Diversity
Policy and Basic Concept
ITOCHU Corporation views diversifying consumer needs with a market-oriented approach. We believe accepting and utilizing diversity (DE&I: Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion) is essential to provide new value.
ITOCHU respects human rights and prohibits all forms of discrimination, including that based on race, gender, religion, nationality and age. We are creating an environment where employees do not fall victim to power harassment, sexual harassment, or SOGI (Sexual Orientation and/or Gender Identity) harassment in the workplace and where we accept diverse values. This is an environment where each of our employees is motivated to work and can demonstrate their abilities to the fullest through flexible work styles and individual support to realize “A Challenging but Rewarding Company.”
Targets and Action Plan
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| Division Company | SDGs Targets | Impact Classification | Issues to Address | Business Area | Commitment | Specific Approach | Performance Indicators (Non-Consolidated) |
Degree of Progress |
| Headquarters |    |
Labor Practices | Creating an environment that allows diverse human resources to exercise their potential | Human resources affairs | We will prohibit all types of discrimination, including those based on race, gender, religion, nationality and age, and respect human rights. We will accept diverse values and create an environment where each employee maximize their ability with flexible working style and other supports. |
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Initiatives to Promote Women’s Participation and Advancement
ITOCHU Corporation has expanded systems to further the diversification of its talent including female employees and to entrench that diversification with the Plan for Promotion of Human Resource Diversification. We have tackled initiatives such as morning-focused work, health management and measures to support working while undergoing cancer treatment since FYE 2011. This is based on work style reform to raise labor productivity by all employees working in good health with high motivation. Those initiatives have led to the formation of a working environment where all our employees can demonstrate their abilities not just employees with time constraints.
Currently, the generation with an increased number of female hires has entered an important stage when those employees become candidates for managerial positions. We are providing meticulous individual support according to the life stage and career of each employee by utilizing systems which support a work-life balance beyond the level required by law as a safety net in anticipation of an increase in dual-income households. In addition, we are looking to contribute to the SDGs (e.g., gender equality) not only for our company but for Japan. We are doing this by fostering an internal culture in which diverse employees can be a success and by declaring our endorsement of measures to promote the success of women in the workplace by government agencies and economic bodies.
Moreover, we established the Women’s Advancement Committee in October 2021 as a voluntary advisory committee of the Board of Directors to accelerate the pace of our support for the success of female employees. An Outside Director serves as the chair of the committee. We have built a structure in which outside officers account for more than half of the total number of committee members with the Board of Directors supervising important measures. The committee is working together with the management to support the success of women. We will continue to move through the cycle of (1) hold discussions with sites, (2) hold discussions in the Women’s Advancement Committee and (3) report to the Board of Directors after grasping sites and individual circumstances in the future. We will then incorporate the results into effective measures.
Please refer to our action plan stipulating specific targets and initiatives moving forward.
Women’s Advancement Committee (As of the end of March 2024)
Encouraging Women’s Empowerment in the Workplace
ITOCHU Corporation established a new rule for selecting female executive officers and promoted five female employees from within to executive officers in April 2024. The most significant reason behind internal promotion was the need to raise awareness that the promotion of women itself is not the sole purpose, but cultivating a company-wide culture of training female managers and executives is. A diverse, strong, and resilient corporate culture and Board of Directors cannot be created overnight but will take years to develop.
ITOCHU positions Femtech to be the next initiative following work-style reforms. ITOCHU aims to be a company where female employees can take a more active role by removing barriers that may come in their way.
I believe, in such a company, anyone, regardless of gender, will be able to demonstrate their full potential.
Chairman & CEO
Masahiro Okafuji
Promoting Understanding and Fostering a Positive Work Culture
Since FYE 2019, ITOCHU Corporation has been holding “Diversity Week” as one of the initiatives to promote understanding and acceptance of diversity (it is named “Diversity Day” from FYE 2024). ITOCHU has also increased the frequency of awareness campaigns targeting all employees. Furthermore, through executive training programs and other initiatives, we are promoting understanding of the importance of diversity and support systems.
