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Promotion of Diversity

5 Gender Equality 8 Decent Work and Economic Growth 10 Reduced Inequalities

To Be a Corporate Group for Everyone to Enjoy Working with Dignity
For the Japan Post Group to grow in a sustainable manner, it is essential that an enabling work environment be built so that each employee can fully demonstrate their capabilities and play an active role. Based on this idea, the Group has been actively promoting diversity by establishing an office to drive efforts in this area, such as changing employees' attitudes and raising their awareness, aiming to build the work environment that enables people with diverse values to enjoy working.

The Japan Post Group has around 400,000 employees working in various places. We actively promote diversity as we firmly believe that the essential sources of the Group's sustainable growth are respecting diverse perspectives and values that reflect Group employees' experiences, skills, and attributes, as well as allowing each employee to play an active role and fully demonstrate their capabilities.
The Group has formulated the Japan Post Group Human Rights Policy, making a commitment to respect human rights and not to discriminate on the basis of race, color, gender, sexual orientation, sexual identity, language, religion, politics or creed, nationality or social origin, poverty or wealth, birth, disability, etc. Along with this policy, we are also enhancing human resource development activities and developing worker-friendly environments to enable diverse human resources, including female, foreign national, and mid-career employees to express their abilities to the fullest.

Japan Post Group Human Rights Policy

Declaration on Diversity Promotion

We aim to be an organization that allows each employee to play an active role with peace of mind and create innovation by mutually respecting and accepting their backgrounds and values.
To achieve this, we will nurture a culture where relevant systems can be easily used in order to promote diverse work styles that allow employees to work comfortably, maintain their health, and maintain a balance between work and life events.

MAKI Hirohisa
Group CHRO

Ratio of female managers in the four Group companies and the head office, as of April 2023 15.2% → Ratio of female managers in the four Group companies and the head office, target for FY2030 30%Note: We will also expand efforts beyond the head office to improve the environment and develop human resources so that more employees can aim for managerial positions.

Recognizing that the further participation of female employees is indispensable for the growth and development of the Group amid diversifying consumer needs, work styles, and other changes in the social environment, we established targets for the ratio of female managers among head office managers. In addition, while evaluating and reflecting as we work toward achieving our goals, we formulate an initiative plan for each year, and work toward improving the environment to make it more comfortable for employees to work in by (1) reducing overtime work and improving work and childcare balance support systems, (2) raising awareness through manager seminars aimed at creating a work environment that allows both men and women to be active, and (3) providing training to develop career awareness among female employees.

ESG data

Each Group company also publishes relevant information and a general employer action plan in the Database on Promotion of Women's Participation and Advancement in the Workplace by the Ministry of Health, Labour and Welfare (MHLW) in accordance with the Act on the Promotion of Women's Active Engagement in Professional Life.

The Database on Promotion of Women's Participation and Advancement in the Workplace website (MHLW)

Joint Seminar by the Japan Post Group and Aflac

As part of support for the career formation of female employees, we are holding career support seminars for junior to mid-level employees sponsored by Aflac and the four Japan Post Group companies. Learning about work styles in other companies provides an opportunity for participants to think about ideal leadership and future career vision.
In the fiscal year ended March 31, 2023, a total of around 180 employees from the Group companies participated in the seminar.

Regarding mid-career recruits, we have been working on recruiting and hiring managers mainly in specialized fields in line with business characteristics (including real estate, legal affairs, IT fields, investment and market management, risk management, and actuaries) and will continue to implement more proactive recruitment and hiring in the future.
With regard to foreign nationals, although we do not intend to expand recruitment given the content of our current business, we will recruit foreign nationals and appoint managers as necessary for business development in the future. It should be noted that we do not differentiate candidates based on nationality when hiring foreign nationals or appointing them for managerial positions.

Number of mid-career employees (results)

The Japan Post Group conducts the recruitment of regional managers in each local area in addition to the nationwide career-track recruitment, reflecting our focus on employing local talent.

Number of employees by region

As the labor force population shrinks due to declining birthrates and aging populations, the Group aims to further leverage the abilities and experience of senior employees. Recognizing the need to create an environment where employees can work while maintaining motivation, we raised the retirement age to 65 years old from the fiscal year ended March 31, 2022. As for securing employment opportunities up to the age of 70 years old, we will proceed with specific examinations while considering such factors as concrete work styles and measures for securing safety after reaching the age of 65 years old.

