CSR Information

Putting Smiles on the Faces of Everyone Nintendo Touches

CSR Factory Verification conducted in 2018

Supply Chain

Promoting CSR activities throughout
our entire supply chain.

We work to create positive relationships with our various business partners, striving to create an environment that can provide our consumers with better products.

CSR Factory Verification conducted in 2018

Nintendo’s CSR Procurement

Nintendo employs a fabless production model for our main products, including gaming systems and accessories, which means that we do not own the facilities that manufacture those products. We work with our numerous production partners^*1 in Japan and around the world to improve quality and technical capability, ensure safety and achieve production efficiency.

Nintendo also has established basic procurement and business partner selection policies to promote production that complies with laws, regulations and social standards, while taking into account human rights and the global environment. We have also created these policies to build trust with our business partners so that we can fulfill our social responsibilities collaboratively.

Advancing CSR activities throughout our entire supply chain is a way for Nintendo to not only improve the working environment for those employed at the production sites, but to also lead to worker retention and enhanced productivity. This provides a foundation for the production of high-quality products, is connected to environmental considerations, and, ultimately, leads to more smiles for our consumers and everyone Nintendo touches. We continue to work together with our production partners on the promotion of CSR activities, with a focus on communication and mutual understanding.

*1 Production partners: Business partners involved in the production of Nintendo products, including first-tier suppliers with whom we contract directly, as well as upstream factories subcontracted for product assembly and our component suppliers.

Basic Procurement Philosophy

Nintendo has formulated Procurement Standards both to clarify procurement criteria and to work on various areas such as improvements in product quality. In these standards, our basic procurement and business partner selection policies are defined as follows:

Basic Procurement Policy

Conduct procurement by providing an equal opportunity to all suppliers, both inside and outside Japan, based on fair evaluations
Give careful consideration to human rights and the global environment in all procurement activities, while complying with laws and social standards
Purchase suitable goods at fair prices from production partners that are in good standing and that provide appropriate delivery times
Work to build relationships of cooperation and trust with our suppliers, and fulfill our corporate social responsibility together through procurement
Comply with the Nintendo Responsible Mineral Procurement Policy in the procurement of products and component parts

Business Partner Selection Policy

When selecting suppliers or extending existing transactions for the procurement of products and components, priority will be given to companies that satisfy the following criteria:

Comply with laws and social standards, with an emphasis on human rights and environmental considerations
Engage in sound business operations
Meet appropriate standards for quality, price and delivery times
Possess the capability to provide stable supply and to adapt flexibly to fluctuations in supply and demand
Possess advanced technological capabilities that contribute to Nintendo products
Have strong information management systems in place
Are capable of resuming supply as quickly as possible, even in the event of a disaster or other unforeseen event

CSR Procurement Program

Nintendo has established a CSR Procurement Policy and response structure to carry out due diligence throughout the supply chain.

CSR Procurement Policy

With our basic procurement policy, Nintendo is committed to complying with laws, regulations, and social standards as well as to advancing human rights and global environmental considerations throughout all of our procurement activities. We also work with our business partners to gain their understanding of and cooperation with these policies. To facilitate these efforts, we have established the Nintendo CSR Procurement Guidelines and promote CSR procurement activities.

The division in charge of procurement created the Nintendo CSR Procurement Guidelines (in Japanese, English and Chinese) to further ensure that we fulfill our social responsibility throughout the supply chain, with an emphasis on deepening mutual understanding and building trust with our production partners.

These Guidelines, created with the advice of external specialists, adopt the standards of the Responsible Business Alliance (RBA)^*2. They provide specific guidance based on relevant international laws, regulations and standards that address topics such as human rights, sustainability and ethical procurement, including the prohibition of forced labor, respect for workers’ rights and occupational health and safety.

Nintendo places great importance on the respect for human rights and includes this as the first item in our Guidelines. We prohibit the use of forced labor, child labor, prison labor, slave labor, human trafficking and other forms of involuntary labor in all parts of our supply chain.

