Why Does Teijin Need to Foster D&I？
Reaffirming the importance ofleveraging diverse human resources

Global Diversity & Inclusion Team
2-1 Kasumigaseki 3-chome, Chiyoda-ku, Tokyo 100-8585, Japan
Phone: +81-3-3506-4234 Fax: +81-3-3506-4499
d iv e r s it y @ t e ijin .c o .jp
Aug 2023

Cover Interview

Akimoto Uchikawa and Yukako Uchinaga Talk about D&I

Why Does Teijin Need to Foster D&I?

Established a committee to promote the empowerment of women under the leadership of top management in 1999
Established a department specializing in women’s empowerment the following year (2000) to promote D&I as a basic management issue

Reaffirming the importance of leveraging diverse human resources

Introduced as a system
Introduced as a program

1999
In his 2023 commemorative message on the anniversary of Teijin’ s founding, CEO Akimoto Uchikawa expressed his ideas about
D&I and Teijin’ s business and system reforms as follows: By meeting our customers where they stand and helping them toovercome their challenges, we will be able to create businesses that support society. The Teijin Group has a range of employees,
and by promoting D&I we can make the Group an even more creative organization. I would like all members of the Group to shareits corporate DNA and purpose so that we can achieve reforms as a unified team.

2014

2003

Granted a prize of excellence from the Minister of
Health, Labour and Welfare as a company promoting gender equality
W I N D P r o g r a m : 2007
Collective training Acquisition of “Kurumin”+ mentor system
certification under the Act
on Advancement of
Measures to Support Raising Next-Generation
Women’s EmpowerChildren
ment Promotion Office
The Office restructured into
the Diversity Promotion Office

Organized a committee topromote the empowermentof women

2000

2001

The Teijin Group has been fostering D&I since 2000. That means it is now time to go back and ask ourselves why the Teijin Groupneeds to foster D&I—and then answer the question in a way that speaks to our shared values. To this end, we interviewed CEO
Uchikawa and Yukako Uchinaga, who is a leading figure in the promotion of D&I and served as outside director of the TeijinGroup for five years. In the interview, the two leaders talked about the present and future of Teijin’ s D&I with Fumiaki Sakurai,
who became the CHRO of the Group in April 2023 and served as the facilitator of the discussion.

2005

Babysitter
Hello Again
Special training for service
female sales andengineering staff

Inclusion in
Diversity
Management
Selection 100

2021

Leave system for employees
whose spouses are transferredoverseas

2013

2016

H o u r l y Acquisition of
paid leave “Eruboshi” cer tification under thesystemAct on the Promo2011
t i o n o f W o m e n ’s
2008
EWA Program
Active Engagement
W o r k- f r o m - h o m e
in Professional Lifesystem (present
teleworking system)

Promotion of women’s
empowerment
Increase in the number of
personnel
Better work-life balance
Corporate culture improvement& awareness-raising activities

2018-2022

Named a Nadeshiko
Brand company

2019

Support for employees inseeking a childcare
providerKosodate Mirai Concierge

Eligibility to apply towork under the
teleworking system
extended to all
employees

2022

Revision of thechildcare leavesystem topromote paternity leave

Global D&I promotion

Figure 1: Teijin Group’s Diversity Promotion History

Teijin has been promoting D&I in stepwith the development of its employees.
For further promotion, we need to make ashared commitment to D&I across theboard.

ProfileFacilitator

Akimoto Uchikawa

Yukako Uchinaga

Fumiaki Sakurai

President and CEO, Representative
Director of the Board

Chairperson and Representative Director,
Japan Women’s Innovative Network
Former Outside Director of Teijin Limited

Teijin Group Corporate Of ficer, Chief
Human Resources Officer (CHRO)

Joined Teijin Limited in 1990. Engaged mainlyin the development of fiber technologies andworked in the Netherlands as an expat for five
years from 2003. Became a corporate officerof the Teijin Group in April 2017 and was
appointed as an executive officer andmember of the Board of Teijin Limited in June
2021. Has been in the current position sinceApril 2022.

