In response to falling birthrates, population aging, and globalization, ITOCHU Corporation formulated its Plan for Promotion of Human Resource Diversification in December 2003. Ever since, we have endeavored to provide the maximum support for full exercise of capabilities and activity by all of our employees, regardless of sex, nationality, or age. At the same time, we have improved assistance to employees for childcare and nursing their family, tightened the maintenance of proper working hours, and taken other steps to prepare a workplace environment allowing employees to work with confidence. We have recently bolstered our approaches for support of a good work-life balance (WLB) encompassing an expansion of human resource value and corporate value as well as helping employees to have both a rewarding career and a fulfilling personal life. The following is an outline of these approaches.

1. WLB approaches (history)

• 1) December 2003: Formulation of the Plan for Promotion of Human Resource Diversification (planning period: January 2004 - March 2009)
• 2) March 2005: Expansion of provisions for support of childcare and nursing (lengthening of the period for childcare leave, institution of a new program for child nursing leave, and launch of a website concerning childcare and nursing)
• 3) April 2007: Incorporation of measures for promotion of WLB into Frontier⁺ 2008 (the medium-term management plan), as a major part of human resource strategy with a global perspective

2. Concept behind expansion of WLB arrangements

• (1) Childcare and nursing
  • Review and improvement of measures for support of continued work based on employee dislike of long leaves amid the increasingly rapid pace of change in the business environment
• (2) Establishment of new measures for support in the event that employees must leave Japan for a certain period due to the spouse's transfer overseas, in order to recruit able people and assist the promotion of human resource diversification
• (3) Establishment of a new program for support also taking account of employees who have business experience before ITOCHU, whose numbers have been rapidly rising in recent years, because the existing Leave Program for Special Support covers only employees who have been with the company for at least three years
  * Leave Program for Special Support: a program enabling use of accumulated (unused) vacation days for childcare, nursing, and times of injury or sickness

3. Specific revisions

(1) Increase in some supplementation for costs related to childcare and nursing

• Compensation of up to 50,000 yen per month for childcare- and nursing-related costs (baby sitting, nursing helpers, food service, etc.).
• Only for employees using the services of health and welfare service firms that have tie-ups with ITOCHU
  * Supplementation up to 30,000 yen per month in the case of childcare, if the employee has a dependent spouse

(2) Establishment of Maternity Support Leave

• Establishment of a new program for male employees to promote their participation in childcare
• Grant of three days off per child with pay(employees may also take half-days off)
• Acquisition over the period from six weeks before the scheduled date of childbirth to eight weeks after childbirth

(3) Establishment of Family Support Leave

• Establishment of a new program for leave that can be taken for school events (entrance ceremonies, classroom visitation, etc.) and family events (sibling weddings, family member care, etc.) for wide-ranging family support (coverage of third degree of kinship)
• Grant of five days off per year with pay(employees may also take half-days off)

(4) Other measures

1) Establishment of provisions for leave to accompany a spouse transferred to another country

• Establishment of a new program for leave that can be taken to accompany a spouse who has been transferred to another country
• Up to three years (only one acquisition), without pay

2) Lengthening of the period for short-hour service for childcare

• Lengthening of the period during which employees may work 90 minutes less per day in order to have more time to care for a child, from until the child is 3 years old to until the child graduates from elementary school
• Work with no pay reduction until the child is 3 years old, but work at reduced pay after that age is reached

In our Diversity Forum 2007 (Note 1), Trial sections and offices are taking up the challenge of employee-centered, diverse work styles (telework and compressed work; Note 2) for a period of about six months.
We are also implementing the following steps to promote the understanding, penetration, and spread of arrangements for WLB.

• (1) Holding of a nursing seminar to deepen understanding of provisions related to nursing
• (2) Permission for participation in e-Learning Programs to support the maintenance and improvement of skills during leave for childcare or nursing
• (3) Reinforcement of the campaign for acquisition of leave to raise awareness and understanding of WLB throughout the company, maintain employee health, and reproduce labor power

• (Note 1) Diversity Forum 2007
  The Forum was instituted in fiscal 2006 as an internal venue for discussion, with the participation of front-line employees, of specific measures under the Plan for Promotion of Human Resource Diversification. Formulated in December 2003, the Plan is aimed at provided maximal support for the exercise of capabilities and activity by diverse human resources, regardless of sex, nationality, or age.
• (Note 2) Telework: work at home
  Compressed work: compression of the five-day working week (i.e., five days' worth of work) to four days, leaving an extra day for yourself

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