The Nintendo Human Rights Policy, which we established in September 2018 based on the United Nations Guiding Principles on Business and Human Rights, applies to everyone employed by Nintendo and also stipulates that we will continuously encourage our business partners to take socially responsible actions in the supply chain.

*2 Responsible Business Alliance (RBA): An industry alliance dedicated to advancing social responsibility in global supply chains.

Nintendo CSR Procurement Guidelines

Guideline Sections	Examples of Section Contents
1. Promoting respect for and compliance with human rights	Respect human rights Prohibition of discrimination Prohibition of child/forced labor Comply with related laws (decent wages, working hours, right to organize)
2. Ensuring occupational health and safety	Comply with health and safety-related laws Prevent work-related accidents Create a safe, clean workplace environment Protection of young workers
3. Practicing corporate ethics and fair trade	Prohibition of bribery and inappropriate payoffs or receipts Prohibition of abuse of dominant bargaining position Prohibition of acts that restrict competition Appropriate export management Responsible mineral procurement Build a management system Prevention and early detection of illegal actions and misconduct Respect for intellectual property
4. Maintaining the global environment	Create an environmental management system Minimizing the environmental impact Advance Green Procurement
5. Product safety guarantee and quality assurance	Establish a quality management system Guarantee product safety
6. Complete information management	Establish an information management system Prevent disclosure of confidential client and third-party information
7. Establishing crisis management systems	Establish a risk management system Create a Business Continuity Plan (BCP)
8. Contributing to the community	Contribute to local communities

Nintendo CSR Procurement Guidelines (Full Text/PDF) (247KB)

CSR Procurement Management Structure

At Nintendo, the CSR Coordination Team and the division in charge of procurement work together to follow external trends and communicate with stakeholders as they work on CSR procurement. This team and division also report on the progress of these activities to executive management and discuss what measures to take to reduce the risks related to CSR procurement.

Employees in the division in charge of procurement also receive education on CSR procurement and work together with our production partners to promote CSR procurement activities.

Coordination in the CSR Procurement Working Group

Nintendo has established the CSR Procurement Working Group which, in addition to the Nintendo Co., Ltd. (Japan) CSR Coordination Team, includes employees in charge of CSR at our subsidiaries outside Japan, staff from our procurement departments in different countries and members from other related teams. In the working group, we share information related to CSR procurement activities in the various regions and discuss our approach to these initiatives.

Nintendo’s Supply Chain Due Diligence

Nintendo carries out supply chain due diligence in order to assess environmental and human rights risks and work to reduce them. As part of these efforts, to understand how CSR is being promoted by our production partners, we ensure their awareness of the Nintendo CSR Procurement Guidelines, confirm the state of CSR through written surveys, conduct interviews and on-site visits to understand the current status, and follow up to make improvements. In addition, in July 2024, Nintendo became a member of the RBA, an industry alliance dedicated to advancing social responsibility in global supply chains.

Production Partner Evaluation and Selection Process

Distribute and Ensure Awareness of Guidelines With Production Partners

We distribute the Nintendo CSR Procurement Guidelines to all first-tier suppliers and enter into basic business agreements that include a section on compliance with the Guidelines. We also require our first-tier suppliers to disseminate the Guidelines to and request the same compliance from second-tier suppliers and further upstream.

Confirmation by Written Survey

Nintendo conducts a written Business Status Survey and Factory Status Survey once a year to confirm the level of CSR promotion at our production partners.

In the Business Status Survey, we verify business conditions and other items such as the following. All first-tier suppliers respond to this survey.

Compliance of first-tier suppliers with the Nintendo CSR Procurement Guidelines
First-tier suppliers’ confirmation of second-tier supplier compliance with the Nintendo CSR Procurement Guidelines or equivalent standards

The Factory Status Survey checks the status of CSR procurement of our production partners at a factory level. The survey includes items related to human rights, such as whether management and checks are implemented to prevent forced labor, child labor and discrimination, as well as questions covering working hours, wages, and health and safety topics including the protection of pregnant and nursing workers and young workers. We also confirm that there is an internal reporting mechanism that allows workers to file complaints.