Additionally, we are establishing a workplace environment where discriminatory remarks about sexual orientation/gender identity and comments premised on subconscious gender stereotypes are not tolerated. Employees also have access to consultation services.
In FYE 2024, the Women’s Advancement Committee (an optional advisory committee to the Board of Directors) organized an event with the participation of executives from BHP Group Limited, our important partner and a world-leading resource company. The purpose of the event was to share about BHP’s Inclusion and Diversity Journey and exchange ideas to truly achieve gender equity in the business environment. A total of 120 employees participated in the event, aiming to deepen their understanding of how DE&I contributes to business innovation and the positive impact on organizations that comes with an increased proportion of female employees.
We are linking an environment where employees with diverse values can play an active role utilizing their unique qualities to growth of our employees, enhancement in our organizational capabilities and an expansion in our earnings power. We are aiming to achieve our corporate philosophy of “Sampo-yoshi” (good for the buyer, good for the seller and good for society) through such initiatives.
For more details, please refer to Support for Diversity, Equity & Inclusion.
Support for LGBTQ and Other Sexual Minorities
We installed a multipurpose restroom on the internal meeting room floor in 2018. This can be used by everyone who visits our building as well as our employees. We also established a consulting desk exclusively for inquiries relating to LGBTQ and other sexual minorities in addition to our existing employee consulting desks in FYE 2021. This means we have set up a structure that allows employees to consult with experts anonymously about how to interact with colleagues and business partners in addition to handling inquiries from LGBTQ and other sexual minority employees.
Diverse Support Programs
We respect the diverse values of our employees and their families. We are creating an environment where all our employees can demonstrate their abilities with peace of mind.
| Program | Main Contents | Overview |
| Concierge for health・childcare | Health, Childcare | Employees in Japan and abroad and their families can anonymously consult online with a counselor in charge (a nurse and a midwife certified as a public health nurse) who understands ITOCHU System about their mental and physical health and childcare concerns. |
| Fertility Treatment Support Program | Fertility, Infertility Treatment, and Health | ITOCHU provides and collects information on a wide range of topics such as fertility, infertility treatment, menopause, health, diversity, and more to our employees. Additionally, ITOCHU has partnerships with over 100 clinics nationwide, offering coupons for pre-conception check-ups, menopause diagnosis, and other services that are available to both male and Female. |
| Frozen Egg Bank | Egg Freezing | To support employees’ options in balancing career and life plan, from FYE 2024, ITOCHU started subsidizing egg freezing fee. With the ITOCHU partnered bank, employees and their partners can consult and freeze their eggs using ITOCHU customized price. |
| Searching Nursery School Concierge | Searching Nursery School Concierge | Explains basic knowledge about how to search and select licensed nursery schools. Help to estimate the selection index for licensed nursery schools, lists neighboring nursery schools, and provides one-stop information. |
| Nursing Concierge | Nursing | A one-stop service and consultation service from temporary response to problem resolution by a our company specialist counselor. Specific problem resolution includes introduction of our company system, introduction and arrangement of care managers, introduction and arrangement of nursing homes, coordination and arrangement of nursing insurance applications, etc. |
| Consultation desk for LGBTQ | LGBTQ | Consult outside experts anonymously for concerns about sexual orientation and gender identity. Available to all parties. |
| Border - Less Medical Concierges | Lifestyle Disease | Each employee, whether domestic or foreign, is tutored by a public health nurse or nurse in close collaboration with a specialist in their particular lifestyle disease. |
ITOCHU Corporation utilizes Femtech to solve the diversified health issues women face as well as to increase employee productivity and raise awareness regarding women’s health issues. From FYE 2023, we have been promoting Femtech as part of “Virtual Office” project. In August 2023, we held an in-house exhibition “ITOCHU Femtech Fes!?” in collaboration with fermata, a Femtech company ITOCHU invests in. Approximately 700 employees visited the exhibition, and through the explanations of Femtech products(around 40 products) and speech given by an expert in the field, we made Femtech known to the participants as something familiar.