Joined IBM Japan, Ltd. in 1971. Became thecompany’ s first female director in 1995 andwas subsequently appointed as a managing
director and senior executive officer of thecompany. In 2007, established the Japan
Women’ s Innovative Network (J-Win)* as a
specified non-profit corporation to support
companies in promoting and establishingdiversity management. Served as an outside
director of Teijin Limited from 2018 to June21, 2023.

After heading the human resources divisionand serving in other positions at Astellas
Pharma Inc., became the chief administrative
officer (CAO) and chief ethics & complianceofficer (CECO) of the company until his
resignation in September 2022. Has been in
the current position since April 2023.

―The Teijin Group establishedt h e Wo m e n’s E m p o w e r m e n t
Promotion Of fice in Japan in2000 to foster workplace
diversity ahead of othercompanies. The support target
was subsequently expanded to include
non - Japanese employees and people with
dis abilitie s . Sinc e 2 019, th e O f fic e has b e en
implementing D&I promotion measures not only in
J a p an bu t also inte rn at ion ally a s t h e Glo b al
Diversity & Inclusion Team. (See Figure 1: TeijinGroup’s Diversity Promotion History.)
What do you think about Teijin’s current D&I-related
situation?
Uchikawa: Looking at the entire TeijinGroup, the number of non-Japaneseemployees accounts for more than 50%
a s we a re expa nd i ng ou r bu si ne ss
overseas. This means that we are not

short on diversity in terms of our human resources. Goingforward, I therefore think it is necessary to foster inclusion or“mixing.”
In Japan, however, we still have many challenges to meet andhave been unable to keep up with the pace set by othercompanies regarding D&I.
Uchinaga: At J-Win*, we are analyzing the progress madewith diversity by companies in Japan and presenting theresults as numerical figures. The analysis has revealed that
the Teijin Group is paying a lot of attention to the promotion
of D&I but has not yet achieved adequate results in Japan.
―Why do you think this is?
Uchinaga: I am afraid that the basic
conce pt of D&I h a s not yet be e nwidely shared across the Group. Top
leaders including Mr. Uchikawa have a
deep understanding of the concept, butother managers, par ticularly male
ma nager s who have ach ieved success by a dopt i ng aconventional style and conventional values, seem not to. But
this does not mean that these managers don’t take D&I
seriously. They just tend to give priority to dealing with theimmediate business at hand. To put it another way, there ismuch room for improvement.

* J-Win is an organization formed to support companies in promoting and establishing diversity
management. It is composed of corporate members, including the Teijin Group.

2 t o g e t h e r 2023

t o g e t h e r 2023 3

Cover Interview

Akimoto Uchikawa and Yukako Uchinaga Talk about D&I

Why Does Teijin Need to Foster D&I?
Reaffirming the importance of leveraging diverse human resources

Uchikawa: Teijin employees take their work very seriously,
wh ich somet i mes means they focus too much on themeasures themselves rather than the reason for implementing
them. Initially, they started to implement D&I promotion
measures to achieve the clear goal of enabling diverse
personnel to thrive as a precondition for corporate growth.
But I think over time they began to focus solely on the actual
measures, including the setting and obeying of rules. Now
they also seem to be overly absorbed in achieving KPIs, suchas increasing the ratio of women among new employees andmanagers to certain levels.
Uchinaga: Maybe they have lost a bit of focus regarding therationale for implementing the measures.
Uchikawa: I think it is important for employees to have agenuine understanding of why they need to promote D&I. I
therefore want to redo the process to enable employees todevelop such a shared understanding, starting by indicating
the direction in which the Teijin Group should head. The
Teijin Group is also beginning to implement a project to set aGroup purpose. When I became president, I promised our
employees that I would work to help them truly understandand share the goal of promoting D&I, which I think is very
important.

