ITOCHU Corporation (Headquartered in Minato-ku, Tokyo; Keita Ishii, President & COO; hereinafter “ITOCHU”) announced today that it will begin providing the Sodacari+ career and childcare balancing support service for people who are raising children while working.

Amid the ongoing decrease in the birthrate and the shrinking of the working-age population, the creation of an environment in which each individual can continue to fully demonstrate their capabilities has become an important issue for companies. While there has been progress in workstyle reforms and the promotion of women’s empowerment, employees still have a considerable amount of anxiety regarding their careers and a great deal of uncertainty regarding their future life plans while they are at the stage of their lives where they are raising children, and the development of systems alone has not been sufficient to fully address these concerns. In particular, as the number of dual-income households increases, the importance of couples talking about how they will both balance their careers and childcare and how they envision their future together is increasing. There is an increasing need for support in the area of life design, which refers to individuals proactively thinking about life events such as marriage and childcare based on their own values, forming a clear plan, and envisioning and choosing a way of life that is personally satisfying. The importance of providing this support within companies is also increasing.

■About “Sodacari+” (Official Service Website: https://sodacari.com/ )
Sodacari+ is a corporate program that provides support to individuals designed to support the life design activities of employees who wish to balance work and childcare under the concept of developing their careers while raising children. In collaboration with Trust Coaching,^*1 which possesses specialized expertise in the area of supporting communication through coaching, dedicated staff members with both childrearing experience and coaching skills (hereinafter “Career Carers”)^*2 provide support to employees to facilitate the design and implementation of their life design based on the following three programs.

During the development of this service, ITOCHU verified its effectiveness for employees raising children at ITOCHU and other companies, as it was selected as a demonstration project implemented under the Children and Families Agency’s Life Design Support Project in Collaboration with Private Companies, etc.^*3 Following participation in the pilot program, the percentage of participants who responded that their life design had been clarified increased from 22% to 79%, and 79% of participants responded that their motivation to work had increased, indicating that life design support during the stage of their life in which they are raising children provided by Career Carers contributes to the development of their careers and the enhancement of their motivation to work. Furthermore, statistical analysis demonstrated that the clarity of their career plan and the quality of teamwork are major factors that increase the number of opportunities people have to realize their career vision and, as a result, improve work engagement.^*4 It has been confirmed that the scores of Sodacari+ participants for all four of these items increased to a statistically significant degree.^*5
For more information, please see the Sodacari+ Service Launch Presentation Materials .

■ Establishment of the Cross-Company Community “Life Design Junction!”
In addition to the launch of the Sodacari+ service, ITOCHU has established Life Design Junction!, the cross-company community that positions life design as an important management theme for the growth of industry. It will promote the implementation of life design support by sharing information with companies and enabling companies to share information, the demonstration and joint development of related services, as well as facilitating collaborations between companies, government agencies and experts.
For more information, please see the Life Design Junction! Overview Materials .

ITOCHU positions its initiatives in the area of human resources, including the promotion of women’s empowerment, as a part of its key management strategies. ITOCHU has been engaged for many years in unique workstyle reforms and supporting the balancing of work and childcare. Going forward, ITOCHU will work to increase the number of companies introducing Sodacari+, a solution that contributes to companies’ advancement of their management of human resources and the realization of diverse workstyles, and enhance the services provided, while aiming to contribute not only to ITOCHU employees but also to improved corporate engagement and talent retention across society as a whole.