Human Resources Management

The Mitsui Chemicals Group positions diversity as one of its core values, based on the belief that promoting diversity is essential not only for fulfilling our social responsibilities but also for the sustainable growth of our Group. Diverse ideas from a diverse range of people are sources of innovation, essential for sustainable continuity, and the promotion of diversity is an important management strategy.
The Mitsui Chemicals Group is resolute in not permitting any discrimination whatsoever based on race, national origin, birthplace, social origin, caste, family lineage, religion, disability, age, gender, sexual orientation, gender identity, family background, marital status, membership of unions, political views, or any other differences as stated in the Mitsui Chemicals Group Human Rights Policy. Aiming to adapt to the diversifying career ambitions of our employees and the changing values perceived for each work style, we are working to implement various diversity promotion measures.

Even before the launch of the Promotion of Women’s Empowerment team, the Mitsui Chemicals Group had been working to actively promote women in its business activities by assigning female employees to Works and actively hiring women in career-track technical positions. Since establishing this team, the Company has been working to enhance its systems, and has focused on fostering a corporate culture in which women can build their careers. As a result, the Company has reached a point where very few women leave their jobs due to lack of systems to support childcare.
Our initiative for empowerment of women in the workplace is in its third phase, and currently the biggest challenge is to increase the number of women in decision-making positions. To achieve this, the pipeline of female employees needs to be filled, and the ratio of Company-wide female employees needs to be increased in order to raise the number of women who are candidates for management positions. Therefore, we have set the ratio of female managers and the ratio of female hires as indicators for the empowerment of women, and are promoting these initiatives.

We have set short-, medium-, and long-term targets for the ratio of female managers in the Company, and are promoting efforts to achieve them. Specifically, the goal is to raise the rate to 7% by the end of FY2023, 10% by the end of FY2025, and 15% by the end of FY2030.
To achieve these goals, we believe it is necessary to further deepen accurate knowledge about diversity through management and communication, particularly among managers, and to close the gap in the ratio and speed of promotion to manager-level positions between male and female employees. This is because the women currently falls behind their male colleagues in this regard.
Based on this belief, we have conducted training and activity on the theme of unconscious bias for department managers and newly appointed line managers to promote correct understanding that, even during childcare, opportunities for advancement should be given based on communication with the employees on childcare leave and that appropriate consideration should be given not only to women but also to men during the childcare period. We are striving to spread correct understanding about this. Other lectures on the theme of empowerment of women in the workplace are given by responsible officer for human resources and outside directors.

The Company began the full-scale hiring of non-Japanese employees in Japan in 2005. In order to help foreign nationals working in Japan maximize their abilities regardless of race or nationality, we provide dedicated consultation services for non-Japanese employees working in Japan. In addition to supporting work and life styles, we are committed to maintaining a workplace that provides all employees, including non-Japanese employees, with a good work environment and employing talented people.

In hiring employees with disabilities, the Company goes beyond achieving the statutory employment ratio and is committed to maintaining an environment in which people with disabilities can play an active role while accumulating their skills, and feel accepted as members of the organization. Before assigning an employee with a disability to a certain position, we select the most appropriate place for the employee, taking into account not only their job role, but also the work environment, to avoid putting under pressure on the employee to adapt to the work environment. In addition to conducting training sessions at sites that accept employees with disabilities to help other employees understand what a disability entails, we set incubation periods and adaptation/learning periods for a certain period after hiring, and introduce measures suited to the employee’s particular disability to enable them to work smoothly. We also provide regular interviews for both employees with disabilities and their superiors to help to retain employees with disabilities in the workplace. Listening to difficulties and issues from both sides helps to improve the workplace environment and work styles and creates a comfortable work environment.

We also offer subsidies for learning skills that are useful to employees with disabilities in their work, such as language and computer skills, to help improve their skills in a way that is suited to their individual talents.

The Mitsui Chemicals Group has endorsed and signed on to "The Valuable 500" in October 2019. Launched at the World Economic Forum’s Annual Summit, the Valuable 500 is an initiative created to promote the participation of people with disabilities. The initiative looks for business leaders to carry out reform that allows disabled people to fulfil their potential in business, society and the economy.

Mitsui Chemicals is moving forward in making use of the wealth of experience possessed by senior human resources, and to those retired employees who wish to continue working, calls for ongoing employment through its system of rehiring. We do this to address the challenges presented by the shortage of human resources associated with our expanding business operations and the generational retirement of whole generations of employees who were recruited in large groups, as well as to utilize employees who are highly motivated to work, even after their retirement. From fiscal 2018, we will improve the level of compensation offered when rehiring to increase the numbers of employees who wish to continue working.

The Mitsui Chemicals Group Human Rights Policy prohibits all forms of discrimination whatsoever, including discrimination against sexual orientation and gender identity. In 2021, we launched a project involving business sites and began studying initiatives to improve the ease of working for the LGBTQ community, leading to the current measures. Many of the early project members are promoting the initiative as LGBTQ contact persons at their business sites.

