Goals and Initiatives for Success of women in the workplace

Permanent female employees: 30%, female employees: 50%, female managers: 20%

Women account for roughly half of Japan’s population. To identify and address the needs of women, we need to assume that women’s perspectives are incorporated into everything from store design to managerial decisions, and that female employees thrive in every section. As Japan’s working population declines, companies will only be able to grow if they are chosen by men and women.

  • Conduct ongoing education with the aim of eliminating unconscious bias, one of the impediments to the success of women in the workplace
  • Prepare and improve systems and work environments, such as systems for supporting work-life balance, to enable women to continue working as they experience life events
  • Foster a culture where both men and women can enjoy work and care for their children
  • Share role models to cultivate a company culture where women exercise leadership and thrive
  • Redesign managerial workstyles to eliminate the assumption of long working hours

Support for the more active participation and work-life balance of women

As of March 2023, the percentage of female managers is 3.6%, and the wage gap between men and women is 71.4%, making the promotion of women a challenge for the Group. We believe that the main impediment to women’s success in the workplace is that housework and childcare are often biased in favor of women, leading to time, psychological and physical constraints. Considering that late working hours make it difficult for employees with children to continue working, we revised the system of shorter working hours for childcare in April 2023 to allow using this system until the child finishes the third year of junior high school. In addition, we expanded the prescribed working hours of the shorter working hours system for childcare from two patterns: 5 hours and 6 hours to six patterns from 5 hours to 7.5 hours (in 30-minute increments). This change will let employees choose their work style according to their personal circumstances. We want to link this change not  only to support for balancing work with childcare, but also to the career development of women.

Percentage of women

FY2021 Results

FY2022 Results

2030 Target

Female directors

22.2%

22.2%

-

Female managers

3.2%

3.6%

20%

Female permanent employees

12.0%

13.0%

30%

Female employees

36.8%

36.5%

50%

Female new employees

48.4%

47.2%

50%

Proportion of women’s average annual wages to men’s average annual wages

FY2020 Results

FY2021 Results

FY2022 Results

Wage gap (permanent employee)

72.3%

71.7%

71.4%

The influx of new female employees is one factor affecting the wage gap.