Interviews and On-site Visits to Understand Current Status

The division in charge of procurement at Nintendo conducts CSR Factory Verifications of our production partners selected on the basis of their responses to the Business Status Survey and Factory Status Survey, business criticality, changes in the business environment and other such factors. To further enhance the transparency of our CSR procurement, a third-party firm also carries out audits of our main production partners selected based on the business relationship status and other factors.

CSR Factory Verifications and third-party audits confirm the actual situation at production sites with regard to the items covered in the CSR Procurement Guidelines, such as the respect for human rights, labor contracts, prohibition of discrimination, child labor and forced labor, compliance with legal wages, management of working hours, and health and safety of worksites. During a CSR Factory Verification, we hold video conferences with our production partners after reviewing answers to a questionnaire provided in advance about various CSR topics. Following this, as a general principle, we visit the sites ourselves to confirm the situation directly. By checking the state of production sites and dormitories, wages, working hours, and various other items via sampling through the video conferences and on-site visits, we work to fully understand the actual conditions at each production site.

CSR Factory Verifications go beyond understanding the situation at each site by creating important opportunities to deepen mutual understanding about CSR through dialogues with our production partners.

During third-party audits, auditors review relevant documents and perform a sampling check to verify wages, working hours and other items. Auditors also confirm that the human rights of workers are being respected through interviews with managers and workers employed at the production sites in their native language and observation of production sites and dormitories.

Follow-Up for Improvement

We share the topics identified by the CSR Factory Verifications and third-party audits with our production partners and request corrective actions based on the follow-up guidelines for each item that needs to be improved. The corrective actions taken are then confirmed by either visiting the site or through a video conference.

For example, issues indicated by our CSR Factory Verifications and third-party auditing have included occupational health and safety and labor issues. Occupational health and safety issues included inadequate emergency and evacuation exit signs, insufficient emergency lighting and fire extinguishers, and fire alarm buttons installed in places that are difficult to access. From a labor perspective, the reviews also noted long overtime. During our on-site follow-up verifications, we have confirmed improvements that meet our expectations to the fire extinguishers, emergency lighting and other installations mentioned above. Also, in addition to checking via the follow-up verification process, we are continuing to confirm the status of working hours through other means of communication to ensure that the issue is properly addressed. The responsible parties in our division in charge of procurement make the final decision about whether to continue business with a production partner based on the results of various written surveys, video conferences, CSR Factory Verifications, and third-party audits carried out as part of our supply chain due diligence. If serious CSR issues, such as those involving human rights or the environment, are discovered, we will require that the issue or issues be addressed, and the responsible parties at Nintendo may make the final decision to cease business with a production partner if our requirements are not met. In FY 2024, we did not identify any serious issues through our supply chain due diligence efforts that would lead to ceasing business with a production partner.

CSR Procurement Program Improvements

We continuously improve our CSR procurement program through initiatives such as the following.

Review of the partner evaluation procedure (including a revision of the Factory Status Survey to strengthen risk assessment)
Continuous improvements to CSR Factory Verifications and third-party auditing methods
Continuous training for employees who conduct the CSR Factory Verifications (including a certification program for the relevant representatives)
Strengthening of follow-up process (including revisions to follow-up criteria)
Re-evaluation of the supply chain
Revision of the Nintendo CSR Procurement Guidelines

Responsible Mineral Procurement

Nintendo takes the following measures from the perspective of social responsibility to ensure that minerals that become a financial source for organizations associated with human rights violations, environmental destruction and the inhumane use of military force, as well as problematic minerals mined in connection with human rights violations or environmental destruction, are not used in our products.

