JSR is committed to ensuring Diversity, Equity and Inclusion throughout our workforce. We recognize the importance of bridging gaps related to gender, culture, and identity.
By truly understanding these dynamics and the factors that drive them, we aim to foster a globally united JSR. Our goal is to create an inclusive environment where every employee can unlock their full potential. It’s essential to emphasize that this endeavor is not just a social responsibility – it's a crucial part of our overall business strategy.

By focusing on DEI, we aim to build a stronger, more sustainable JSR that thrives in a rapidly changing world. We believe that by embracing diversity and providing equitable opportunities, we can create a culture of innovation, attract top talent, and enhance our competitive advantage. Together, we can achieve our business goals while making a positive impact on society and the environment.

Eric Johnson
Representative Director, President and CEO

To be a sustainable, resilient company, JSR Group is actively working to create an inclusive culture where diverse talents mutually trust and accept one another’s presence and views, can fully realize and demonstrate their individual abilities and skills, and thereby grow the organization’s strengths.

By creating opportunities for employees to proactively take on challenges, develop careers, grow, and play an active role based on DE&I, JSR Group can increase employee engagement, reinforce organizational strengths and competitiveness, and evolve into a resilient organization that can respond flexibly to many different changes in the business environment. JSR Group believes that is will ultimately lead to the sustainable growth of the Group.

Especially in work styles, we are pushing ahead on work-life management by providing systems to support both work and life, work-from-home and other systems, and enhancing infrastructure, and by incorporating diverse workstyles. This will provide management that leads to the manifestation of each person’s capabilities as well as results and stronger competitiveness as an organization.

• Work-Life Management

The gender composition of JSR Group globally is 34% female and about 63% male. When the percentage of females is viewed in terms of job position, the percentage of females in officer level positions is 20%, and the percentage of females in managerial positions is 22%. The percentages at the non-consolidated level are low, with females accounting for around 19% of JSR, 4% of officers, and 7% of managerial positions. There is a substantial difference in the gender composition of employees and in the upper ranks at JSR Corporation compared to JSR Group on a global basis.

Note: “Others” includes employees who did not wish to or have not revealed their gender.
When calculating the overall percentages, officers were not included.
The calculation of gender percentages at JSR does not include seconded employees.

At JSR, we believe that promoting DE&I at the management level, which plays a central role in organizational operations, will lead to an improvement in the overall resilience of the company. We have established a target of 10% for the percentage of women in managerial positions to be achieved by 2030 and are focusing on this as a key management issue (materiality). This initiative is one of our efforts to support the success of diverse human resources. However, because women’s advancement is a social issue unique to Japan, JSR has made the percentage of women in managerial positions as a result of ensuring fairness of opportunity a KPI and is working on it accordingly.

We developed the JSR Action Plan for the Advancement of Women in the Workplace (Fourth Phase, April 1, 2023 to March 31, 2026) and are implementing initiatives based on the Act on the Promotion of Women's Active EngagementParticipation and Advancement in Professional Lifethe Workplace (Women’s Act).

• Act on Promotion of Women’s Participation and Advancement in the Workplace: JSR Action Plan for the Advancement of Women in the Workplace (PDF:94KB)

JSR is actively working to hire female employees. We have set targets for the percentage of female new graduates hired since 2010.

The current percentage of women in managerial positions at JSR is 6.5% (as of April 1, 2024), which is largely on par with the previous fiscal year. Although the effects of the measures we have implemented so far have created a depth in the human resources pool below managerial positions, we need to further increase this pipeline and increase the number of women who take the management exam by providing continuous support for career development. We recognize that challenges remain to achieving the target for FY2030 (10% of managerial positions staffed by women) of female managers) indicated in the KPI. We will further accelerate our efforts toward this end.

Number and Percentage of Women in Managerial Positions (JSR Corporation)

Percentage by Employee Classification (as of April 1, 2024; JSR Corporation)

At JSR, we are working to develop working women who play an active role and grow over the long term while striving for self-realization and who can contribute to the growth of the Company.

We provide management support training for those in managerial positions to learn the skills to appropriately consider the needs of each female subordinate and empower subordinates. We also provide a seminar for managers to confront their own unconscious biases and encourage them to modify their behavior to avoid microaggression.

We participate in various external training programs, including the Japan Women’s Innovative Network (J-Win), an NPO, the Showa Women’s University Career College training program, and the Women’s Technical Leadership Development Program of the NITech Center for Diversity & Inclusion. We are striving to educate and develop abilities by providing opportunities for mutual refinement of employees as a member of the business community, beyond the boundaries of industry or business model, through such means as supporting networking.

Since FY2016, we have conducted interviews with several dozen female employees a year to ask them about job satisfaction, issues they are experiencing in their work, and what their views of a future career are, among other topics. These interviews include elements of career counseling.

