Ensuring safety in our railway business and other businesses

Based on the belief that safety and security are the backbone of our Group’s businesses, we will strive to improve customer satisfaction through measures to address stakeholder expectations, including planned investment in safety and conducting safety education and BCP training. Going forward, we will also strategically proceed with our response to natural disasters, which are expected to become even more severe.

On October 1, 2006, we established a Safety Policy*1 and are striving to　develop a system for business activities based on the principle of　holding safety as the top priority. Furthermore, we strive to ensure transportation safety through how we utilize our railway facilities,railroad cars, and employees.

We endeavor to “promote the attitude of safety first” and “cultivate a culture of safety” throughout the company, mainly through the regularly scheduled meetings of the Safety Promotion Committee (headed by the President) and the monthly Safety Promotion Executive Committee (headed by the Comprehensive Safety Administration Manager). The heads of business management divisions for corporate strategies, financial strategies, and general administration & human resources also participate in the Safety Promotion Committee.
As the chief executive responsible for safety management systems,
the President appoints the Railway Business Division General Manager
as the Comprehensive Safety Administration Manager, and the Railway Business & Train Stock Department Chief Manager as the Transportation　Manager, establishing a safety management system by clarifying the roles to be played by those responsible for each relevant department.
The “Safety Planning & Management Department” has been established as a department dedicated towards thoroughly ensuring safety and security. The Safety Planning & Management Department oversees matters related to the appropriate operation and improvement of safety management systems, and coordinates with relevant departments to promote organization-wide efforts that are necessary for improving the safety and stability of transport.

In transport safety management evaluation, transport security inspectors working under the Director of Transport Safety of the Ministry of Land, Infrastructure, Transport and Tourism, and evaluation officers from local Transport Bureaus check our safety management status by interviewing our management, comprehensive safety administration managers, transportation managers, and other representatives of our business management division on our safety management system. The 8th transport safety management evaluation‍ was conducted in September 2021 with no issues raised.

To resolve issues and ensure transport safety, we have established and worked on the following five items as key safety measures for FY2022.
Under our safety management system, we have also conducted management reviews based on the status of key safety measures and results from internal safety audits.

We continue to invest capital to systematically and promptly implement necessary safety measures.
Construction work was undertaken for seismic reinforcement of elevated bridge columns and station buildings to prepare for large earthquakes that are predicted to occur in the future, along
with measures to improve safety on station platforms and renewal of aging facilities.
We will continue to make investments for the systematic promotion of safety measures in FY2023 as well.

There were no major accidents. Two incidents of railroad property damage (obstruction in garage)*2 and transportation disruption (emergency stoppage of the Cable Line) occurred.
*1 Incidents in the railway business, transportation failures (limited to delays or suspensions of service for at least three hours), and other incidents for which we are responsible.
*2 Reported to the Kinki District Transport Bureau, no administrative guidance to our company.

Every year, “comprehensive training for accident recovery” is conducted in which all departments in the railway business division participate to rescue the injured, evacuate customers, and restore areas that have been damaged, based on a scenario of a large-scale accident or disaster. In FY2022, the training took place based on the scenario of “guiding customers from train cars to the nearest train station and restoring damaged facilities for a train that had stopped under the instructions of the Earthquake Early Warning System and had derailed due to the shaking of the earthquake.” Multiple training areas were set, and the information gathering and coordination were checked. In addition, company-wide evacuation drills were conducted with the participation of people from divisions other than the Railway Division.

Crime prevention drills took place in cooperation with the police in preparation for an incident involving an onboard injury. In the drill, we confirmed how to strengthen cooperation with the police, contact and reporting systems, how to guide customers to evacuate, and how to utilize protective equipment. In addition, the Technical Department also conducted a crime prevention response training course with the cooperation of the police to improve its response capabilities.
Other drills were conducted on various scenarios, such as evacuation drills from tunnels and vehicle evacuation drills in case of flooding.