D&I is necessary for the realization of thelong-term vision and to transform Teijin
into a resilient organization.
―Please let me ask you again why you need topromote D&I.
Uchikawa: The Teijin Group is in theprocess of reviewing its management
strategies, choosing to continuously
foster reforms for further growth. To
achieve such growth we need to create
new business models and innovations,for which we regard the promotion of D&I as one of ourimportant management strategies. Also, for the Teijin Groupto transform itself from a rigid organization into a resilient
one, D&I is essential. We have been doing everything rigidly,

4 t o g e t h e r 2023

and being rigid is one of our strengths. However, such rigidly
recently left us unable to deal with some unexpected events.
Uchinaga: Some people mistake the promotion of D&I withdealing with human rights-related issues. They are twodifferent things, however, and promoting D&I is both ameans to strengthen the company and a management strategy
for survival in business. Let me share my own experience
regarding this. When IBM fell into the red in 1993, an
outsider named Louis Gerstner was invited in to lead theprocess of rebuilding the company, andwh at he d id a s t he la s t p a r t of t herebu ild i ng process wa s to promoted i ve r s i t y. T h a n k s t o t h a t r e fo r m ,w o m e n’s e m p o w e r m e n t w a s a l s orobustly promoted at IBM Japan, where I
was working at the time. Later, when he visited Japan, I had
an opportunity to meet Mr. Gerstner and thank him for his
refor m. He replied: “I did it not for women but for thecompany.” He also said that for the reform of IBM he had
deemed it necessar y to draw on people with different
backgrounds in terms of race, experience and others, inaddition to WASPs (White Anglo-Saxon Protestants), who
until then had accounted for a large propor tion of thecompany’s employees. What he said left a lasting impression
on me.
Uchikawa: In the days when companies sought to beat thecompetition by mass-manufacturing products of uniform
quality for a low cost, a homogenous organization might havebeen easier for management to reform.
Uchinaga: Yes, it was OK in the age of “Japan as No. 1.”
Uchikawa: If our company had decided to go on doing thesame thing going forward, it might be all right for it tocontinue as it is. However, we have decided to support
society in facing complex changes, and we therefore need tochange ourselves. We must achieve mutual growth byrespecting diversity.
Uchinaga: Now is the best timing for such a change, I
think. When I asked the CEO of a certain company, “Whatdoes D&I mean to you?” the person answered, “It means tomake a rough organization.” In Japan people tend to valueorganizational harmony, good teamwork and the like. But as

What is an Old Boys Network (OBN)?
The term OBN is a shorthand characterization of the implicit culture and atmosphere of long-established successful organizations and companies. It includes
unwritten promises, rules, work practices and communication methods.

Sharedsuccesses
Peer pressure

Implicit
rules

OBN
Old Boys Network

Prejudice
Misunderstanding

Tacit
understanding
Sontaku
Behavioral
style

Figure 2: What is an OBN? (Source: Reference materials provided by J-Win)a prerequisite for i n novation you need to ma ke you rorganization “rough” by including stones of various shapes
in addition to round stones.
Uchikawa: The Teijin Group already has diverse personnel.
Going forward, we will provide employees in Japan withmore oppor t u n it ies to work with thei r non-Japanesecolleagues. We will also further promote the empowermentof women to speed up the promotion of D&I across the TeijinGroup.

