When incidents of soil or groundwater contamination are identified at Sony sites through voluntary assessments, etc., decontamination processes are implemented to conform with pertinent local laws and ordinances. For example, Sony Group companies in Japan deal with the occurrence of contamination of soil and groundwater at Group sites by taking steps in line with the Sony Group Procedure Manual for Assessing Soil and Groundwater, an internal document that sets out procedures that comply with domestic laws and ordinances This manual stipulates that issues be addressed through the following three steps (or phases):


Phase 1: Investigate past and present chemical use and confirm the existence or otherwise of used or unused underground tanks, buried piping and other similar previous incidents at the site. Perform an inspection of the site to ascertain whether there is any residual soil or groundwater contamination.

Phase 2: Based on the investigations undertaken in Phase 1, carry out an assessment of the areas which are potentially contaminated. Undertake measurements at these locations in line with the Soil Contamination Countermeasures Act.

Phase 3: If any contamination is identified based on these results, carry out prevention and remediation procedures.

Sony continues to submit regular reports to the authorities and to implement remediation measures at three sites in Japan - the Haneda Technology Center, Sony Haneda Corporation and Sony EMCS's Inazawa TEC - where incidents of soil and groundwater contamination were previously confirmed.