Exhibit 1.01
CONFLICT MINERALS REPORT OF ADVANTEST CORPORATION
in accordance with Rule 13p-1 under the Securities Exchange Act of 1934
Section 1 - Introduction
This is the Conflict Minerals Report of Advantest Corporation (“Advantest”) for calendar year 2013 (except for conflict minerals that, prior to January 31, 2013, were located outside of the supply chain) in accord with Rule 13p-1 under the Securities Exchange Act of 1934 (“Rule 13p-1”). Numerous terms in this report are defined in Rule 13p-1 and Form SD and this information should be read in conjunction with those sources and to 1934 Act Release No. 34-67716 (August 22, 2012) issued by the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission for such definitions.
Section 2 - Due Diligence Measures Performed
In accordance with Rule 13p-1, Advantest undertook due diligence to seek to determine whether the necessary conflict minerals in the Advantest automated test equipment (“ATE”) Products were or were not “DRC conflict free”. Advantest designed its due diligence measures to be in conformity, in all material respects, with the internationally recognized due diligence framework in the OECD Due Diligence Guidance for Responsible Supply Chains of Minerals from Conflict-Affected and High-Risk Areas (OECD 2011) (“OECD Framework”) and related Supplements for each conflict mineral.
The due diligence measures performed by Advantest are as follows:
(1) | Established Conflict Minerals working groups sponsored by the director in charge and pursued activities related to conflict minerals issues. The working groups include the supply chain survey group, customer relations group, disclosure group, and management office. |
(2) | Added the statement “Handling the Issues with Conflict Minerals” to the Advantest procurement policy and requested our direct suppliers to cooperate with us in our effort to improve transparency in our supply chain. This policy is available online at the link here: https://www.advantest.com/US/AboutAdvantest/procurementpolicy/index.htm |
(3) | Joined the Conflict Free sourcing working group of Japan Electronics and Industries in Information Technology Association (“JEITA”) as a member company. In this working group, Advantest participated in preparing guidance materials for member companies’ suppliers demonstrating how to respond to our supply chain survey and had a joint briefing session for the suppliers in collaboration with the member companies. JEITA is working with Japan Automobile Manufacturers Association, Inc. (“JAMA”) to increase awareness of the Conflict Minerals issue and improve supply chain survey efficiency. |
(4) | Conducted a supply-chain survey with direct suppliers using the EICC/GeSI Conflict Minerals Reporting Template to identify the smelters and refiners who contribute refined conflict minerals to Advantest ATE Products. |
(5) | Compared the smelters and refiners identified by direct suppliers via the supply-chain survey against the list of smelter facilities which received a “conflict free” designation (such as the EICC/GeSI Conflict Free Smelter (CFS) program’s lists for tantalum, tin, tungsten and gold) from an independent third party smelter audit. |
(6) | Summarized and analyzed survey responses to determine whether any supplier provided us with a name of a smelter or refiner that was not on the list mentioned above. |
(7) | Contacted suppliers whose response had contained any incomplete or unclear information to request for further inputs. |
Based on the due diligence measures described in this report, the necessary conflict minerals contained in Advantest’s ATE Products are considered to be DRC conflict undeterminable for calendar year 2013. We are making this determination because we were not able to obtain sufficient information from our suppliers to conclude origins of the necessary conflict minerals.
Due to the lack of information, we are not able to determine and describe the facilities used to process those necessary conflict minerals or their country of origin.
Section 3 - Future Due Diligence Measures
Advantest will undertake the following measures during the next compliance period to improve the due diligence:
(1) | Conduct the survey by using common tools of JEITA/JAMA and conduct joint research briefings to gain further understanding and cooperation of suppliers. |
(2) | Check whether main suppliers comply with Advantest Procurement Policy, including the use of conflict minerals. The Advantest Procurement Policy will be used as criteria for selecting suppliers. |