Core Theme 2

Workplace Inclusion

Dialogue

03

Empowerment of Every Employee throughMutual Understanding
MARUI KIT CENTER CO., LTD., is a special subsidiary ofMARUI GROUP that advances initiatives for providing
employment opportunities to people with disabilities thatdate back to 1992. This company’s differently abled
employees utilize various techniques to overcome thechallenges faced in their work while fostering mutual
understanding as they work together. Using the common
language of sign language and picture boards, MARUIKIT CENTER employees sat down to discuss the issues
faced in their daily work and techniques used to overcome them as well as their motivation toward work.
45 of 56 MARUI KIT CENTER employees have disabilities
Blue Team

Orange Team

People with mental disabilities: 32
People with physical disabilities: 3

People with hearing impairments:
10

Comfortable Workplace Built on Understanding of
Each Other’s Area of Weakness
Oyamada: I have a mental disability. Apparently, I wasborn with minor cerebral palsy. When I toured MARUIKIT CENTER three years ago, the lively atmosphere gave
the impression that it would be a comfortableenvironment for me to work in, and I thus chose to join.
Nishimoto: I have a hearing impairment. I originallyworked in a different company located here, in the Toda
Product Center, but I decided to join KIT CENTER 11
years ago.
Komiyama: When I was 24, I suffered from cerebral
hemorrhaging, which resulted in paralysis in the left halfof my body. I had originally joined MARUI GROUP 10
years ago out of an interest in fashion. In October 2016,
I transferred to KIT CENTER.

From left: Takashi Komiyama, Yuta Oyamada, Megumi Arai, Yukari Nishimoto,Yuka Sugita (Sign language interpreter), Mitsuru Hori (Moderator and sign language interpreter)

Dialogue 03

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Core Theme 2Core Theme 2

Workplace Inclusion

Workplace Inclusion

Dialogue03

Arai: I have a hearing impairment. I was a homemaker forseveral years, but I joined KIT CENTER 11 years ago withthe aim of returning to the workforce. This company
offers an incredibly comfortable workplace environment
in which everyone strives to compensate for each other’sarea of weakness.
Oyamada: One benefit of joining KIT CENTER waslearning that there were areas of work I could handle aswell as areas in which I was weak.
Hori: You are referring to our unique license system if
I am correct. A detailed checklist is used to identify whichtypes of work each employee feels that they cannot
perform and what their areas of weakness are.
Komiyama: I can only use my right hand, but mycoworkers joined me in thinking of ways I could perform
my work more smoothly with only one hand.
Sugita: In the past, we had an employee who indicatedon the license system checklist that his work took a longtime to do. This employee was left-handed, but he had
been trained by a right-handed individual, which made itdifficult for the employee to use the same techniques.
When we learned what was causing his work to take solong, we quickly put our heads together to think of a way
for a left-handed person to perform the work efficiently.
Arai: I cannot hear, and I am therefore very sensitive
about what goes on around me. At KIT CENTER, there
are many employees that get distracted by theirsurroundings, so everyone faces the same direction
when they work. It is very nice to be able to focus only on
the work in front of me.
Sugita: An organized work station is incredibly
important. If the necessary items are not always in thesame place, even work that one is normally able toperform can become an area of weakness. At KIT
CENTER, the locations for all items are set.
Oyamada: The recipients of deliveries are now written inalphabet letters and numbers as opposed to kanji
characters. This has helped prevent mistakes and spedup work.
Hori: It seems that alphabet letters and numbers wereeasier to recognize than kanji characters. One trait of KIT
CENTER is how it incorporates many such ideas andtechniques. A little consideration here and there canremove barriers, making work go smoother andimproving productivity.

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Nishimoto: People that come up with good ideas
receive “little consideration awards.” At work, we arealways sharing ideas about how to remove the barriers
we may face.

Shift in Common Language from Writing toSign Language
Hori: I am sure everyone’s experience has been different,
but have you faced any issues when working with theother employees?
Arai: At first, I did not know how to interact with Blue
Team when working with them because sign language
was not an option.
Nishimoto: I felt the same. I worried much over how
I would tell Blue Team if an issue arose, how I would get
my point across.
Sugita: How do you overcome this language barrier
between Blue Team and Orange Team?
Oyamada: The leader of the product inspection team
I belong to is from Orange Team, so I used a writingboard at first. However, communicating by writing takes
time and makes it hard to really understand one another.
I therefore decided to learn sign language.
Arai: I am the leader of the office service team. Many
people at KIT CENTER are able to use sign language,
which really makes work progress smoothly.
Hori: Mr. Oyamada has an advanced sign language
license from our internal system. I understand that you
also received third rank certification in the national sign
language certification test last year.
Oyamada: I still use a writing board to communicate very
detailed points, but I am able to get by with sign language
for almost everything else.
Arai: People that are not good at sign language sometimes use both a writing board and a picture board.
Nishimoto: People with hearing impairments are usuallyseen as having a disability. However, this disability disappears when they are able to communicate with signlanguage. I think that the real disability arises from a lackof common language when people who can hear workwith those who cannot.

Dialogue 03

Oyamada: People from Blue Team have people fromOrange Team teach them sign language on a daily basis.
Everyone is cooperating so that we can quickly become
able to use sign language effectively for workcommunication.

Yuta Oyamada
Product Inspection TeamMARUI KIT CENTER CO., LTD.
● Blue Team(mental disability)

Motivation from Knowing You Are Helping
Hori: What have you enjoyed about your work and what
has made you happy?
Oyamada: When I help out a coworker, it makes me
happy to hear them say “thank you.” I want to be someone everyone relies on, so I am trying to learn the work ofboth the product inspection team and the delivery center.
Arai: When I am asked to make an urgent delivery andI make it on time, I am always happy to receive an email
thanking me for the quick response. After making a delivery
and seeing the products on display in stores, I become
very happy. This experience has really hit home howmuch we are helping out.
Nishimoto: When I was on the product inspection team,
employees from Group company MOVING would often ask
me to help out when they were busy. Product inspectors
handle lots of products in a single day, and when I accomplish my goal, it really makes me feel that I am being useful.
Komiyama: I am still in training, but I get praised when
I finish my work on time. I really feel like KIT CENTER is a
comfortable place to work. As I am on the supply team,
I do not have the opportunity to interact with customers
directly. However, I go about my work with the belief thatI am aiding the Company by helping staff across Japan
perform their work more easily.
Arai: As a leader, I aim to be considerate of our various
needs and develop methods of facilitating our work inorder to make the workplace environment even morecomfortable.
Nishimoto: In the future, I hope to work in a different
department at MARUI GROUP so I can learn new skills.
Komiyama: I only transferred to KIT CENTER justrecently. I therefore want to get accustomed to the work
as soon as possible so I can become a jack-of-all-trades
capable of helping out in various positions.
Hori: Everyone here is so very passionate about theirwork. At KIT CENTER, I do not feel that employees are
impeded by barriers, such as from being unable to hearor having trouble communicating.

Dialogue 03

Megumi Arai
Office Service Team Leader
MARUI KIT CENTER CO., LTD.
● Orange Team(hearing impairment)

Yukari Nishimoto
Delivery Center Leader
MARUI KIT CENTER CO., LTD.
● Orange Team(hearing impairment)

Takashi Komiyama
Supply TeamMARUI KIT CENTER CO., LTD.
● Blue Team(physical disability)

Mitsuru Hori
Work Leader
MARUI KIT CENTER CO., LTD.
(Moderator and sign languageinterpreter)

Yuka Sugita
Work Leader
MARUI KIT CENTER CO., LTD.
(Sign language interpreter)

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