Empowerment of women has been
hindered in Japan due to OBN andunconscious bias
Uchinaga: Personally, I think companies need to further
empower women as the first step to promote D&I in Japan,
because they have so many talented female employees who
have a lot of k nowledge about the company and haveaccumulated sufficient skills and expertise but are nottrapped by past successes.
Uchikawa: Empowerment of women is a must.
Uchinaga: Japan is behind other countries, particularly interms of the empowerment of women in the fields of politics
and economics. In the gender gap index ranking provided by
the World Economic Forum, Japan was in 94th place in 2010
and then dropped substantially in the ranking to 116th in
2022. [According to the 2023 survey results announced after
this dialogue meeting was held, Japan is currently ranked

125th, hitting a new low.] Why do you think Japan’s ranking
is lower than that of 12 years ago when the government andcompanies have been striving to narrow the gender gap?
Uchikawa: I think it is because the rest of the world has
made improvements ahead of Japan.
Uchinaga: Exactly. Over the past decade, technologies haveadvanced rapidly, leading to substantial changes in businessmodels. An old organization composed mainly of people witha shared experience of past success cannot hit upon new
ideas. For innovation, it is critical to leverage diverse humanresources by measures such as women’s empowerment. The
rest of the world has recognized this fact earlier than Japan.
―Te ijin h a s b e e n fo cu s in g o n im p l e m e nt in gmeasures to support the empowerment of womenf o r a l o n g t i m e . H o w e v e r, w e h a v e n o t y e t
substantially increased the number of femalel e a d e r s . M s . U c h i n a g a , yo u h ave l o n g b e e ndeveloping female leaders at J-Win. Could you
propose a solution for this?
Uchinaga: Companies are facing the same issue acrossJapan. First, you need to change the male-oriented corporate
culture. We call a men-oriented closed organization andculture an “Old Boys Network,” or OBN (see Figure 2: Whatis an OBN?), and I am afraid Teijin has a strong OBN. What
percentage of your employees are women?

t o g e t h e r 2023 5

Cover Interview

Akimoto Uchikawa and Yukako Uchinaga Talk about D&I

Why Does Teijin Need to Foster D&I?
Reaffirming the importance of leveraging diverse human resources―In Japan, female employees make up around 20%of the total. The share of female managers is about
7%, which is low compared with our major Group
companies outside Japan, where in some cases it
is approaching 30%.
Uchinaga: Male managers might tend toward the view that“it’s difficult for women to do this job while having babies
and raising children.” Having and raising children are indeed
important life events, but there are women who want to takeon more responsibility at work while at the same time raisinga family.
Uchikawa: So the unconscious bias of management is afactor that prevents women from moving up in their careers.
If we change ou r work r ules to give more suppor t toemployees who want to develop their careers despite having
restrictions on their working hours and as a result much more
women can thrive and contribute to the company, it will be atruly wonderful thing for the company. This way of thinking
will help clarify the true goal of empowering women, and we
can set new rules not as a goal but as a means to achieve thegoal of reforming our work practices as part of our D&I
promotion effort.

Women need to understand the rewardsof stepping up their career and to havethe courage to grab opportunities
Uchinaga: Male managers need to change their mindsets, andI also want more female employees to understand how
rewarding it can be to step up their career. There are cases
where women tur n down promotions, even though thecompany is very keen to promote them.
Uchikawa: As a matter of fact, some female employees havedeclined our offer to provide them with career development
opportunities.
Uchinaga: I n the past, women did not have enoughopportunities to discover how rewarding it is to be promoted
and what it is like to play the role of a manager and view thingsfrom higher up in the organization, which I think is a factor
causing some women to be reluctant to take a promotion.