Please refer to “Human Resources Development -Virtual Office” for details.
Working Together with Persons with Disabilities
To provide persons with disabilities with a workplace that is motivating and rewarding, we established ITOCHU Uneedus Co., Ltd., in Yokohama, Kanagawa Prefecture in 1987(It was certified by the Ministry of Health, Labor and Welfare as the first special-purpose subsidiary in Kanagawa Prefecture.) The employment rate for persons with disabilities in ITOCHU Corporation is 2.43% as of March 2024 (the statutory employment rate is 2.30%). We are promoting an expansion in the recruitment and range of work of persons with disabilities toward the increase in the statutory employment rate scheduled for the next fiscal year or later.
Initiatives by ITOCHU Uneedus Co., Ltd.
ITOCHU Uneedus Co., Ltd. is involved in businesses such as dry cleaning, printing, document digitization, photograph services, mail collection and delivery, and laundry and cleaning with persons with and without disabilities coming together as one to support each other. To expand business as well as to create a more welcoming workplace environment for employees with disabilities, in November 2015 the company relocated to new offices in Yokohama’s Tsuzuki Ward with the extensive equipment in a universal design. The company is currently involved in business in four locations: its Aoyama Office, Hiyoshi Office and a dry-cleaning service store called Yotsuba Cleaning (Asahi-ku, Yokohama) in addition to its head office in Yokohama’s Tsuzuki Ward. It will continue to proactively encourage social participation by people with disabilities and to provide value to society through its work with the aim of creating a work environment where it is possible to feel the joy of working in the future.
Support for Seniors’ Success
ITOCHU Corporation employs all those who so desire under the Employment Extension System after they reach retirement age at 60 years old from the perspective of the decreasing birthrate and aging population in Japan and activity support for diverse personnel. This means we are developing an environment in which middle-aged and older employees can continue to work utilizing the wealth of knowledge and experience they possess even after they have reached the retirement age. We also hold training for employees at the age of 58 years old and future course selection briefings for employees. Therefore, we are supporting work styles and money plans after the extension of the employment of employees. Furthermore, we hold career design training for career-track employees who are 40 and 48 years old and for clerical employees who are 35 and 45 years old. Those employees take an inventory of their own career and skills and then visualize their experience and strengths. Upon that, we provide them with the opportunity to consider re-learning career skills (re-skilling) they will need in the future. We even have some employees who continue working with us after they reach the age of 65 years old. We will do yet more to create an environment where middle-aged and older employees can continue performing motivating and rewarding work. In addition, we have built a platform to support our former employees. We support the activities of our former employees even after they have left our company. This initiative includes providing opportunities for social contribution activities, Pro bono, and volunteers, management staff of KIDS PARK operated by our company, and Japanese language instructors for our overseas national staff.
Performance Data
Number of Hires by Gender and Adoption Rate for Mid-Career
Employee Status (as of March 31 for each respective year)
Share of Women in Career-track / Managerial / General Managerial / Executive Positions (as of March 31 for each Respective Year)
Gender Pay Gap (as of March 31, 2024)
Use of Childcare & Nursing Care Programs
Employment of Disabled Persons (as of March 1 for each Respective Year)
Accolades for ITOCHU Corporation
ITOCHU Corporation’s initiatives in “Creating Environments that Bring Out the Best in Employees” have won much praise.
We won the Ministerial Award for Women Empowering Companies in FYE 2021. In FYE 2022 and FYE 2024, we were selected as a Nadeshiko Brand. This is an initiative run jointly by the Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry and the Tokyo Stock Exchange.
For more details, please refer to Evaluation by Society (Diversity).