• Diversity policies
• Structure
• Facilitation of women’s active engagement (women in management positions and women new graduates hired for generalist-track positions)
• Recruitment of people with disabilities
• Mid-career recruitment
• Employees of nationalities other than Japanese
• Foreign technical interns
• LGBTQ+
• Improvement of work-life management (support for people balancing work and childcare)
• Improvement of work-life management (support for balancing work and nursing care)
• Health and productivity management
• Data

Diversity policies

The Oji Group asks all employees to uphold core common values, including the Management Philosophy, Purpose and Human Resource Philosophy.
The Oji Group is also facilitating inclusion and diversity with a view toward energizing individuals and the organization. We aim to fully leverage each employee’s diverse values, ideas and abilities and enable them to facilitate each other’s growth, regardless of attributes such as race, nationality, ethnicity, place of origin, thoughts and beliefs, values, religion, age, gender, sexual orientation, sexual identity, ability, social status or social position. This ultimately strengthens the Group’s competitiveness.

Specific policies include the development of the abilities and careers of diverse human resources, the improvement of work-life management (diverse working styles and health and productivity management), and changing the mindsets and behaviors of each employee and changing manager’s management methods to encourage the growth and evolution of subordinates. We also conduct awareness surveys to collect data used as indicators in the evaluation of our activities.

Structure

Group-wide policies and targets for facilitating diversity are shared at Sustainability Committee meetings every six months. We have also appointed the Group CEO to be the Chief Health Officer to work on health and productivity management.

Facilitation of women’s active engagement (women in management positions and women new graduates hired for generalist-track positions)

To facilitate women’s active participation in our operations, we aim to increase the percentage of women in management positions to 5.5% by the end of March 2025. The scope of this target is the 16 consolidated subsidiaries in Japan with 301 or more employees. As of the end of March 2024, the percentage of women in management positions is 3.9%. Since FY2018, all new graduates hired for generalist-track positions in major Oji Group companies are recruited by Oji Management Office Inc. to secure talented human resources and improve operational efficiency. Our target is to achieve at least 30% of new graduates hired for these positions being women, and we strive to hire women that will be candidates for management positions in the future. In FY2024, we hired 28 female new graduates, which is 40.6% of the people hired for generalist-track positions. Aiming to eliminate the gender gap in employee development, we provide training such as career building training for generalist-track employees to develop the men and women that are employees with management potential. In addition, the measures we have taken to help employees balance work and childcare include the opening of the Nepia Sodaterrace daycare in Edogawa-ku, Tokyo, and the offering of daycare subsidies for employees who are returning to work after childcare leave.
In addition to helping employees balance work and childcare as explained above, the goal of the Nepia Sodaterrace daycare facility is to address the issue of children on daycare waiting lists, which is a part of the Group’s fulfillment of its responsibilities to society as a corporation. Not only our Group employees but also local residents can use the daycare facility (As of the end of March 2024, six children of employees and fourteen children of local residents are using the nursery.).

Recruitment of people with disabilities

We proactively recruit people with disabilities. This includes the July 2007 establishment of Oji Clean Mate, a special-purpose subsidiary staffed primarily by people with mental disabilities. The people with disabilities employment rate is 2.48% for the six major companies in the Group (including Oji Holdings) subject to special treatment for related companies. To achieve the statutory employment rate (2.5%), we will further expand our employment of people with disabilities.

People with disabilities employment rate

Mid-career recruitment

To secure human resources who can promptly realize the Group’s management strategies, we have been recruiting employees mid-career. In FY2023, the Group hired 54 employees mid-career through Oji Management Office Inc., and 28 of them are playing active roles as managers. We will continue to hire a certain number of employees mid-career and place them in managerial positions. In addition, we will leverage alumni human resources (employees who rejoin the Group after leaving for reasons other than mandatory retirement) by professionally advancing those who gained effective outside experience.

Employees of nationalities other than Japanese

To achieve diversity, we position the development of global human resources as an important theme. To secure talented human resources, all new graduates hired for generalist-track positions in major Oji Group companies in Japan are recruited by Oji Management Office Inc. In FY2023, three generalist-track employees whose nationalities were other than Japanese were hired as future candidates for management positions in Group companies in Japan. We will continue to hire a certain number of non-Japanese employees, and we will place them in managerial positions. As of March 2024, there are 22 generalist-track employees of nationalities other than Japanese. Nine of them are managers whose jobs include the operation and management of the local businesses of overseas Group companies. In addition, we strive to create an environment that encourages each employee to demonstrate their abilities, such as an environment that enables non-Japanese employees to communicate with each other and easily consult with HR representatives.
Of the approx. 38,000 Oji Group employees, 57.5% (as of the end of March 2024) are employees of overseas Group companies. The corporate managers and employees in managerial positions of those companies are mainly locally hired personnel. In 2019, we appointed a non-Japanese employee as a Corporate Officer.

