Diversity and Inclusion

Management Approach

Against the backdrop of factors such as the growing number of businesses seeking to expand globally and stronger international competition, as well as addressing the lack of people in the labor force due to a decline in the population of developed countries, including Japan, people’s views regarding careers and workstyles have become more diverse than ever before. In order for the Kawasaki Group to sustainably improve its enterprise value in such an environment, it will be crucial for every one of our approximate thirty-six thousand employees active throughout the world to fully realize their diverse capabilities regardless of their nationality, gender, age, religion, or disability and for us to create an organization designed to maximize this potential. Based on this recognition, we are proactively implementing various initiatives to promote diversity and inclusion.

Our diversity and inclusion initiatives center on “allowing employees to embrace diverse workstyles to help them strike an optimal work-life balance,” “promoting the active participation of women,” “facilitating the employment of people with disabilities,” “extending support for the next generation and those engaging in nursing care,” and “promoting the active participation of non-Japanese nationals.” Furthermore, in an effort to expand the scope of these initiatives, we aim to create an LGBT-friendly work environment and, to this end, are focusing on pushing ahead with various measures and employee awareness campaigns. In proactively undertaking diversity and inclusion initiatives, we will foster a corporate culture in which all employees respect one another based on a common understanding that others have different value systems and attributes. Doing so will facilitate the creation of new value and enable us to better accommodate increasingly diverse customer requests, and in turn, help us with the aim of enhancing our corporate competitiveness.
　In addition, the Kawasaki Group Code of Conduct makes it clear that we will strive to create a workplace environment that respects diversity among employees and empowers everyone to work energetically.

Within the Head Office Human Resources Division, we have in place the Diversity and Inclusion Promotive Section, which is tasked with various activities aimed at promoting diversity and inclusion.

Promoting Diversity and Inclusion

Kawasaki launched a regular hiring program for non-Japanese new graduates in fiscal 2012 and continues to recruit from countries around the globe, including Korea, China, Sweden, and India. To improve communication between non-Japanese employees and their supervisors and co-workers, as well as to enable supervisors and co-workers to better understand non-Japanese employees who have different educational, cultural, and other backgrounds, Kawasaki creates and distributes guidebooks for workplaces that non-Japanese employees will be joining and organizes seminars on multicultural understanding for supervisors as well as training programs to help employees from other countries understand the Japanese business environment.

We are committed to hiring more people with disabilities, and they participate in a wide range of workplaces. In September 2013, we established our special subsidiary Kawasaki Heartfelt Service Co., Ltd., which promotes the active Group-wide employment of people with disabilities in order to maintain and improve their employment rates, with the employment of persons with disabilities standing in excess of the legally mandated employment rate, at 2.52% for fiscal 2023. We are additionally working actively to create barrier-free workplaces, and will cultivate an environment in which people with disabilities are able to develop to their full potential. In March 2022, Kawasaki Heartfelt Service Co., Ltd. acquired the Minister of Health, Labour and Welfare’s MONISU Certification, a system to certify small and medium-sized employers making outstanding efforts to promote and stabilize initiatives to ensure the employment of persons with disabilities.

*1 As of June 1 of each fiscal year. Respective results include those for special subsidiary Kawasaki Heartfelt Service Co., Ltd.

*2 People working short hours are calculated as 0.5 persons. One person with a severe disability is counted as two persons.

Kawasaki extended its mandatory retirement age well before such changes were mandated by the amended Older Persons’ Employment Stabilization Law, and many of our veteran employees remain actively involved in operations while also passing down their skills by using the experience they have accumulated to date. Furthermore, we hold career seminars for employees in their 50s to assist them in identifying their strengths and allow them to rethink their workstyle options going forward.

The Company is focused on promoting the active participation of women and has set targets for 2025 to double the fiscal 2020 number of female managerial staff to over 116 and to raise the female ratio for career-track administrative positions to at least 30-40% and that of career-track technical positions to at least 5-15% among newly hired graduates.
　Furthermore, to promote the retention and career success of women, we hold seminars for managers of workplaces to which female employees are assigned for the first time to help them understand how to nurture such employees over the medium to long term. We also host joint seminars with other companies to incorporate insights from external role models on how to help women achieve personal growth. In recognition of these efforts, in 2016 Kawasaki received Eruboshi (2nd level) certification in recognition of outstanding efforts in promoting the active participation of women in the workplace.

* As of April 1 of each fiscal year.

Work-Life Balance

Work-life balance is the foundation for promoting diversity and inclusion, allowing diverse employees to exercise their strengths. To sustainably increase enterprise value, it is crucial to create highly productive workplaces where diverse employees can creatively use their abilities to the fullest while maintaining a good work-life balance. Within the Kawasaki Group, it is therefore important to create environments in which employees can do work that meets the expectations of the Company, those around them, and themselves while leading healthy, fulfilling lives, so that they can engage with their work at a higher level. By providing diverse workstyle options that enable employees to balance their professional and private lives, we will systematically improve work efficiency.