Since FY2016, we have interviewed several dozen superiors of female employees each year to ask about the temperament and talents of each female subordinate and confirm plans for development. We also ask about issues in pursuing DE&I. The issues identified through these interviews of female employees and their superiors are analyzed and reported to management, and we adopt approaches that will lead to measures to address the issues.

We also hold seminars on individual themes and provide support as requested, in addition to such initiatives.

We organize lectures by outside role models as a measure to support employee career development. Lecturers at the forefront of various fields are invited to talk about their work and personal lives as well as their approaches to life to help employees realize things about their own circumstances and learn new values, leading to increased motivation and self-development.

Since the beginning of the 2000s, JSR has established various systems to support employees in balancing childcare and work. This is not only aimed at achieving a balance between the two. We are also working to create a workplace that makes it easy for people to work, provides job satisfaction, and enables people to work with enthusiasm and contribute, even in workplaces where people adopt diverse workstyles.

We conducted an internal e-learning program in FY2022 and FY2023 in response to amendments to the Child Care and Family Care Leave Act in April and October 2022. At the same time, we revised our Guidebook for Providing Support to Balance Work with Child Care and Family Care and are working to increase understanding among our employees.

We developed the Next Generation Development Action Plan (Ninth Phase, April 1, 2023 to March 31, 2026) and are implementing initiatives based on the Act on Advancement of Measures to Support Raising Next-Generation Children.

• Act on Advancement of Measures to Support Raising Next-Generation Children: Next Generation Development Action Plan (PDF:94KB)

• Work-Life Management: Systems for Supporting Flexible Work Styles

JSR sends an email encouraging employees who have not taken childcare leave after the birth of a child to take leave. In addition, some employees have a variety of questions about childcare leave, such as whether they should take it, how long to take it, and how to spend it meaningfully. Therefore, since FY2022, we have been conducting interviews with male employees who have taken childcare leave and introducing them on the in-house DE&I portal site "Interviews with Male Employees on Childcare Leave" every year. We interviewed a diverse range of employees from different workplaces, occupations, and positions, and posted their reasons for taking childcare leave, their lives during leave, the good points of taking the leave, and what they learned. In addition to those who are eligible to take childcare leave, we also widely inform their supervisors and other members around them about the need for male employees to take childcare leave, thereby promoting understanding of the necessity of taking childcare leave.

Japan is facing a super-aging society. Going forward, the number of employees who will be faced with the need to provide nursing care is expected to increase. In addition, as the working period becomes longer, it is expected that the number of employees who work while balancing work with treatment for injuries and illnesses will increase. JSR is preparing a variety of support measures that allow employees to balance that care or treatment with their work.

In addition to such support measures, we offer an e-learning course on nursing care to all employees. The purpose of this course is to increase their understanding of the systems and services available to them and prepare them before they confront the need to actually provide nursing care. We also educate those in managerial positions on how to respond and support subordinates when they are working and caring for family members.

In FY2023, in conjunction with e-learning, we conducted a questionnaire asking about work-life balance. Many respondents said that they wanted to have a concrete image of actually balancing work with nursing care and medical treatment when they were faced with the need for family care or treatment. As a result, we conducted new interviews with people who have experienced balancing work.

Through these measures, we are working to build an environment in which employees can continue to work with a sense of fulfillment while balancing nursing care and medical treatment with work, and a corporate culture that understands and accepts employees in diverse situations.

JSR has provided mentoring to young employees since FY2021. Behind the introduction of this program was a lack of internal communication among young employees who joined the Company during the COVID-19 pandemic and were forced to work from home for an extended period as well as increased awareness of career development among young employees themselves. Mentoring was started as an initiative to support these employees.

Through mentoring, we have been able to 1) provide young employees (mentees) with the opportunity to create a relationship with a senior employee outside of their own division and create a means for them to consult someone about their work and career, or matters outside of work, and 2) provide senior employees who serve as mentors the opportunity to reflect on themselves and experience in supporting the growth of successors. This initiative not only creates personal connections for and assuages the mentee’s concerns about work but has also enabled both the mentor and mentee to experience the benefits of mentoring.

In FY2023, as a new initiative, we held a career roundtable discussion for general employees at the JSR Tsukuba Site. In the discussion, six speakers from the company with diverse career experiences took the stage to discuss their career transitions and their respective career visions. In the questionnaire before the roundtable discussion, 90% of employees had career-related worries and few were positive about thinking about their own careers, but after, the percentage of employees who (mostly) positively thought about their careers increased markedly. By being exposed to diverse values and role models for careers, employees were able to achieve results that led them to think more positively about their own careers.

By providing similar opportunities in the future, we will create an impetus for each individual to think independently about their own careers.

Have you worried about your career?

How do you feel when you think of your own career?

