-MATERIAL ISSUE 1- IMPROVE WELLBEING

KOKUYO Materiality Improve Wellbeing among Employees and External Stakeholders

Basic policy

Wellbeing is the experience of happiness and health. To help improve wellbeing, we will promote work-life balance, new workstyles, and a diverse workplace (inclusive of gender, disability, nationality) that produces innovation. For this, we have two challenge goals: pitch ideas for new ways of working, and promote diversity, inclusion, and innovation.

Outcome	2030 challenge goal		2024 commitment goal
Outcome		KPI	2024 commitment goal
Innovation is created, leading to better wellbeing among diverse individuals and communities.	We promote personalized, authentic employee experiences by marketing life-based work (an approach that tailors work around people, rather than expecting people to tailor themselves around their jobs).	Challenge goals for flexible work options (flextime, empowering women) 27 challenge goals (three per year for nine years)	Shift to mindset that values employees’ disposable time 100% take-up rate for paid leave among managers and general staff
			Women account for 12% of leadership roles
	We have removed social barriers, encouraging more people to engage actively in work and learning.	Percentage of new product series that incorporate inclusive design: At least 50%	Percentage of new product series that incorporate inclusive design: At least 20%

2022 results	2023 plan
Take-up of paid leave: 54.3% (among five main group companies in Japan) Percentage of leadership roles occupied by women: 8.5% (among five main group companies in Japan)	As part of management reform, we’ll shift to a mindset that places more value on employees’ time (i.e., encourage employees to take up paid leave) and promote employee empowerment and growth (i.e., empower women in the workplace). We will foster a workplace culture that encourages employees, regardless of gender, to pursue a core career path in KOKUYO and to balance their work with their family commitments. We will establish a process in which each business incorporates inclusive design in product development.

2022 results

2023 plan

Take-up of paid leave: 54.3% (among five main group companies in Japan)
Percentage of leadership roles occupied by women: 8.5% (among five main group companies in Japan)

As part of management reform, we’ll shift to a mindset that places more value on employees’ time (i.e., encourage employees to take up paid leave) and promote employee empowerment and growth (i.e., empower women in the workplace).
We will foster a workplace culture that encourages employees, regardless of gender, to pursue a core career path in KOKUYO and to balance their work with their family commitments.
We will establish a process in which each business incorporates inclusive design in product development.

KOKUYO wellbeing

Workstyle diversity challenges

KOKUYO-Style Hybrid Work

In 2022, we launched KOKUYO-Style Hybrid Work. This program honors diversity while encouraging employees to engage in workstyles that improve the productivity and creativity of the team as a whole, so that personal growth can accompany team outcomes. KOKUYO’s distinctive workstyle model is practiced by supporting each employee’s life-based working, a term we use to describe a situation in which the one’s workstyle, learning style, and lifestyle are balanced and embody one’s uniqueness.

With the workplace expanding, we provide employees with a satellite-style multipurpose space, known as n.5 (pronounced “enu-ten-go”). The space may be used as a satellite office, but it can also be used for activities related to employees’ working, learning, and living. Employees use n.5 for a variety of purposes, including for self-led seminars and other self-organized events.

“n.5” can be used for a variety of purposes, not just work.

Workstyle reform in distribution centers

The distribution industry faces a number of labor challenges. For example, restrictions on truckers’ overtime will come into effect in Japan in 2024. To address the challenges, KOKUYO Logitem Co., Ltd., has embraced workstyle reform. In 2022, it introduced flextime for distribution center staff, resulting in a better uptake of flextime in delivery operations. KOKUYO Logitem’s initiative has now become a best practice example for flexible workstyles in the distribution industry.

A new mindset that gives employees more disposable time

To give employees more disposable time, we are working to improve productivity and foster a culture that values employees’ time. To that end, an organization-wide taskforce ran three experiments in which employees participated.

Experiment 1: Improving productivity of meetings
To improve the quality of meetings, each team reviewed meeting-related actions, including meeting frequency, narrowing down who will attend, and checking the agenda in advance.
Experiment 2: Gaining awareness of diverse values
Diversity requires people to gain awareness of the differences in the values people hold. A dialogue-focused workshop was held with employees of different ages and from different departments. The theme was communication in the workplace.
Experiment 3: Exploring ways to use paid leave
We ran a workshop to explore how employees can use their valuable rest days. Attendees discussed their past, present, and future interests and passions.

Health management initiatives

Sustainable Business Strategy is stated as follows: To build a self-directed, collaborative society, we will present a tomorrow you can’t wait for and lead the way in sustainable business practices. A key part of this strategy is promoting wellbeing both within and outside our organization.

We updated the KOKUYO Health and Productivity Management Declaration to express the following commitments: We will provide a positive working environment, one that supports employees’ mental and physical health and supports employee engagement. Through this process, we will learn best practices for supporting healthy workstyles. We will then present these findings to society. After updating the declaration, we created the Strategic Roadmap for KOKUYO Health and Productivity Management and launched systematic initiatives.

Recognition as Employee-Friendly Organization

KOKUYO and Kaunet have been listed among the 500 whitelisted companies in an award program run by the Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry and Nippon Kenko Kaigi, earning the official designation “2023 Certified Health & Productivity Management Outstanding Organization (White 500).” KOKUYO Marketing has earned a separate accolade under the same program (“Health and Productivity Management Outstanding Organization”).

Improve wellbeing in society

Initiating inclusive design: Hows Park

Hows Park accommodates diverse needs through the shape, height, and visibility of the furniture and by providing a comfortable amount of space/distance.

To us, inclusive design means an approach in which, from the planning stage onward, one empathizes and co-creates with individuals who have disabilities or face social barriers in order to identify and resolve the issues. Through dialogues, we have forged rapport with lead users, through which we co-create new value for society. In 2022, we launched an initiative with KOKUYO K Heart Co., Ltd., to develop products with inclusive design. The products, which include furniture and stationery, are designed in a way that supports diversity and accommodates the needs of people with disabilities.

On the first floor of our head office, we have opened Hows Park, a diversity office that embodies inclusive design principles. From the initial construction phase, we discussed with lead users how to make the space feel accessible and comfortable for wheelchair users and people with hearing difficulties, mental health challenges, or leg impairment. Hows Park will serve as a testing ground for us to pilot our inclusive design initiatives.