Kawasaki provides support in a number of ways to enable employees to continue working actively while balancing work with childcare and nursing care. Many related systems go beyond national government standards, such as a system of childcare leave available until employees’ children reach age three； a reduced working hours system available until employees’ children graduate from elementary school； nursing care leave available for up to three years； and a system that lets employees take time off in one-hour units as needed for childcare or family nursing care. In recognition of these systems, in 2010 Kawasaki was certified as a company supporting childcare and awarded the Kurumin Mark.
　Other initiatives include the Supplementary Work Day Nursery Service, which provides temporary childcare services within the Company for employees working on days that they would normally have off； the Childcare Rescue System, offering Company-designated baby-sitter services that employees can use when their children are sick or recovering or when they are working overtime or on business trips； a concierge service to help employees find nursery schools； seminars to support employees taking childcare leave who wish to return to work； and career seminars for dual-income married couples. We continue working to enhance such initiatives for employees with children.
　Moreover, in order to foster a corporate culture in which employees are not leaving their jobs due to such reasons as childbirth or childcare and in which both men and women are able to balance work with childcare as desired, we have set the target of raising the ratio at which male employees take childcare leave to 30% by 2025 and are proactively working to promote understanding so that our employees with their diverse attributes have diverse work style choices.

^* Accumulated leave refers to unused annual paid vacation days that cannot be carried over to the next year (up to 60 days) but can be taken in such circumstances as personal injury or illness, childcare, caregiving, or nursing.

Kawasaki promotes organizational and corporate culture transformation, system transformation, and operational transformation efforts for the purpose of a workstyle reform. To promote organizational and corporate culture transformation, we have issued messages from top management, provided educational seminars for managerial staff, and held one-on-one meetings. In system transformation, in fiscal 2017 we added productivity as one of our employee review criteria for administrative and technical personnel in order to recognize employees who carry out work quickly and efficiently. Furthermore, in fiscal 2018 we introduced a remote working program (teleworking program) for said employees, and are undertaking initiatives to create a working environment that allows employees to work flexibly in ways aligned with their own lifestyles. In terms of operational transformation, we have provided the Operational Efficiency Improvement Start Book as well as useful information for operational transformation, including tools for various types of work.

Kawasaki encourages employees to take their annual paid leave to enable them to mentally and physically refresh themselves and to draw a clear line between work and private life by taking their leave in a planned manner.
　To this end, Kawasaki implements two programs: the Two Consecutive Holidays and the Anniversary Holiday programs. Under these programs, employees designate a total of three paid leave days at the beginning of the fiscal year and can take these days off without fail.
　Additionally, based on the labor agreement, three annual paid leave days that the Company designates are taken by most employees in August. The Company combines this midsummer break with other Company holidays and a national holiday to create a span of nine consecutive days off. Furthermore, the labor union and management have agreed to designate one day per week as an on-time exit day since fiscal 2006. The designation of this on-time exit day helps employees work efficiently and improve their work-life balance.

Other Initiatives

We have set up a diversity and inclusion promotion website on the Company intranet. This website offers an overview of diversity and inclusion at the Kawasaki Group alongside workplace examples and information about systems related to facilitating a healthy work-life balance. In addition, since fiscal 2020, we have held seminars to consider diversity and inclusion chiefly in an online format, after regular work hours for those interested in taking part, with the content and reports from these seminars also posted online.
　In fiscal 2022, three meetings were held, with themes including the participation of men in childcare.

To accelerate social shifts related to diversity, inclusion, and work-life balance, we proactively look beyond the framework of the Company to encourage employees to participate in outside seminars and advance activities together with other organizations and companies. One example is a work-life balance and diversity and inclusion promotion study project being jointly implemented by the Chuo University Graduate School of Strategic Management and private companies. This project broadly promotes the concept of healthy work-life balance in society through surveys and research. Kawasaki has taken part in the project since 2013, serving as a model company by implementing such internal measures as work-life balance training for managers. We are also a member of the Diversity Western–Japan Study Group. In this group, diversity and inclusion officers at companies in the Kansai region meet to share ideas and good examples in action and advocate for measures within their companies and to the government.

Kawasaki Motors Enterprise (Thailand) Co., Ltd. opened an on-site nursery in April 2010.
　The nursery provides care for employees’ children between the ages of one and four. Each year, the nursery cares for the children of about 30 employees on a daily basis. Several other children are also registered at the nursery, so that their families can utilize it when necessary. The nursery is generally open from 7:30 to 17:15 to coincide with regular working hours, but, if requested by more than a certain number of employees, it is also made available during overtime hours or on holidays.
　The opening of the nursery means that employees can continue working with complete peace of mind, having left their children to be cared for within the office premises. From the employer’s viewpoint, this helps avoid the loss of skilled human resources due to childbirth or childcare responsibilities, promoting a stable and committed workforce. The opening of the nursery has thus proved to be mutually beneficial to both employees and the company.
　In Japan, meanwhile, Kawasaki provides workplace nursery facilities on days that employees have to work but would normally have off.