Occupational Health

The main purposes of occupational health are to prevent the health disorders caused by harmful factors in the workplace, while working to maintain and promote the health of employees. In addition to complying with the Occupational Health and Safety Act and related laws and regulations, the Mitsui Chemicals Group believes that encouraging employees to be healthy leads to the happiness of employees and their families, which in turn forms the social foundation towards the sustainable development of society. Every October, in line with Japan’s National Occupational Health Week, the CEO’s message is published in Japanese, English, and Chinese to disseminate this concept across the Group. In addition, we believe that healthy employees make for healthy organizations and contribute to an improvement in labor productivity. We are incorporating a health promotion perspective into our basic policies and working to improve both the well-being of our employees and the organizational culture.
Our Responsible Care Policy states: “We will actively promote the well-being of all our employees,” which we are diligently putting into practice as a company. Meanwhile, our Action Guidelines also stipulate health promotion to raise health awareness among employees and encourage their proactive efforts for health management. Further, we have enforced the Occupational Health Regulations, internal rules that set forth the basic framework of the Group’s occupational health approach based on the above Policy and Guidelines.

Based on the philosophy of “Employee well-being is directly linked to the company’s well-being,” we have formed a sound work environment to prevent occupational diseases and actively implement a range of measures to encourage employees’ ongoing voluntary efforts for health management.

With the responsible officer in charge of the Human Resources Division, the occupational physician who heads the Health Management Department (supervising occupational physician) in the Human Resources Division plans and implements concrete measures.

Leading by the supervising occupational physician, we hold regular Group-wide occupational physician conferences to consider issues and measures related to health management.

Based on these conferences, we formulate medium- to long-term occupational health plans during the fiscal year and proposals for annual plan key issues and measures (Group-wide occupational health key issues), which are decided through deliberations by the Responsible Care Committee and approved by the Management Committee.

The Group’s occupational health is managed under an approach that covers global, domestic affiliates, and Mitsui Chemicals.

Domestic and overseas affiliates implement occupational health measures based on the Responsible Care Policy.
Mitsui Chemicals submits the Management Check List regarding occupational health to affiliates that produce or handle chemical substances to assess their health management status in workplaces. Further, the Internal Control Division undertakes an occupational health audit at Works and laboratories of Mitsui Chemicals and its affiliates (except in the U.S., Europe, and some other regions) to confirm that the working environment is appropriately organized and efforts for health promotion are in place. The onsite audit is carried out once every two to five years depending on the size of the audited site, the type of business, and the administration level. The audited companies are notified of the audit results and are requested to correct any problems identified. If a company is requested to make corrections, it is subject to a follow-up audit after one year to confirm the correction progress.
In addition, the general occupational physician periodically visits Works of overseas affiliates in each country, and provides training on occupational health and employee health to employees and personnel responsible for occupational health.

At Mitsui Chemicals' Works, Head Office, and R&D Center, a Health Management Department has been established directly under the head of each business site. The department is staffed by full-time occupational physicians, nurses, and hygiene managers, and promotes health measures through an annual occupational health plan created to suit each site.

Conferences for occupational physicians are regularly held and hosted by the supervising occupational physician to consider solutions to Group-wide health management issues and implement them. We maintain an efficient and effective health management structure through the close relationship between the Health Management Departments and the Human Resources Division, particularly in the area of utilization of training programs and corporate welfare schemes, and the employment of disabled people.