ITOCHU Corporation (headquartered in Minato-ku, Tokyo; Masahiro Okafuji, President & CEO; hereinafter “ITOCHU”) announces that on November 29, 2017, it was granted the 2017 award for Excellence of the Minister of Health, Labor and Welfare in the “Family-friendly Companies” category, for “Excellent Equal Opportunity / Work and Family-Life Balance Companies”.

In appreciation of companies that promote equal opportunity and work/family-life balance, the Ministry has been granting awards to companies that promote exemplary programs since 1999, in conjunction with its proactive initiatives to encourage women to exercise their capabilities in the workplace and its initiatives to endorse equal emphasis on work, childcare/long-term care.

Such awards include the award for Excellence of the Minister of Health, Labor and Welfare in the “Family-friendly Companies” category that commends companies that have promoted model initiatives to establish a balance between work and childcare/long-term care and produced recognizable results. The award, which had been given to 32 companies up to last year, was granted to 4 companies in 2017.

Under the ITOCHU basic policy for work/ family-life balance support, Gen Ko Tsu Reform (Gen for genba, or “front line,”ko for kobetsu, or “individual,” and tsu for tsunagari, or “connection”),ITOCHU has been implementing measures to endorse emphasis on balance by providing carefully designed individual support tailored to their respective life stages and careers.
ITOCHU improved its internal systems to support a balance between work and childcare at a faster pace than legislative developments.
Moreover, to ensure that people with diverse backgrounds can exercise their capabilities and work on their assignments in a rewarding way,ITOCHU stepped up its efforts to provide individual-oriented support from the perspective of actual working environments through a variety of initiatives: the operation of day-care centers in offices, adoption of a support program allowing women posted overseas living alone with their children), and introduction of a work-at-home system for employees who have difficulty working full time in the office due to pregnancy, injury, childcare and long-term care, among other factors, as well as the creation of a system enabling employees undergoing treatment for cancer to continue to work.
The award reflects these initiatives as well as successful efforts to change employees’ mindsets and improve operations through an early morning-oriented work style.

ITOCHU seeks to become a “a company that is challenging but that does work worth doing, and a company that is the strongest and best in Japan,” while at the same time striving to create working conditions that are rewarding for all of its employees.