Group's employment rate for persons with disabilities as of June 2022 2.42% → Group's employment rate for persons with disabilities in FY2024 2.5%

Recognizing that it is our social responsibility as a corporation to provide appropriate employment opportunities to persons with disabilities, the Japan Post Group promotes (1) the proactive recruitment of persons with disabilities, (2) the establishment of work environments and training aimed at job retention, (3) the establishment and proactive utilization of a special subsidiary company, and (4) the acceptance for work training and employment of persons from special needs schools, with the immediate goal of raising the Group's employment rate for persons with disabilities to 2.5%.

Initiatives to Promote Employment

In 2007, the Japan Post Group established Japan Post Challenged Co., Ltd. to make a Group-wide effort to promote the employment of persons with disabilities. The company, approved as a special subsidiary of Japan Post Holdings in March 2008, currently offers a variety of services to the Group companies. Examples include cleaning at post offices, training centers, operation support centers, Teishin Hospital, and other places; printing and bookbinding at operation support centers; and making gift bags with candies and shipping them at the Arigato (meaning "thank you") Center. The company also encourages employees' team spirit by, for example, publishing its internal newsletter "Gambaru Hito" (meaning "hardworking people") since August 2008 to introduce different workplaces (branches) as well as employees' hobbies and special skills.

At the Otemachi Branch, located within the head office building of Japan Post Holdings in Chiyoda-ku, Tokyo, Challenged employees enjoy cleaning hallways and conference rooms, delivering copy paper, and various other tasks in a cheerful and energetic manner under the leadership of the senior coach and the coach.

Japan Post Challenged Co., Ltd.

Japan Post Holdings has signed an agreement with the Japan Goalball Association and become its official partner (categories: mailing, delivery, and goods transport).
Japan Post Holdings and Japan Post will help promote and develop para-sports through active support for the association's activities, including sending employees as volunteers to various events it operates.

Forming a partnership with the Japan Goalball Association(japanese)

The Japan Post Group works together with special needs schools by accepting students every year for job experience and work training, aiming to help persons with disabilities find jobs that allow them to fully demonstrate their capabilities.

In the Basic Policy on Corporate Governance, the Japan Post Group advocates the promotion of diversity management aimed at creating a work environment where sexual minority employees can work comfortably. Specifically, we provide a hotline for employees to report human rights violations or harassment incidents; raise awareness and understanding regarding LGBT issues, including training at each workplace on human rights and harassment; provide awareness seminars conducted by LGBT-related parties; enacted the Japan Post Group Human Rights Policy; issued Ally stickers; and sponsor Tokyo Rainbow Pride.
We have also extended various benefits to same-sex partners, including dependency allowances, special holidays for such occasions as wedding and funeral, family care leave, and company housing. When these employees change their gender and name in the family register, we also incorporate it into our system accordingly.

The Japan Post Group has been recognized as one of the Gold awardees in the Pride Index for its initiatives on issues related to LGBT (those considered sexual minorities in society). We will continue to promote an understanding of and support for the LGBT community and other sexual minorities, aiming to build a society where everyone can enjoy playing an active role regardless of their sexual orientation and sexual identity.
The Pride Index is a corporate performance indicator created in 2016 by Work with Pride, a general corporation helping companies and other organizations promote and incorporate diversity management on sexual minorities such as lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender people.

About the Pride Index (to the website of Work with Pride in a new window; Japanese)

The Japan Post Group has been encouraging more people to become Allies, meaning those who understand and support sexual diversity.
For example, we have organized seminars on Allies and distributed Ally stickers to employees.
We also encourage them to express themselves as Allies.

The Japan Post Group sponsors Tokyo Rainbow Pride as part of its initiatives to promote diversity.

The Japan Post Group organizes awareness-raising seminars for its employees, aiming to help them deepen an understanding of diversity and put it into practice.
In 2023, we organized an online seminar for managers in all the organizations, inviting Ms. Kana Takeda from Center for Strategic Management & Innovation, Nomura Research Institute, as instructor. Ms. Takeda spoke about management to bring out the full potential of employees while helping them balance work and life events.

The Japan Post Group supports the Declaration on Action by the Male Leaders Coalition for Empowerment of Women, which is backed by the Gender Equality Bureau, Cabinet Office. We are actively promoting the empowerment of women according to the three items in the declaration: taking actions and sending messages ourselves, disrupting the status quo, and developing networking.