Nintendo Responsible Mineral Procurement Policy

Nintendo is committed to implementing responsible raw material procurement and has established as a basic policy that minerals^*1 (including tin, tantalum, tungsten, gold, cobalt, etc.) that become a source of finances for organizations associated with human rights violations such as child labor, environmental destruction and the inhumane use of military force are not used in our products from the perspective of social responsibility. By describing the policy above in the Nintendo CSR Procurement Guidelines, we conduct the following initiatives in collaboration with our production partners:

We work to understand the supply chains of minerals used in our products, referring to guidelines such as the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development's “OECD Due Diligence Guidance for Responsible Supply Chains of Minerals from Conflict-Affected and High-Risk Areas.”
Along with incorporating a section on compliance with the Nintendo CSR Procurement Guidelines into our basic supplier contract, we take additional opportunities to ensure that all production partners have a clear understanding of Nintendo policies. We conduct our business in accordance with these policies. In addition, we require production partners to establish a policy that prohibits the use of such minerals.
In the future, if more effective procurement methods are established that support eliminating the use of problematic minerals extracted in conflict-affected and high-risk areas, whether through the Responsible Minerals Assurance Process (RMAP) of the Responsible Minerals Initiative (RMI) ^*2 or another program, we will work to actively adopt these in cooperation with our production partners.

*1: Minerals from areas designated as conflict-affected or high-risk in the “OECD Due Diligence Guidance for Responsible Supply Chains of Minerals from Conflict-Affected and High-Risk Areas,” as well as those determined by Nintendo to pose a high risk from the viewpoint of social responsibility.
*2 Responsible Minerals Initiative (RMI): An initiative for promoting conflict-free sourcing of minerals through efforts such as the development of inspection tools for ensuring responsible mineral procurement.
https://www.responsiblemineralsinitiative.org

Responsible Mineral Procurement Management Structure

A cross-functional investigation team consisting of members from areas such as CSR promotion and procurement drive this initiative according to the Nintendo Responsible Mineral Procurement Policy. The responsible teams implement written surveys and interviews regarding responsible mineral procurement, report the findings to the responsible party (Senior General Manager of the General Affairs Division) and discuss the measures that Nintendo must take in responsibly procuring minerals. We also make continuous improvements by directly visiting our production partners to deepen understanding regarding the investigation into responsible mineral procurement through mutual communication.

Responsible Mineral Procurement Survey

Many electronic parts and circuits are used in Nintendo products, and these contain tin, tantalum, tungsten and gold. Nintendo conducts a survey of all our business partners that supply parts containing these minerals.

We adopt the Conflict Minerals Reporting Template, the international standard, and use it to investigate the supply chain upstream from our first-tier suppliers. The response rate to the FY 2024 written survey was 100%, and we have conducted due diligence, including performing risk analysis and evaluation for all the responses received and providing feedback.

In addition, with regards to cobalt, we also conduct investigations for the distribution process of our supply chain using the cobalt template created by RMI to better understand the current situation.

In our survey this year, we confirmed that our supply chain includes 257 smelters and refiners reported to use the minerals listed above. We then compared these companies against sources such as the RMI lists of smelters and refiners. By doing so, we found that 256 are RMI Standard Smelters and also Conformant Smelters (smelters and refiners that have passed an RMI audit, etc.)^*3.

If our surveys find that a business partner is using a smelter or refiner that is not a Conformant Smelter, Nintendo will approach that partner to request that they ask their applicable upstream smelter or refiner to participate in the RMAP (Responsible Minerals Assurance Process) audit program. If a problematic mineral is found, we will continue to conduct due diligence to prevent its use, such as changing the procurement source.

*3 Conformant Smelters (smelters and refiners that have passed an RMI audit, etc.): Smelters and refiners that are conformant to the RMI-led conflict-free smelter program evaluation protocol and have been recognized as having no relation to conflict in the Democratic Republic of Congo or its neighboring countries, or those that have been recognized as having no relation to conflict by other independent third-party audit programs.

Survey Results

Number of Smelters and Refiners Identified in the RMI Standard Smelter List (FY 2024 Survey)

	Gold	Tantalum	Tin	Tungsten	Cobalt	Total
Standard Smelters	97	34	71	35	19	256
Conformant Smelters (smelters and refiners that have passed an RMI audit, etc.) (Including Active list^*4 Standard Smelters)	97	34	71	35	19	256

List of standard smelters identified in the Nintendo supply chain

*4 Active list: A list of smelters and refiners that are in the process of being audited by RMI or other certification programs.

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