6 t o g e t h e r 2023

Uchikawa: What advice do you give to women who do notwant to be promoted?
U c h i n a g a : To a w o m a n w h o s a y s , “ I h a v e n oself-conf idence. I cannot do it,” I will say, “You havesubordinates and do not need to do everything on your own.”
To a woman who says, “But my manager seems to have hardtime,” I say, “You may face similardifficulties to your manager, but you
can also make use of the company’ssystems and money to do what you
want to do and contribute to society.
D o n’ t y o u t h i n k t h a t w o u l d b e
wonderful?” In order to do what you want to do, you need to
be in a higher position within the company. Many men know
how fun it is to be promoted, don’t they?
Uchikawa: Speaking for myself, I did
not think it was fun to be promoted, as I
work for reasons of self-realization. It is,howeve r, t r ue t h at you h ave mor eauthority and can do a wider range oft h i ng s wh e n you o c c u py a h ig h e r
position. For me, working overseas as an expat helped me al o t i n t e r m s of d e ve l o p i n g m y c a r e e r. I a l s o h a ve
opportunities for self-realization in my private life, butbusiness accounts for a large part of my life.
Uchinaga: Beyond self-realization, you can also makecontributions to society together with so many employees as
the top representative of Teijin, which is a blue-chipcompany. It must be great fun.
Uchikawa: It is wonderf ul that I can do it not as anindividual but together with all members of the company, andI hope female employees will not hesitate to grasp the growth
opportunities provided by the company and to embracechallenges boldly.
By the way, is it a problem peculiar to Japan that the numberof female leaders is not readily increasing?
Uchinaga: No, it is a global problem. However, the world
has been changing a lot thanks to the emergence of a large
number of female role models, who are demonstrating thebenefits of climbing the career ladder. I hope that the TeijinGroup will have more female directors and general managers

who can demonstrate those benefits to junior employees
based on their own experiences.

the scope of women’s empowerment . Finally,please share your message to employees.

Three important tips to promote theempowerment of women

Uchikawa: Let me reiterate the needto transform the Teijin Group into a
resilient organization that is able tou n d e r t a ke r efo r m s . To t h i s e n d ,promoting D&I is ver y impor tant.
Te i j i n w i l l a n n o u n c e i t s n e w
medium-term management plan next
year. Toward the announcement we need to hold discussions
to set our corporate purpose and make the importance of
D&I more widely understood across the Group, which I thinkis essential.
Uchinaga: I would like to ask female employees of Teijin toembrace challenges more proactively.
Teijin has a lot of talented employees.
Please keep stepping up your career toa ch ieve p e r son a l f u l f i l l me nt , a sworking for a company until the age of
60 to 70 means devoting your prime
years to it.

Managers should seek to rid
themselves of the unconscious biasthat “it is difficult to entrust duties ofgreat responsibility to women.”
Female employees need to be awareof t h e joys of ste p ping up t h e ir
careers and grasp the opportunities
offered with ownership as membersof the organization.
All employees should understandt h a t w o m e n ’s e m p o w e r m e n t i snecessary not only for women but
also for the grow th of the entire
company.
Promoting D&I across the Teijin Group to
make it an organization able to undertake
reforms
Uchikawa: I see. Men-oriented organizations need to bec h a n g e d , a n d wo m e n a l s o n e e d t o g e t i nvol ve d i norga n i zat ions more proact ively. T hese t wo a re bot hnecessary. Talking with you today has made me think that we
can expect female employees to play even more roles in theworkplace while establishing more support systems for them.
Uchinaga: Yes, indeed. You should have more expectations
for female employees. By going to female employees directly
and asking them to “please do this for Teijin,” the CEO andthe direct managers of the employees can communicate themagnitude of their expectations, which will in turn increase
their motivation to work hard. Without this, the employee
might think, “They say they will promote me because thegovernment wants them to promote women, but actually they
expect little from me.”This dialogue meeting was held on June 8, 2023.

―I would like to lead theestablishment of a system tosupport employees to
au to no mou sly d eve lo p t h e ir
careers as part of the personnel
system. This will help broadent o g e t h e r 2023 7

D&I Best Practice Case Study

CASE1

Introducing each company’s initiatives

Americas: EaGLES (manager training) to improve leadership skills

What is an image of leadershipthat increases engagement?
Catherine Spevetz
In charge of talent management and promotion
of D&I at Teijin Holdings USA, Inc.

Issues identified in the engagement
surveyAs a result of the global engagement survey, which has been
conducted since 2021, employee satisfaction was found to be
at a low level in six areas across the Americas region:communication, collaboration, recognition, respect for
opinions – supervisors, work feedback, and barriers to work
execution. Leaders in the Americas region believed that
improving managers’ “leadership skills” would be an
ef fect ive way to t ack le t hese problems a nd i mproveengagement.

