Materiality and Sustainability Policy
Based on Santen’s CORE PRINCIPLE “Tenki ni sanyo suru,” Santen not only contributes to the sustainable development of society but also aims to achieve its own sustainable growth.
- Santen’s Materiality
- Materiality Identification Process
- Sustainability Policy
- ESG Materiality
- CSR Promotion System
- Data Utilization for Strategic Decision Making
Santen’s Materiality
Santen’s Key Management Issues (Materiality)
“STRATEGY” and “ESG Materiality” are Santen’s key management issues (Materiality).

Keeping Santen’s CORE PRINCIPLE “Tenki ni sanyo suru” in mind, Santen’s newly formulated ideal world is called “WORLD VISION,” the ideal world that Santen aims for, namely, “Happiness with Vision,” which represents Santen’s aim to contribute to the Happiest Life for every individual, through the Best Vision Experience. Santen’s VISION shows what Santen aspires to be in 2030 and beyond in order to achieve its WORLD VISION. We will “Become A Social Innovator” to orchestrate and mobilize key technologies and players around the world, to deliver happiness through vision. In order to achieve “Santen’s VISION” and “GOAL,” we will implement “STRATEGY,” which consists of “Ophthalmology,” “Wellness” and “Inclusion.” This WORLD VISION and Santen’s VISION have been established from the perspective of Creating Shared Value (CSV), which is a corporate approach to creating both economic and social value by devising solutions to social issues.
Meanwhile, from the perspective of environment, society and governance (ESG), we have identified the following four propositions as ESG materialities: “Development and stable supply of socially significant products and services (Happiness with Vision),” “Encouragement of an Organizational Culture that Promotes Value Creation,” “Strengthening Governance, Contributing to the Realization of Fair and Equal Society,” and “Conservation of the Global Environment,” with the aim of contributing to the sustainable development of society by solving social issues and improving corporate value over the medium to long term. The three STRATEGIES and four ESG materialities are Santen’s materiality, namely, Santen’s key management issues.
The Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) adopted by the United Nations member states set 17 goals to be achieved by 2030. By addressing our materiality, we will help achieve Goal 3: “Ensure healthy lives and promote well-being for all at all ages,” and other SDGs.
Materiality Identification Process
Step 1: List up social issues
We compiled an extensive list of social issues based on international guidelines, including the 10 principles of the United Nations Global Compact and SDGs, as well as on survey items of sustainability assessment institutions.
Step 2: Set priorities for social issues
We comprehensively evaluated social issues from two standpoints, namely, their importance to society and their importance to our company, and narrowed the issues down to those of high priority.
Step 3: Integrate the three items of the long-term vision "Santen 2030" into Materiality
Looking ahead to 2030 and beyond, we added “Ophthalmology,” “Wellness,” and “Inclusion,” which we created to strategically address social issues related to people’ eye health, to Santen’s Materiality.
Step 4: Confirm the validity
We confirmed the validity of the formulation process and the selected materialities through not only discussion within in-house meeting including management but also dialogue with outside stakeholders such as experts and investors.
Step 5: Identify Materiality
Through discussions at the Board of Directors, we identified three STRATEGIES and four ESG materialities as Santen’s Materiality. We plan to periodically review the materialities in light of the progress of our initiatives and changes in the social environment.
Sustainability Policy
We have established our sustainability policy incorporating the standpoint of ESG into the WORLD VISON and Santen’s VISION, formulated from the perspective of CSV. Based on our CORE PRINCIPLE, this policy shows that Santen not only contributes to the sustainable development of society but also aims to achieve its own sustainable growth.
Sustainability Policy
Based on Santen’s CORE PRINCIPLE: “Tenki ni sanyo suru,” Santen not only contributes to the sustainable development of society but also aims to improve corporate value over the medium to long term.

ESG Materiality
The four ESG materialities are aimed at contributing to the sustainable development of society and improving Santen’s medium to long term corporate value. We have presented specific issues for promoting the activities and disclose the progress of our efforts as needed.
ESG Materiality | Issue | Main KGI/KPI for 2025 | Main efforts (Including what we are currently working on and future efforts) |
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Development and Stable Supply of Socially Significant Products and Services (Happiness with Vision) ![]() ![]() |
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Encouragement of an Organizational Culture that Promotes Value Creation ![]() ![]() ![]() |
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Strengthening Governance, Contributing to the Realization of Fair and Equal Society ![]() ![]() |
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Conservation of the Global Environment ![]() ![]() |
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- Estimated total no. of patients to which Santen contributed (disease areas: inflammation/allergies, cornea, glaucoma, cataracts) in FY2019 was approx. 43 million, calculated based on JMDC's estimated total no. of patients for Santen’s Rx products and Santen’s shipment data
CSR Promotion System
Santen has established a CSR Committee, which consists of the Santen President and CEO as Chairman, and corporate officers in charge of the relevant divisions. Based on our CORE PRINCIPLE, the Sustainability Policy, the group’s strategies, and social issues, the CSR Committee sets Sustainability-related policies and targets for our entire group, and monitors the progress of our Sustainability activities.
Data Utilization for Strategic Decision Making
Santen is enhancing our governance from global perspective to realize our long-term VISION “Santen2030” by addressing our business challenges with more complexity, diversity and ambiguity. To do so, we are establishing the infrastructure to utilize data for strategic decision making by capturing not only for financial information but also for non-financial information such as ESG swiftly and comprehensively by utilizing digital transformation (DX).The shift to a cloud-based ERP system is one of the initiatives to strengthen our governance by standardizing relevant business processes and capturing financial and non-financial information in order to bolster our efficiency and competitiveness. In addition, Santen is re-establishing our IT infrastructure and business processes throughout our value chains to visualize business processes and outputs and to realize a swift and plausive decision-making utilizing data.