Foreign technical interns

The Group recruits a large number of foreign technical interns (including employees hired by local companies outside Japan) from countries such as Vietnam and Thailand in its corrugated container and folding carton processing businesses. The internships are run appropriately.

LGBTQ+

Building upon the Oji Group Charter of Corporate Behavior and the Oji Group Code of Conduct, we created the Oji Group LGBTQ Handbook (only available in Japanese) with the goal of developing a workplace environment in which diverse human resources, including people who identify as a member of a sex or gender minority, can play active roles within the Oji Group. In addition, an external consultation service for members of sex or gender minority groups (for all Oji Group employees) was established on April 1, 2024.

Improvement of work-life management (support for people balancing work and childcare)

We are introducing various systems that enable employees with childcare responsibilities to continue to actively participate in their work.

Main initiatives to support people balancing careers and childcare that go beyond requirements ^*1

• Day-care center subsidies for employees who return to work after taking childcare leave

• Shortened work hours for childcare (shortening work hours to a minimum of six work hours per day until the end of the first year of elementary school)

• Paternity leave system for male employees (five consecutive days of paid leave, target: 100%)
• Hourly use of accumulated annual leave (for childcare/nursing care)
• Leave system for employees that must leave work to accompany their spouses who are transferred overseas
• Return-to-work program for employees resigning due to childbirth, childcare, nursing care, etc.
• Childbirth leave for spouses (a maximum of three days)

• *1 Oji Holdings, Oji Imaging Media, Oji Green Resources, Oji Paper, Oji Management Office

Support before and after childcare leave

To help our employees of any gender before and after childcare leave improve their work-life management, we meet with employees and hold seminars to create opportunities to communicate. The seminars on balancing work and childcare are open to both men and women, and they are good opportunities to get a better sense of how to balance childcare and your career.

Information Service

We provide a variety of information on work-life management, including information about the company's system, in the handbook on balancing work and childcare and on the portal site.

Percentage of Male Employees Taking Childcare Leave

The Oji Group’s target for the percentage of male employees taking childcare leave is 100% for the 16 consolidated companies in Japan with 301 or more employees. Accordingly, we actively encourage men to engage in housework and childcare. In FY2023, the percentage was 92.5%, including manufacturing sites where employees work in three shifts.

Men's active participation in childcare is expected to not only strengthen their relationships with their families, but also to provide new perspectives on their work and improve their productivity by enabling them to work more efficiently.

We are particularly focused on encouraging people to use our unique childcare-related leave system for men (providing five or more consecutive days of leave), with the goal of achieving a 100% take-up rate. As a result of continuous efforts such as informing workplaces of the birth of a new child, posting posters throughout the company, and introducing stories on the portal site, not only has the percent of leave taken increased, but also people’s awareness that it is normal for men to take paternity leave has been increased in each workplace, which is a significant change.

To create a comfortable work environment for everyone, it is also important for supervisors and colleagues in the workplace to reenforce people’s ability to have diverse values and lifestyles. Through this initiative, we aim to develop better work styles and a better workplace culture. 

Meeting with a male employee who took childcare leave and his supervisor (1)

The person taking childcare leave

Supervisor

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Interview with a male employee and his boss who took childcare leave (2) 

The person taking childcare leave

Supervisor

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Company-Managed Childcare Facility

The Group operates Nepia SODATERASU, a daycare located adjacent to a Group housing facility in Edogawa-ku, Tokyo, with the goals of helping employees maintain a healthy balance between childcare and work, encourage women’s active participation in work, and contributing to the elimination of latchkey children as a part of our fulfilling our responsibilities to society as a corporation. 

The name SODATERASU encompasses three ideas, sodate (to raise children (carefully and soundly)), terasu (illuminate (the future brightly)), and terrace (safe play on the daycare playground), to symbolize a daycare where children are raised with cheerfulness and peace of mind. In addition to employees, local residents can use the daycare, using the child care support systems implemented by the Cabinet Office.

Overview Of SODATERASU

Improvement of work-life management (support for balancing work and nursing care)

The Oji Group has introduced various systems that enable employees with nursing care responsibilities to continue to actively participate in their work. 

