THECOSMETICS
GIANT
CHAMPIONING FEMALE EMPOWERMENTWhile making great strides as a global company, the Shiseido Group also acts as a pioneer in promoting genderequality and the empowerment of women. Behind those efforts is a corporate culture that has been passed down since
the company was founded 150 years ago.
The Shiseido Group, a Japanese cosmetics giant, hasmore than 40,000 employees globally, with business
operations in about 120 countries and regions. While
it is, on the one hand, a venerable company thatcelebrated its 150th anniversary in 2022, it is also apioneer that has taken the lead in promoting genderequality and female empowerment by positioning“As our business expands globally—though thecircumstances surrounding female employees
differ from country to country—we come to seethat we all share the same fundamental challenges,
including the lack of role models and theexistence of mental hurdles,” says IMAIZUMIChiharu, director of the People & Organization
Development section of Shiseido’s People
Division. “There is no one solution. We willcontinue to provide various kinds of mechanisms
to resolve those challenges by all possible means.”

diversity and inclusion as pillars of its management
strategy. Though many Japanese companies are on
their way toward the goal of having 30% of their
management positions filled by women, Shiseido
has already gone beyond that, with women making
up more than 37% of the company’s managers inJapan and more than 58% of their managers globally.

“Providing opportunities for women and others indiverse positions to develop their careers contributes
to our organization’s growth and innovation,” says
IMAIZUMI Chiharu, director of the People &Organization Development section of the company’sPeople Division. “We also hope that our actions will
help create a change in society.”
Shiseido started working wholeheartedly
toward promoting gender equality and women’s
empowerment in the early 1990s. That was triggeredby the fact that even after Japan’s enforcement of theEqual Employment Opportunity Act in 1986, which
prohibited discrimination against workers on thebasis of sex, many women were still resigning fromthe company after getting married or having children.
To address that situation, Shiseido introduced
various new systems, including shorter workdays andworkplace daycare, and carried out more detailed
support measures such as allocating extra staff during
peak evening hours, enabling beauty consultantsraising children to balance work and childcare moreeasily. Thanks to such efforts, today more than 99%
of women in management and career-track positions,and more than 92% of beauty consultants, return towork after taking parental leave.
From 2017, the company also began to focus on
cultivating new female leaders, such as by starting aleadership program for those with notable potential.
The program not only instructs these women inthe skills necessary for upward career progression,

A scene from “Speak Jam,” a mentoring program in which female employees
in various areas—from sales to production and R&D—can speak directlywith female executives of the company. According to Imaizumi, “Some in thecompany say that although there are many female employees, finding a rolemodel is difficult. We want to provide them with the opportunity to create apatchwork of role models by matching individuals with a variety of senior
employees.”

Shiseido has continually endeavored to provide women with an environment in which they
can work to freely demonstrate their abilities, in accordance with the times. Back in 1934,
when few women in Japan belonged to the workforce, the company created a staff position
known as “Miss Shiseido” (left), who was the forerunner to Shiseido’s beauty consultants oftoday. In 2006, the company introduced a system of allocating extra staff (right) during peakevening hours to enable beauty consultants raising children to balance work and childcare
more easily.

but also includes lectures and mentoring by female
Shiseido executives. Its primary aim is to sweep
away biases regarding senior positions. According toImaizumi, “There are unconscious biases relating not
only to gender, but also to position. Many capable
women believe that they don’t have what it takes to bea leader because of their stereotypes about leadership
positions. By recognizing those biases and letting goof them, these women can breathe new life into andre-ignite their original visions and dreams. Since they
are all very competent, once that fire is kindled, they
will be able to master whatever skills they need on
their own. The key is how much of that fire can bekindled.”
Behind such efforts is the corporate culture that has
been passed down over Shiseido’s long years of history.
Imaizumi explains, “Since our company started as a
private dispensing pharmacy, at our foundation has
been the desire to create a better society in which
everyone can lead healthy lives, both in body and inmind. That is why, in every era, we have been actively
engaged in developing human resources and finding
solutions to social issues.”
In the early days of the company, employees weresent to night school to study whatever they wereinterested in, and in the mid-1930s, the company
created “Miss Shiseido,” a staff position that becamea coveted career option for women, and that was thepredecessor for Shiseido’s beauty consultants. In thefuture, the company aims to achieve a 50:50 ratio ofmen and women in managerial positions in Japan.
Also, in the fall of next year, it plans to establish theShiseido Future University at its head office in Ginza,
Tokyo, to develop the next generation of global
leaders. “There is still much that can be done. We willcontinue to take on new challenges from multiple
angles.”