At the “Forests × Decarbonization Challenge 2023” sponsored by the , SEGA SAMMY HOLDINGS, a company that contributes to decarbonization through support for forest improvement, has been announced as “GREEN PARTNER 2023” on the Forestry Agency’s website, along with their company name and the amount of CO2 absorption. The “Forests × Decarbonization Challenge” seeks the efforts of companies engaged in forest maintenance, comprehensively evaluates the amount of CO2 absorbed and the contents of those efforts, and honors outstanding activities.

SEGA SAMMY HOLDINGS has been acknowledged for its exceptional forest maintenance activities in Minamiaiki Village, Nagano Prefecture.

Green Partner 2023 (Forestry Agency site) (Only available in Japanese)

SEGA SAMMY HOLDINGS INC. was awarded the “Eruboshi” certification by the Ministry of Health, Labour and Welfare as a leading company for women’s participation in 2023. The “Eruboshi” certification is granted based on the Law for the Promotion of Women’s Participation and Development, which acknowledges companies with exceptional efforts in advancing women’s participation. There are three certification levels based on the achievement status in the five categories of “Recruitment,” “Continuing Employment,” “Working Hours and Flexibility,” “Proportion of Women in Management,” and “Diverse Career Paths.” SEGA SAMMY HOLDINGS INC. met all criteria and has achieved the highest level of certification, earning a 3-star rating (Stage 3).

SEGA SAMMY Group places diversity, equity, and inclusion at the core of its management philosophy and is committed to create an environment in which all employees can be given their full potential. Various measures are being implemented to actively support women’s participation and foster a work environment where diverse talents can thrive.

In 2023, SEGA SAMMY HOLDINGS acquired “Kurumin“ from the Ministry of Health, Labour and Welfare as a company engaged in childcare support based on the Law for Promotion of Measures to Support the Development of the Next Generation. As a leading company in childcare support, Sammy received “Platinum Kurumin“ in 2020.

Aiming to further strengthen the foundation for everyone to play an active role, the SEGA SAMMY Group has been implementing various initiatives under the slogan of “Women’s Participation” as one of its human resources strategies at major companies in Japan. By promoting these initiatives in addition to enhancing recruitment and systems, the SEGA SAMMY Group aims to increase the ratio of female managers to approximately double by 2030.

In the overall evaluation of the 5th Nikkei SDGs Management Survey, which evaluates and rates companies that simultaneously enhance corporate value and contribute to the SDGs, SEGA SAMMY HOLDINGS was awarded 3.5 stars.

“PRIDE Index” is Japan’s first “evaluation index in the workplace for LGBTQ+ initiatives” developed by work with Pride in 2016 with the aim of creating a workplace where LGBTQ+ people can work with pride.
SEGA SAMMY Group places diversity, equity and inclusion at the core of its management, and is committed to creating an environment where all employees can realize their full potential. And we have formulated a policy to prohibit all forms of discrimination, including LGBTQ+ discrimination, and have been actively involved in raising awareness among employees, establishing an external consultation center for employees, and sponsoring events. In 2023, we implemented new initiatives such as conducting cross-company study sessions to learn about LGBTQ+ in order to share know-how and knowledge, as well as producing a handbook and distributing it for free to contribute to the creation of workplaces where employees can participate regardless of their sexual orientation or gender identity.
These efforts were evaluated, SEGA SAMMY HOLDINGS, SEGA and Sammy have received Gold in the “PRIDE Index” for five consecutive years from 2019.
In addition, in 2023, we received Rainbow for the first time, which recognizes companies that promote cross-sector collaboration with the national government, local governments, academic institutions, and NPOs/NGOs.

SEGA SAMMY Holdings was awarded “Excellent Welfare Corporation (Overall)”, the top award in “Hataraku-yell 2023”, a certification system operated from the Executive Committee of the Welfare Awards and Certification System that recognizes corporations working to enhance and utilize their benefits.

