WORKSTYLE REFORM, DIVERSITY, AND INCLUSION
Labor and Talent Workstyle Reform, Diversity, and Inclusion
Basic Concepts
Well-being—the state of being healthy and happy—is something we want to see in the workplace and in society. To that end, we want to build a diverse and inclusive organization, an organization in which everyone feels valued and empowered, regardless of gender, disability, or nationality.
Systems
Measures to Promote Workplace Diversity*
We exceed regulatory requirements in our effort to support the careers of diverse employees and accommodate their needs associated with each life stage. Underlined text indicates a measure that exceeds regulatory requirements.
| Maternity leave | Pregnant employees are entitled to a leave of absence for a period lasting from six weeks before the due date (14 weeks if a multiple pregnancy) to eight weeks after. |
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| Spouse’s leave | Employees whose spouse is pregnant are entitled to two days leave around the due date. |
| Parental leave | Employees are entitled to a leave of absence to care for their children until the child’s 2nd birthday (if the child’s second birthday falls in April, until the end of that April). |
| Sick child leave | Employees with children who are yet to enroll at elementary school are entitled to five days of leave a year or, if they have multiple applicable children, 10 days of leave a year (the leave can be taken on an hourly basis). |
| Nursing care leave | Employees are entitled to take, for each care dependent, up to three periods of leave totaling no more than 183 days. |
| Short nursing care leave | Employees are entitled to take, for each care dependent, five days of leave a year or, if they have multiple elderly dependents, 10 days of leave a year (the leave can be taken on an hourly basis). |
| Shorter hours |
Childcare: Employees with children are entitled to take shorter work schedules until the children complete grade 3 of elementary school. Nursing care: Employees with dependents are entitled to take shorter work schedules for up to three years for each dependent. |
| Work from home | We promote a mixture of home and office working. |
| Complete flextime (with no predetermined core period) | We encourage employee productivity with flexible work hours. |
| Re-employment system for employees who voluntarily resigned | We run a returnship program to help reintegrate into the workplace regular employees who resigned because of marriage, childbirth, childcare, nursing care, spouse relocation, overseas study, charity work, a career change, or other valid personal reasons. We believe that bringing in outside experience and insight further increases the diversity of our organization. |
| Re-employing mandatory retirees | We have in place a system which, in principle, allows employees who wish to work at the KOKUYO Group after retiring at the mandatory age of 60 to continue work as senior employees. Through this initiative, we offer opportunities for employees to continue applying themselves in society after mandatory retirement. At the same time, we can expect them to use their experience and knowledge developed so far in their work to contribute toward developing younger employees. |
| *Programs of KOKUYO and our major subsidiaries *View data on childcare and nursing care leave uptake |
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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. For example, employees choose one of three workstyle categories (office-based, balanced, home-based) and then decide with their superiors on a workstyle that will best suit their individual and team performance. Teams regularly review members’ workstyles to see how they can improve. 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.”
Flextime 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. While many have written off flextime as unfeasible for the distribution industry, KOKUYO Logitem, having already introduced flextime for office staff back in 2009, introduced it for distribution center staff in 2022. With the take-up rate improving in the workplace, KOKUYO Logitem’s initiative has now become a best practice example for flexible workstyles in the industry.
* If you can read Japanese, learn more on KOKUYO Logitem’s news pageAchieving a Good Work/Life Balance
The KOKUYO Group endeavors to create an employee-friendly working environment with consideration for the work/life balance. These initiatives have been recognized. Three companies in our group have acquired the Kurumin Mark as of the end of December 2022. The Kurumin Mark is granted to companies and organizations which proactively support childrearing by the Ministry of Health, Labour and Welfare that is working to reduce the declining birthrate. This initiative is based on the Law for Measures to Support the Development of the Next Generation.
The companies which have acquired the Kurumin Mark (as of the end of December 2022):
KOKUYO Co., Ltd., Kaunet Co., Ltd., and KOKUYO Marketing Co., Ltd.
Employing People with Disabilities
KOKUYO has been an active employer of people with disabilities ever since 1940. In that year, KOKUYO started recruiting students from a school for the deaf in Osaka (now known as Chuo School for the Deaf). The students were employed in the company’s factory in Imazato, which stood on the site of what is now our Head Office. A turning point in our policy for employing people with disabilities came in 2002, when we unveiled a program of structural reform. This reform program involved spinning off our business units into new companies. A question we then faced was how to provide jobs in the new group companies for people with disabilities. In September 2003, we founded KOKUYO K Heart as a “special subsidiary” (meaning a disability-friendly employer that is counted as part of the parent company). In December 2006, we founded Heartland, a subsidiary devoted to employing people with mental disabilities. As of June 1, 2022, people with disabilities make up 2.33% of the group’s workforce.
* View data on employment of people with disabilities
Heartland Co., Ltd., is a special subsidiary of KOKUYO. It employs people with disabilities and specializes in the running of agriculture. It creates employment for a total of approximately 7,000 people with disabilities in the region annually.
Participating in the Iku-boss Corporation Alliance
KOKUYO has been member of the Iku-boss Corporate Alliance (Sponsored by Fathering Japan) ever since the program began in December 2014. This agenda requires a change of attitudes in employee management, especially in regard to work-life balance: Managers must provide an understanding and supportive environment so that employees can balance family and work commitments and perform at their best level. We want to take the opportunities afforded to us by participation in the Iku-boss Corporation Alliance. We will share knowledge with advanced companies that have the same awareness of issues as us to rethink the optimal state of our diversity management, workstyles and workplace culture. We will think about and nurture the ideal image of a boss (Iku-boss) in the new era through collaboration between participating companies. At the same time, we will aim to connect that to solving our customers’ issues as a company that proposes new workstyles.
