Kamiji visited the plant, where an awarding ceremony was held.
We will continue to make company-wide efforts in further promoting and reinforcing RC initiatives.
CHUGOKU KAKO CO., LTD.
| Principal business | Manufacture and sale of adhesive-processed products and fine sphere particles |
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In FY2022, for occupational safety, Chugoku Kako had zero injuries with or without loss of workdays for the first time since 2016, achieving the target of improving its record to 1,800 days. As a specific effort, we provided employees with re-education on hiyari hatto (near miss), task risk assessment, and past cases of industrial injuries. In light of the fact that many industrial injuries involving new employees have occurred at Group companies, we are planning to provide safety education to young employees in FY2023.
Regarding environmental protection, we are making steady progress toward the FY2030 goal of reducing GHG emissions by 30% from the FY2014 levels by the replacement of boilers (to change the fuel to city gas) in 2021.
In our improvement and proposal activity “Chugoku Kako Improvement ACTION,” launched in 2020, a total of 284 proposals were made over two years, bringing about tangible results in a reduction in workload, information sharing, and safety and quality improvement.
We will continue to promote RC initiatives with an eye to continuously achieving zero injuries and reducing environmental impact.
Nisshoku Butsuryu Co., Ltd.
| Principal business | Logistics of chemicals |
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The Nisshoku Butsuryu Group positions “providing environment-friendly, safe, and high-quality logistics services for chemicals and contributing to society through its RC initiatives” as its key management policy. Under this policy, we have been working on the reduction of GHG emissions as an initiative to reduce environmental impacts and promoting risk prediction as an initiative to achieve zero accidents and injuries. We also promote proper operation of advanced operation information systems and the introduction of vehicles equipped with Advanced Emergency Braking System as priority tasks.
We also worked on the following priority issues: prevention of environmental disasters and accidents, promotion of energy consumption reduction and resource conservation, prevention of accidents with vehicle equipment, prevention of chemical transportation/handling issues, and promotion of white logistics.