SEGA SAMMY Holdings was highly evaluated for its efforts to utilize the benefits system to accurately understand the human resources and labor challenges of changing times and respond to them as appropriate, including the development of various systems and work environments to support the increasingly diverse lifestyles of employees, and the establishment of a dedicated department within the General Corporate Administration Division of SEGA SAMMY Holdings to establish and enhance various benefit systems.

Click here for the SEGA SAMMY Holdings news release (Only available in Japanese)

Sega achieved the “Economy, Trade and Industry Minister Award” of Intellectual Property Achievement Award in the fiscal year 2022.

The followings are the three key points of the “Economy, Trade and Industry Minister Award” awarded to Sega.

・ The system to manage trademarks more effectively and in a panoramic view of the entire group of companies has been established by members of the Intellectual Property Department in Sega, concurrently operating the same section in Sega Sammy Holdings. The Intellectual Property Department proactively joins businesses from the start-up as an “escort runner to support businesses” to search and establish trademark rights. Trademark businesses are brought in-house to substantially reduce costs and strengthen intellectual property skills.

・ Trademark portfolio has been reinforced according to the change of business, including goods sales, provision of online games, filmization, and so on for their important brands, including retro games (for example, the “Sonic the Hedgehog” is protected by 1,900 trademarks in 90 countries). In addition, guidelines for using and notating trademarks were made to prevent trademarks such as “UFO CATCHER ®” and “Purikura ®” from becoming generic names.

・ Execution of rights is very focused, and infringements are treated aggressively by taking administrative measures (China), giving warnings, and taking legal actions. In addition, for major trademarks, the motion of objection in other countries prevents registrations from the third party.

“Sheraton Grande Ocean Resort”, a flagship hotel of the Phoenix Seagaia Resort operated by one of our group companies, Phoenix Resort, was awarded the Excellence Prize of “Eco Mark Award 2022” hosted by Japan Environment Association for “Protecting and nurturing the lush black pine forest. A resort that coexists with nature”.

Japan Environment Association established Eco Mark Award in 2010 to disseminate many excellent case examples regarding the popularization of environment-conscious products as well as contribute to achieving a sustainable society through further expansion of Eco Mark products. Its “Grand Prize” and “Excellence Prize” are awarded to the companies and organizations which put efforts in greatly contributing to the “forming of a sustainable society through selecting environment-conscious products by consumers and companies’ efforts and improvements for environment.”

“Sheraton Grande Ocean Resort” was highly evaluated because they conduct their business activities while protecting the environment of nature around the resort by protecting and nurturing the black pine forest and cleaning up the ocean coast, in addition to the “eco-friendly hospitality”, which provides eco-program of each hotel room and eco-friendly food and activity.

GameIndustry.biz, the UK-based global video games trade media outlet, announced their annual winners for the “Best Places to Work Awards 2022 (UK),” and Sega Sammy Holdings’ overseas subsidiary, Sports Interactive Ltd., won the “Environmental Award” (a special award).

The company has continued using a recyclable package for the “Football Manager” series. Their efforts spread to packages of other games developed by SEGA Europe, which was recognized with a special award given to company working on innovative climate change initiatives.

The “Healthcare Game Award” is awarded by Japan Activity Association which supports elderly and people with disabilities by about 1,500 healthcare game instructors to the most active IP (including game titles and characters) and organizations in a year.

“PuyoPuyo Champions” won the award in the “Software category” of the “Healthcare Game Award” in 2022 for its enhanced features that allow game content to be adjusted to the level of users, and for its easiness to play to the elderly and people with disabilities who use a game controller for the first time.

SEGA SAMMY Arts Foundation and “Dance Base Yokohama (DaBY)”, a dance house operated by it, were certified in “This is MECENAT 2023,” set up by Association for Corporate Support for Arts

“This is MECENAT” started in 2014 for the purpose of creating awareness of diverse activities performed by corporations and corporate foundations for promoting arts and culture (a richly creative society by promoting arts and culture) and demonstrating their social meaning and existence. To make the Corporate Mecenat that changes diversely with age widely known, the “Mecenat mark” is issued as a symbol of the “This is Mecenat” activity and is listed in the “This is MECENAT” dedicated website.