Main Initiatives*²

• Nursing care leave (one-year leave, divisible into up to 12 parts)
• Shortened work hours for nursing care (people working at least six hours per day may work shorter hours as necessary for two or more periods of time over three years)
• Hourly use of accumulated annual leave (childcare, nursing care)
• Return-to-work program for employees resigning due to childbirth, childcare, nursing care, etc.
• Priority guidance regarding monitoring services for the elderly

• *2 Oji Holdings, Oji Imaging Media, Oji Green Resources, Oji Paper, Oji Management Office

Provision of information

Oji Group provides information to eliminate employees’ doubts and apprehension concerning family nursing care, with the goal of enabling them to provide nursing care and work at the same time. 

Main Initiatives

• Web handbook on balancing work and nursing care
• Seminars on balancing work and nursing care

Health and productivity management

Policy

The Oji Group is working on health management as one of its initiatives for safety, the environment and compliance, which are the top priorities of management and the most important issues they must address.

Health Management Strategy Map

Aims to achieve and Problems concerning the Oji Groupʼs health and productivity management

• Risk of employees contracting lifestyle-related diseases
• Risk of employees contracting diseases caused by overwork
• Leaves of absence due to mental health problems

Structure

In October 2020, the Oji Group established the Oji Group Health Declaration and it is managing health under the supervision of its Chief Health Officer (Group CEO). The company, the Oji Group's health insurance association, labor unions and industrial physicians at each business site are working together to facilitate employee health improvement activities.

Numerical Targets and Results

Percentage of employees who undergo health examinations: 100% (target)

• *Results in each fiscal year (Oji HD, Oji MO)

Percentage of employees who undergo stress checks: 100% (target)

• *Result in each fiscal year (Oji HD, Oji MO)

Work engagement*

• *Measured using responses to two items related to work engagement in the new Brief Survey on Occupational Stress (80-item shortened version): “I feel full of vitality when I'm working” and “I feel proud of my work.”
  Average score for all employees for these two items (4 = agree, 3 = somewhat agree, 2 = somewhat disagree, 1 = disagree).

Initiatives

Regular Health Examinations

The Group provides regular health examinations (with statutory examination items) at least once each year. In addition, major Group companies provide their employees aged 35 years or older with screenings for lifestyle-related diseases (total cholesterol, uric acid, fundoscopy, tumor markers, breast and cervical cancer screening, screening for VDT syndrome and others) together with the health insurance union. The results of these examinations are used in detailed follow-ups conducted to detect and treat health problems at an early stage in collaboration with industrial physicians.

Health Consultation Office

The Group established the Oji Group Health Consultation Office, where employees and their family members have access to doctors and counselors who provide advice either by telephone or online, on the various health problems that employees and their family members may encounter, including mental health problems due to interpersonal work relationships, etc.
The Group also established a nationwide system that enables employees to use by-appointment face-to-face counselling services provided by specialized counselors. The Group provides employees who have used this service with a wide variety of support programs in consideration of the specific details of their issues.

Stress Checks

In accordance with the law, The Oji Group ensures that employee stress check tests are conducted once annually. It is recommended that employees with high stress levels receive face-to-face guidance from doctors individually via an external service provider to which we outsource the administrative tasks for the implementation of the stress checks.
Regarding the results of stress checks, the Group holds meetings, including reporting seminars, that include responsible personnel from Group companies and divisions as well as people responsible for the administrative tasks for the implementation of the stress checks. At these meetings, feedback regarding organizational analyses and the encouragement of improvements to work environments is provided. 

Vaccination of Expatriate Employees before Dispatch

The Group recommends that employees who are to be dispatched to countries with a high risk of infectious diseases and their accompanying family members receive the vaccinations recommended by the Ministry of Health, Labor and Welfare (hepatitis A and B, tetanus, rabies, Japanese encephalitis, polio, yellow fever, measles/rubella and typhoid) depending on their destination, thereby preventing infection during their work abroad. 

Providing Information to Employees

We actively provide information to create an environment in which employees can work with peace of mind by distributing the Handbook for Balancing Work and Medical Treatment and holding seminars to improve knowledge of mental health issues. 

External evaluation

MSCI Japan Empowering Women (WIN) Index

Eruboshi certification received in line with the Act on Promotion of Women’s Participation and Advancement in the Worksite

Health and Productivity Management Organization Recognition Program

Data

• ESG Data

*All figures are for fiscal 2023.
*Oji HD: Oji Holdings (non-consolidated)
*5 companies: Oji Holdings, Oji Management Office, Oji Imaging Media, Oji Green Resource, Oji Paper

Employee data 

Number of full-time employees (people)

Average number of years employed for full-time employees (years)

Number of full-time employees recruited (people)

Number of board members (People)

Number of managers and number of new appointments (People)

Number of managers by position (People)

Number of assistant managers (People)

Number of regular employees leaving in fiscal 2022 (People)

Results for each system