In November 2020, we endorsed the LUX Social Damage Care Project announced by Unilever Japan Customer Marketing K.K., by abolishing the requirement for gender description when applying for a job.

The "Mitsui Chemicals LGBTQ Ally Declaration" is aimed at increasing the number of "allies (supporters)" who show an attitude of understanding the LGBTQ community. The Declaration demonstrates a desire to actively learn to understand LGBTQ on their own and to be there for the LGBTQ community. President Hashimoto was the first person to sign the Declaration, and others are also promoting activities to increase the number of Allies.
In addition, a dedicated LGBTQ consultation service has been established to respond to LGBTQ-related harassment and coming out cases (consultation requires the consent of the person who has come out), as well as inquiries regarding the use of company-provided benefits.

Effective October 2022, employees who inform the company of their same-sex relationship will have their same-sex partners viewed in the same way as opposite-sex partners with respect to certain leave, leave of absence, and benefit programs. In order to create a climate conducive to the use of the system, the Company is working on the development of an environment in which LGBTQ employees can work with peace of mind, and on the consideration of measures to facilitate their use of the system.

In order to build a pipeline that extends to the appointment of female employees as directors, we provide training on unconscious bias to general managers based on the belief that it is important for executives to understand unconscious bias and face the challenges of organizations for which they are responsible. In FY2021, the program included an e-learning course and feedback on the results of an analysis that quantified the unconscious bias of the participants and compared them by organizational category. In FY2022, the results of the bias analysis for each organizational category were further discussed in an online workshop, where a heated debate ensued. At the beginning of the training, the president's message was delivered to clarify top-level commitment, and to raise awareness about the need to recognize unconscious bias and the importance of seriously tackling issues in the divisions for which they are responsible.

The New Line Manager Training Program is mandatory for all newly appointed line managers who will be responsible for other staff members. The program will teach them about the roles and necessary skills of a line manager and nurture their work awareness.

Training is provided for women in key technical positions who work as operators at Works, with the aim of providing opportunities to interact with female operators at other Works and to think about their careers. In FY2022, we held two social events, one in the summer and one in the winter, to provide opportunities for exchange. We listened to stories about the career paths of senior female operators, engaged in active dialogue, and shared our concerns. We are studying the personnel issues identified at the exchange meetings so that they can be reflected in our systems and policies.

Although we have an extensive leave system to cover various life events, we launched a project in FY2022 to examine support for balancing work and life, based on our awareness that there may be room for further consideration in terms of support for continuing to work. We have implemented the following measures after listening to and considering the opinions of our employees.

Every year, Mitsui Chemicals dispatches 10 to 20 employees to external training programs designed to improve the management skills and motivation of female employees who are aiming for managerial positions, as well as programs designed to help female candidates for general manager and director positions learn about business management and building external networks. Exchanges with other business women in similar positions from different companies give employees an opportunity to meet women who can become a role model and raise their career awareness.

Since fiscal 2014 we have provided Global Business Skill Training, which teaches the skills needed when working with multicultural teams. This training program is targeted specifically at employees who have been assigned abroad and engaged in overseas business, and involves managing multicultural teams and negotiating with business partners from different cultural backgrounds. About 30 employees are selected to participate in this program each year. Participants learn about the religions, cultures, and ways of thinking of people in various countries and regions, and their backgrounds, through specific case studies under the theme of business communication.

With the aim of fostering an organizational culture that embraces diversity, we hold "Inclusion Study Sessions" to deepen understanding of people with disabilities, racial and national minorities, LGBTQ community, different cultures, and other issues. Employees with disabilities or illnesses serve as lecturers to talk about their disabilities and their own experiences, and we also invite external experts to conduct online study sessions with participants from business sites across the country. In FY2022, there was a seminar on depression to learn how supervisors can prevent mental illness in their staffs, a meeting to understand the diversity of food from different cultures such as halal and vegetarian, and a meeting to hear about the experience of a person with developmental disabilities who started a business and have a discussion about it based on questions from the participants. We also offer a hands-on "Grama" game that can be played with the visually impaired.
All of these serve to deepen understanding of diversity and inclusion, which will lead to product innovation and ultimately to enhancing corporate value.

Diversity in Leadership! Lean In Circle celebrated its first anniversary with 80 members under the mission "Diversity in Leadership." It provides a place to learn and practice new skills through dialogue, and promotes horizontal communication among members while ensuring psychological safety and confidentiality. Monthly sessions are conducted in small groups of three to five people online during lunchtime for dialogue, with participants preparing for assignments such as by reading, watching videos, and self-analysis in advance of the session. In addition, monthly special events include lectures by internal and external speakers and exchange events with outside companies, providing a place where members can explore their own unique leadership styles and abilities. We will continue to contribute to Lean In's philosophy of "creating a society where all genders are able to take on challenges with ambition," and will work to create a sustainable corporate culture and develop leadership.