Eighteen managers participated in
EaGLES training
So, together with the management team, we decided to try
running the “EaGLES” program in the Americas. EaGLES isa program that has been put on hold for a long time in theAmericas region, but it has just been revived with thecooperation of HR colleagues in
Japa n a nd t he Net herla nd s.
Eighteen managers from sevenlocations representing the three
Teijin Group companies (TAT,TCA a nd Renegade)participated in the six-month training from June to December
2022 using virtual sessions and e-learning. A three-day
workshop was held in Findlay, Ohio in September. Aiming
for the practical application of skills, team all-in exercises(g roup exe rcise s) we re conduct e d on t he t he me s of“leadership style,” “teamwork,” “problem solving” and“conflict management.”

8 t o g e t h e r 2023

CASE2

APAC: Initiatives implemented by Teijin India Private Limited (TIPL)

Building a “winning organization” that can
succeed in the huge and complex Indian market

After completing the program, participants were asked toself-assess their leadership skill levels before and after the
training, and improvements were seen in many items.

Teijin India
Private Limited
Establishment: August 2007
Number of employees: 22(as of July 28, 2023)

Feedback from participants
The most important part of the EaGLES training for me was
identifying and using the six leadership styles. Understanding
these styles and their characteristic features will allow me toadapt to most situations to bring out the best in my team interms of performance and efficiency.

Promoting D&I through the fulfillment ofour mission
Kohei Okada

Managing Director
During the workshop I realized I used the “fast pacer” leadershipstyle. I realized that I was struggling to delegate and when I did,
I was too “impatient ” with the team and with wanting to see
results.

Using the authoritative style was my go-to. After the EaGLES
training, I find using other styles to engage with my employees
creates a positive impact with measurable results.

I believe the most important leadership skill/style I learned was“coaching.” I will use it to learn more about our best contributors
and develop them into future leaders of the company.

EaGLES is a global leadership training program implemented by
the Teijin Group. It provides trainees with an opportunity tosystematically acquire management knowledge and skills with afocus on people management.

TIPL has one base in Gurgaon in the northern part of India
and another base in Pune in the western part of the country.
The company is unique in that it performs administrative
functions for the Teijin Group’s business in India as well as
local marketing & sales functions, mainly for the Group’s
aramid and resin products. I was transferred to TIPL in April
2022 and have since been having an exciting and fulfillingtime, both personally and professionally.
Regarding D&I at TIPL, I am of course constantly aware of its
importance, but I do not view it as a goal in and of itself. The
mission of TIPL is to conduct business in India by offeringsolutions, thereby increasing Teijin’s presence in the country.
To fulfill this mission, we need to have a strong organization.
For the last year and half I have been having discussions withpeople within and outside the company about how to make
TIPL a strong organization that can beat the competition. As aresult, we decided to implement the following three measures:(1) Conduct a collaborative inter-base activity (“One-TIPL
activity”) involving both the Gurgaon and Pune bases; (2)Promote local managers to the position of director; and (3)Provide talented local staff with educational opportunities. We
decided to implement (1) out of a sense of crisis that we would
be unable to compete in the huge and complex Indian market
unless we promoted collaboration across the businesses. For(2), we thought it necessary to promote personnel versed incorporate governance in India to higher positions to ensurecompliance with local laws and regulations, which arecomplex and frequently changed. For (3), we expect thatproviding local personnel who are talented in terms of sales
and language abilities with opportunities to receive moreeducation and have new experiences will help us build a strongorganization. In short, we deemed it necessary to promotecollaboration, localization and the empowerment of women asa precondition to achieve the target of increasing Teijin’spresence in India and making TIPL a strong organization.
It is of course necessary for the company to ensure that
employees mutually understand and accept each other’s
differences in terms of culture, religion, nationality, genderand others and to give due consideration to meet the needs ofvarious employees by measures such as ensuring workplacesafety, especially for women, and offering special meals tovegetarians. However, I also think that encouraging employees
to regard one another as colleagues and partners and to work
together on an equal footing to discuss and think about how
they can help the company and their organizations to fulfill
their missions will lead to the promotion of D&I.

