Sustainability - DEI（Diversity, Equity & Inclusion）
By respecting diverse personalities and providing fair opportunities, the Meiden Group works to create a workplace and culture in which all employees can work with all their heart and demonstrate their diverse and individual abilities to the maximum, and promotes DEI with the aim of being a company in which both individuals and the organization grow together.
The Meiden Group’s DEI logo represents the overlapping individuality of each of us in the Group and the creation of value in the form of new colors, promoting a virtuous cycle and that brings us closer to a better future.
In FY2023, in order to accelerate the promotion of DEI, we established the DEI Committee, a body that makes decisions concerning DEI policies and measures as a whole, with the company President serving as chair and the officers responsible for the human resources and promoting sustainability serving as vice chairs. In addition, we established a DEI Working Group with a diverse membership of 20 people across all ages, occupations, and job functions to work on formulating measures to make DEI relevant to all employees. Through top-down and bottom-up approaches, we are changing employee awareness, improving creativity, and fostering an organizational and workplace culture that is rewarding and psychologically safe.
The Meiden Group began working for diversity in 2013. Starting with planning various programs for balancing work and childcare/nursing care, initiatives were undertaken by a working team in the human resources division until 2020. The team focused on supporting diverse work styles, work style reform, and promoting the use of human resources. We launched the Diversity Project in 2021, established the Diversity Policy Planning & Promotion Office in 2022, and renamed it the DEI Policy Promotion Office in 2023 to further accelerate the promotion of DEI as a management strategy.
On January 28, 2025, Global Compact Network Japan (hereafter, “GCNJ”) held their “GCNJ Summit 2025 ~Social Change by Equity~” event (hereafter, “GCNJ Summit”), where we signed the GCNJ Collective Action 2030 Declaration. In recent years, Meidensha has focused on creating workplaces where parents of either gender can easily take childcare leave in an effort to promote DEI. Our measures to internally share stories from employees who have taken this leave and positive examples of a support system in the workplace have seen awareness rise among employees. We will strive to promote the understanding of career continuity at the workplace and aim for 100% of male employees taking childcare leave in order to create healthy bodies and minds for our employees and their families.
Every month since January 2023, we have been releasing DEI NEWS to raise DEI awareness and internalize DEI mindsets among our employees. Each newsletter covers a different topic, such as psychological safety, unconscious bias, balancing work and child-rearing, employing people with disabilities, the significance of DEI promotion seen through initiatives at other companies, DEI announcements from local overseas staff, and more. We will continue this initiative to achieve our target of 100% of employee awareness survey respondents answering that they understand the significance of promoting DEI.
Since FY2023, we have been holding “DEI MeetUP!”, an event to exemplify psychological safety and communication across departments and job functions. The event is held at each business location, and the variety of discussion topics includes hobbies that go beyond work, promoting understanding of various personnel and benefit programs, and frank conversations with executives. Over 1,300 Group employees have participated to date.
Since FY2022, we have been holding seminars and broadcasting videos aimed at understanding psychological safety. In FY2024, we created a video describing concrete actions for a psychologically safe workplace to further promote the concept. We cultivate an environment and atmosphere in the workplace where every employee can sense that others recognize their existence, opinions, and values.
We have established options for various working styles while understanding the needs of our employees and continuously strive to create environments (times and places) where employees can work, even when faced with certain restrictions. These include remote work and satellite-offices in our headquarters, the Meiden R & D Center, Numazu Works, and Nagoya Works.
Meidensha was evaluated for promoting women’s participation and advancement, and in November 2017, for the first time in the heavy electric machinery industry, we earned the top Stage 3 “Eruboshi” certification by the Minister of Health, Labour and Welfare.
In March 2021, we were granted Kurumin certification, as well as Platinum Kurumin, which is granted to companies that conduct higher-level initiatives as companies that excel in providing childcare support, by the Minister of Health, Labour and Welfare.
Since FY2024, we have systematically held a program aimed at training female leaders. In this program, candidates with the potential to become future leaders are selected from each site, then participate in training sessions with female officer from other companies and supporting officers to clarify and specify their own personal career image and leader ideal, then link them with actions for organizational management. Our aim is to have participants join the program later as senior employees and expand our network of female employees.
In April 2020, Meidensha raised the mandatory retirement age from 60 to 65 years of age for all employees. We have also raised the level of remuneration so that older employees can enjoy about the same level of remuneration as when they were 60 years of age, depending on performance, in order to facilitate more meaningful work for experienced senior employees.
In addition, we have established a dispatch company (MEIDEN MASTER PARTNERS CORPORATION) to promote flexible workstyles to senior employees. For employees who wish to work reduced days/hours, we have established a system that allows them to transfer to Meiden Master Partners and work as temporary employees at our office. We hope to promote successor development, improve quality, and enhance customer service by leveraging the knowledge and experience of senior employees more so than in the past.
In January 2017, we introduced an “Elder System” that allows employees to work from the age of 65 to a maximum of 70, and in October 2020, we raised the maximum age to 75.
Under this system, employees can continue to work after the age of 65 if they meet certain conditions, and veterans who have once retired can be rehired.
We established the special subsidiary company, MEIDEN UNIVERSAL SERVICE LTD., in order to create opportunities for people with intellectual disabilities to work, and conducted greening and cleaning work at each factory site. In 2024, we created new factory roles to expand duties for employees with disabilities.
Meidensha promotes the hiring of people with disabilities as a company and since FY2023 have continuously enacted initiatives like “factory disability supporters” to create environments where individuals can fully utilize their talents in order to make more inclusive workplaces and strengthen our support systems.
In order to expand the number of workplaces accepting people with disabilities and strengthen the support system, since FY2023 we have been working to create an environment that lets each person make the most of their strengths, such as training people to serve as supporters of people with disabilities in the workplace.
As an aspect of our effort to promote DEI, the Meiden Group employs people irrespective of nationality, and non-Japanese employees are active in various fields and occupations after joining the company. We also take account of religious considerations (for example, providing prayer space) and support non-Japanese employees in various ways so that they can get used to work and life in Japan as soon as possible. We also appoint their training personnel individually and provide various kinds of support to each employee to help improve their work skills.
To further grow our business overseas, moreover, we believe it essential to appoint local staff to the role of president at local subsidiaries. To develop candidates for this role, we are cultivating a management mindset through periodic interviews of management candidates by the responsible officers of each company. Along with this, we run coaching programs to enhance the management skills of candidates for management.