DaBY’s philosophy and efforts to make it happen were recognized this time, and SEGA SAMMY Arts Foundation along with DaBY were certified as “This is MECENAT” for the second consecutive year.

Relic Entertainment, a SEGA SAMMY Holdings overseas group company, won a “Best Places to Work Award 2022 (Canada)”. These awards are given to companies that have the most pleasant workplaces   by Gamesindustry.biz, the UK-based global video games industry trade media outlet. In addition, it also won a special award, “The Health & Wellbeing Award,” given to a company, which works tirelessly on providing ahealthy physical and mental working environment for employees.

The “Best Places to Work Awards” are given out to the companies who meet specific criteria for inclusion. These include scores based on salary, holiday, benefits, social activities and more, and employees of the nominated companies are polled by the organisers to give their views and help determine an overall score. In 2022, 16 companies including Relic Entertainment, Inc., were awarded.

Morningstar, Inc., and/or one of its affiliated companies (individually and collectively, “Morningstar”) has authorized Sega Sammy Holdings Inc. to use of the Morningstar Japan ex-REIT Gender Diversity Tilt Logo (“Logo”) to reflect the fact that, for the designated ranking year, Sega Sammy Holdings Inc. ranks in the top quintile of companies comprising the Morningstar® Japan ex-REIT Gender Diversity Tilt IndexSM (“Index”) on the issue of gender diversity in the workplace. Morningstar is making the Logo available for use by Sega Sammy Holdings Inc. solely for informational purposes. Sega Sammy Holdings Inc. use of the Logo should not be construed as an endorsement by Morningstar of Sega Sammy Holdings Inc. or as a recommendation, offer or solicitation to purchase, sell or underwrite any security associated with Sega Sammy Holdings Inc. The Index is designed to reflect gender diversity in the workplace in Japan, but Morningstar does not guarantee the accuracy, completeness or timeliness of the Index or any data included in it. Morningstar makes no express or implied warranties regarding the Index or the Logo, and expressly disclaim all warranties of merchantability or fitness for a particular purpose or use with respect to the Index, any data included in it or the Logo. Without limiting any of the foregoing, in no event shall Morningstar or any of its third party content providers have any liability for any damages (whether direct or indirect), arising from any party’s use or reliance on the Index or the Logo, even if Morningstar is notified of the possibility of such damages. The Morningstar name, Index name and the Logo are the trademarks or services marks of Morningstar, Inc. Past performance is no guarantee of future results

“FTSE Russell (a registered trademark of FTSE International Limited and Frank Russell Company) hereby certifies that SEGA SAMMY Holdings Inc. has met the requirements to be included in the FTSE Blossom Japan Sector Relative Index as a result of a third-party survey, and has become a constituent of the index. The FTSE Blossom Japan Sector Relative Index is widely used to create and evaluate sustainable investment funds and other financial products.”

Since June 2017, SEGA SAMMY Holdings has been among the stocks included in the MSCI Japan ESG Select Leaders Index, which are selected by the U.S.-based Morgan Stanley Capital International, Inc. (MSCI). In 2023, the MSCI ESG rating of SEGA SAMMY Holdings was revised upwards, from “AA” to “AAA”.

The MSCI Japan ESG Select Leaders Index evaluates the companies that make up the MSCI Japan IMI Top 700 Index* from an ESG perspective and selects those that have high ratings in each industry. We see this change in our rating as recognition for our continuing ESG activities and the disclosure of related information.

In December 2022, SEGA SAMMY HOLDINGS INC. was rated “B” by the UK’s CDP for its efforts and information disclosure on climate change. CDP is an international non-profit organization that encourages companies to promote environmental initiatives and disclose information with the aim of responding to investors’ concerns about environmental issues. A questionnaire is issued for each subject, such as climate change, water resource conservation and forest conservation, and companies are given a score on an 8-point scale from D- to A based on their responses. B at the management level this time indicates that the company has been evaluated as taking action against environmental risks and their effects “to track and mitigate or eliminate environmental risks and their effects.” Using this rating as a reference, the SEGA SAMMY Group hopes to further strengthen its efforts in the future and bring it closer to best practices.