What D&I means to me and the
D&I-related situation in India
Narendra Kumar

Director & Corporate Secretary

According to my way of thinking, diversity is the “WHAT”
and inclusion is the “HOW” in a workplace. Diversity focuseson the “demographics” of the workplace, while inclusion
focuses on “efforts” toward helping employees to feel safe,
happy, involved and respected. In the context of my country,
we are defined by diversity of geography, culture, traditions,language, cuisine, festivals etc., yet there is an underlying
value system that binds us together as Indians. The foundationof this value system is inclusion.
Even though we have the largest English-speaking populationin the world, English is still a foreign language. Words likediversity and inclusion appear foreign and uncharacteristic to
our culture, beliefs and value systems. However, we all
implicitly understand that diversity enriches us; it defines us
and gives us our unique identity. Corporate India has started toaccept the need for diversity in the workforce and workplaces
are becoming increasingly inclusive. Some have instituted
positions like chief diversity officer, diversity recruiter andD&I consultant and are allocating funds for initiatives aimed
at improving diversity and inclusion. Even though there isawareness about the business case for D&I, it will not happen
on its own. Each one of us must embrace it in a positive way
with an equally positive mindset.

t o g e t h e r 2023 9

INFORMATIONTOPICS

Activity Report

Aiming to Build a Corporate Culture That Encourages
All Eligible Employees to Take Childcare Leave
Teijin Limited and Teijin Pharma Limited revised their in-house rules
on childcare leave in October 2022 to provide eligible employees withfive paid childcare leave days and also allow them to accumulate anunlimited amount of unused leave under the “backup” leave system.
The intention is to encourage more male employees to take childcare
leave.
By supporting both male and female employees in making their workand childcare compatible, the companies aim to foster the sharing ofchildcare and household duties, which tend to fall disproportionately
to women. It is hoped that this will encourage more women to return
to work after giving birth, which will in turn contribute to the creationof a society where everyone can work in comfort.
The keys to increasing the rate at which men take childcare leave aresaid to be improving the workplace culture, increasing employee
engagement and revitalizing workplace communication. If thesepreconditions are met, the rate of employee engagement will rise
across the board. If more employees can make their work compatible
with childcare or long-term nursing care of family members,companies will be able to hold on to employees who would otherwise
quit and thereby can reduce their human resources turnover. Let us
work together to build a corporate culture that fosters mutual support
to help employees to continue to work while raising children or
providing long-term care.

TopicsLaunch of “Diversity Park” as a forum for employees to exchange opinions
Diversity Park was launched on the Teijin Group’s “IdeaScale” idea proposal platform as a forum for employees
to exchange views freely and easily. The aim of the forum is to help employees forge stronger interpersonal ties.
How should the Teijin Group approach D&I and what types of workplaces should the Group
provide?
What are our own aspirations?
To help us build an organization and culture that will continue to generate innovations, please visit the website
and share your frank opinions.

Survey target: Employees with children who were eligible to take childcare
leave during the period from fiscal 2019 to 2022

In O c to b er 2 0 2 2 , C EO
Uchikawa shared a video
message with employees
to encourage them totake childcare leave.
Poster to encourage male
employees to takepaternity leave after thebirth of a child

Discussion themes(examples)

Do people have unconscious biases?
What do you think about the law to promote understanding
regarding the LGBT community?
Babysitter and other in-house childcare support systems

Link to IdeaSc ale:
https://mtmteijin.ideascale.com

Holding an event for RIKO CHALLENGE SUMMER OF 2023
RIKO CHALLENGE (“Riko-challe”) is an initiative implemented under the leadership of the Gender Equality
Bureau of the Cabinet Office of Japan to support female junior high school, senior high school and university
students choosing to specialize in science and engineering.