JSR believes that being chosen by human resources who possess a diverse range of knowledge, skills, and ideas and having them contribute actively within the Company will spur innovation and enable JSR to continue to provide value to society. For that reason, we actively hire human resources from a diverse range of backgrounds as mid-career employees.

JSR established and operates a Career Re-Entry System to enable employees who voluntarily left JSR and the workforce (due to marriage, childbirth, nursing care responsibilities, or the transfer of a spouse, for example) to register for rehire in accordance with company needs and the former employee’s desires. The number of employees being stationed overseas is also increasing as globalization progress, and the spouse is also a JSR employee and accompanies him/her overseas, in some cases. Because it is easier to use a system that enables re-entry without retirement when the date of return has been set, we established a system of leave for spouses transferring overseas that enables them to take leave for two years.

In accordance with the Act on Stabilization of Employment of Elderly Persons, JSR has systems in place that enables employees who have reached the mandatory retirement age to stay in JSR's workforce. Prior to retirement, employees complete a survey concerning their desire to continue employment. All of those who wish to continue working are re-employed. We also hold life planning seminars before mandatory retirement to provide information and educate retirees on future life planning and career planning.

Sixty percent of JSR Group’s revenue comes from overseas, and a little less than 60% of its employees are affiliated with overseas businesses. Based on this unique characteristic of JSR, we engage in corporate activity that is founded on the leadership of a CEO who is well acquainted with circumstances in Japan and abroad. Moreover, to secure personnel who can succeed on the global stage, we promote the development of workplace environments where employees of different nationalities, religions, and lifestyles can work together while demonstrating their own unique characteristics.

SR Group has long been working to expand hiring and diversify its human resources as part of promoting the globalization of employees by hiring foreign university students and accepting employees from overseas subsidiaries at JSR. We are strengthening the network of human resources departments in Japan and overseas in JSR Group along with our hiring activities. JSR Group will also consider promoting local human resources to management of overseas subsidiaries and promote exchanges between human resources in Japan and overseas.

The employment rate of individuals with disabilities was 2.77% as of the end of FY2023, exceeding the statutory rate of 2.3% in 2023.

When we hire people with disabilities, we discuss their strengths and the details of their disability, and then determine the work location and type of that best suits each employee’s situation.
Although few employees with disabilities work in areas where hazardous materials are handled, such as manufacturing and research laboratories, we are working on ways to ensure safety while expanding employment opportunities for people with disabilities. In September 2021, we also established a farm (in Saitama Prefecture) mainly operated by people with disabilities to give even more people with disabilities the chance to work as a member of the JSR team and join us in building a society where everyone can work with enthusiasm and contribute actively. This farm began with preparing a vacant lot, and staff worked together to install planters. After consulting members of headquarters and local staff, it was named JSR Nanairo (“Seven Colors”) Farm^®, and we are telling everyone in the Company about it.

Seeds were planted in December 2021, and the first mesclun greens and radishes were harvested in February 2022. The cultivation skills of the team members working on the farm have gradually increased, and they can now grow a greater variety of vegetables, including komatsuna (mustard greens), garland chrysanthemum, leaf lettuce, spinach, potherb mustard, and cherry tomatoes. When more workers are required, such as at harvest time, employees who work at headquarters join in the harvesting, washing, and shipment work. The harvested vegetables are shipped directly to the JSR Yokkaichi Plant, JSR Tsukuba Site, and other facilities where they are served at the cafeteria. The employees send messages and feedback to members working on the farm to show their appreciation for the fresh, organic vegetables, which brings a sense of joy and accomplishment to the team members who work on the farm.

JSR aims to build a workplace in which all people can be accepted for who they are without pretense and work with enthusiasm in their own way. LGBTQ is no exception to this philosophy, and we do not tolerate any exclusive treatment or discriminatory words or behavior.

Along with providing the option of “other” in addition to “male” and “female” in the gender section of the entry form for new employees, we provide an e-learning course for employees and pursue initiatives to think about our vision of diversity. JSR has also endorsed the Business for Marriage Equality campaign to advocate for legalizing same-sex marriages. We want to do our part as one company to advocate for gender equality in society as a whole. While we are still only halfway there at present, we will focus on this more in the future.

JSR was Recognized as the “Best Workplace,” the Highest Rank in D&I AWARD 2023 for the Second Straight Year

On December 13, 2023, JSR was recognized as a Best Workplace in the D&I AWARD 2023 (sponsored by JobRainbow), which recognizes Japanese companies that are engaged in diversity and inclusion. This certification is given to companies with advanced D&I initiatives that are committed to promoting D&I at a high level not only in Japan but also globally, and where each employee is actively engaged as an individual responsible for promoting D&I, as well as fostering a corporate culture of D&I. JSR was able to receive certification for two consecutive years in FY2022 and FY2023.