Third Party Opinion

The NTT Group CSR Report 2008 provides an easy-to-grasp overview of the Group's CSR activities, which are based on a structure that supports sound corporate conduct, and are guided by the NTT Group CSR Charter. Various improvements have been made in this year's report to make it even more accessible and easy to understand. It is an attractive source of information for stakeholders, with a number of excellent features that deserve special mention.

Firstly, it has clearly been put together with stakeholders in mind. It is vital in the present day for CSR reports to disclose information that stakeholders demand and expect in an appropriate and easily understandable form. The design of the NTT Group's CSR Report shows that the Group is paying attention to who it needs to communicate which information to. Novel touches like highlighting relevant stakeholders — customers, business partners, employees, local community, shareholders/investors, government organizations, and so on — at the top of each section are an excellent way of engaging stakeholders.

This point is about one third of the way down the page.

Secondly, this report has been designed to enable readers to grasp the CSR activities of the NTT's Group companies at a glance. Because the NTT Group is made of a number of business segments, each run by major Group companies, it is imperative to present the roles and business activities of those segments and Group companies in an organized manner to provide an overall view of the NTT Group. Information on specific CSR activities of each company has been selected in terms of importance, and each article is headed by a company name alongside the title. This report also explains the role and responsibility of the holding company which oversees the whole Group. These efforts meet the demands and expectations of all the stakeholders while also encouraging Group company employees to address the specific demands of the various stakeholders of the whole NTT Group.

Thirdly, the Group augments this printed report with more information on its website. Providing information regarding CSR activities in both printed and online forms is important in terms of helping stakeholders to better understand and use the information. In general, the website addresses wider stakeholder needs by providing information that could not be included in the printed report.

The NTT Group should maintain its stance of providing information on its CSR activities, focusing in particular on the seven core themes cited in ISO 26000, the new international standard on social responsibility to be published in September 2010, namely organizational governance, human rights, labor practices, the environment, fair operating practices, consumer issues, and community involvement and development. I hope to see the NTT Group swiftly assess its current status in terms of these seven themes, draw up a plan to address any outstanding issues, and implement that plan in a comprehensive manner.

In designing this CSR 2008 Report, we took pains to clearly identify the target and source of the information provided, so that it would be easy to understand the NTT Group's many CSR activities in terms of which stakeholders are involved and which companies are performing which activities.

Professor Hiroji Tanaka kindly commented that we as a Group should assess the current status of this report and our activities in terms of the seven core themes in the ISO 26000 standard to be published in September 2010, and then draw up and implement a plan to address any outstanding issues in a comprehensive manner. We are grateful for his invaluable advice, and we hope to address issues going forward while encouraging dialog with our stakeholders and sharing best practices within the Group. The NTT Group will continue to work as one to contribute to the creation of a sustainable society through promoting CSR activities based on our CSR Charter.