Teijin Healthcare Limited: Introduction of a male employee
who took childcare leave at the Sagamihara Sales Office
Name of the employee: Naoya Naito

Following on from last year’s program, Teijin Limited held a Riko-challe event for junior and senior high school

Riko-chan,mascot for Rico-challe

students at its Tokyo head office on August 25, 2023. The theme was “Analyze your meal.” Representatives
from the DX Promotion Department provided an introductory explanation of data science while personnel fromthe Biolier Division gave a lecture on the meals and the nutrients found in them. Following the employees’
instructions, the students had fun performing the data analysis despite struggling with Excel.

Leaflet on RIKO CHALLENGE 2023

After gaining experience as a salesperson in the company’s home healthcare business,became sales leader in charge of promoting sales to core hospitals located in Chuo-ku andMidori-ku in Sagamihara City and others.
Childcare leave taken (1) from August 22 to August 31, 2023 and (2) from September 19 to 30, 2023
Wanting to be with my wife during the birth of our first child, I took my leave four days before the expected due date, forwhich I also used some outstanding annual paid vacation days. I also took my leave in two shorter periods to avoid
being absent from work at the beginning of the month, when we usually have more work to do in the home healthcare business.
At home, after my wife was discharged from the hospital, we found that our baby cried at night more than we had expected. We struggled todeal with it as new parents, and my wife thanked me a lot for taking the leave. I also thought it was right to take it. At work, we each have ourown customer accounts, so when the person in charge of a certain account is absent due to an accident or injury, others need to step in. By
taking the leave, I was reminded of the importance of visualizing work, sharing information on a daily basis and promoting communication
among sales staff. I feel extremely grateful to members of the sale office who went above and beyond to stand in for me while I was absent. I
hope to return the favor by supporting someone else in the same way in the future.

Comments from the workplace
Unlike other types of leave, you need to gain long-term support from your colleagues to take paternity leave, andwhat is most important in taking it is to avoid causing any inconvenience to your customers. To this end, youneed to allow sufficient time to provide other staff members with all the information they need so that they canstand in for you temporarily. The key to fostering mutual support at the workplace is to promote communication.
As the head of the sales office, I therefore communicate proactively with workplace members to demonstrate theimportance of such communication and nurture a spirit of mutual support among the entire team so they will
willingly support a colleague who wants to take paternity leave. Creating a workplace atmosphere conducive tomutual support and assistance will help the members of the workplace feel more comfortable and keen to make more contributions tothe company, which will in turn lead to the development of an indispensable workforce.
(Atsushi Hayashi, General Manager of the Sagamihara Sales Office)10 t o g e t h e r 2023

Teijin became a DX-certified business operator(for 2023) under the DX cer tification systemsupervised by the Japanese Ministry of Economy,
Trade and Industry.

Holding “Femtech in Teijin”
In February 2023 we held a “Femtech in Teijin” briefing session for the media
at the Teijin Mirai Studio. At the event we introduced our line of “Raffinan”
cosmetic garments that contain beauty ingredients as well as the “UREX”
lactic acid bacteria formulation and other products designed to support
women’s health from inside and outside the body. We also highlighted theinitiatives implemented by the Teijin Group for the empowerment of women.

“Raffinan” cosmetic clothing

Stocking feminine hygiene products at all sites
The Global Diversity & Inclusion Team started to make feminine hygiene products available in the restroomsof all Teijin Group sites in Japan (excluding the sales offices of Teijin Healthcare’s branches) as part of its
effort to provide all female Group employees with an environment where they can work in safety andcomfort. Visitors to the sites are also welcome to use the products as needed.

t o g e t h e r 2023 11