Duties of the Company’s Audit & Supervisory Board Members (A&SB Members) included attendance at Board of Directors Meetings, monitoring the status of supervising execution of Director duties, and stating opinions when recognized as necessary. In addition, the decision-making process for important Group matters and the conditions of discussion at important meetings were checked, and the status of execution of duties by the President and Chief Executive Officer, Presidents of the operating companies, and functional top management was monitored. A&SB Members participated in the quarterly ERM Committee meeting, and attended as observers at the quarterly Internal Audit Committee meeting which is the controlling institution for internal audit functions. The results of audits and other information were reported to the A&SB by the internal auditing group, and the A&SB Members, internal auditing group, and Accounting Auditors all met together to exchange information on matters such as risk assessments and plans for visits at the start of the year, as well as changes in the audit contents, identified items, and risk assessments, and engaged in other audit and supervisory activities intended to strengthen Group governance. At the A&SB meetings, based on the system of independent action, A&SB Members who have different expertise and knowledge openly discuss the contents of the above audit and supervisory activities, and form opinions and other information to be delivered to the Board of Directors and executive divisions. In order to continually improve the effectiveness of audit and supervisory activities, the A&SB conducts an evaluation of A&SB effectiveness at the end of each fiscal year. In addition to a quantitative evaluation of effectiveness based on a total of 40 evaluation items from perspectives such as action based on Corporate Governance Code, the effectiveness evaluation identified specific issues proposed by each A&SB Member, and worked to identify items for improvement. Issues and improvements proposed by A&SB Members are discussed and the action to be taken is decided. The results are applied to the Audit Plan for the following fiscal year. In fiscal 2024, the matters for discussion by the A&SB were submitted in advance to the President and Chief Executive Officer, Presidents of operating companies, and others in order to ensure sufficient Q&A time and expand the discussions. Outside A&SB Members accompany visiting audits by the A&SB Members, supervising the audit execution conditions from a diverse range of perspectives, and in other ways implement improvement measures and work to improve the effectiveness of the A&SB. The A&SB discussed the results of the effectiveness evaluation that was conducted at the end of fiscal 2024 and concluded that "it is functioning effectively." For issues and other matters which were identified at discussions, measures in response will be decided and continual efforts will be made to improve the effectiveness of the A&SB.