Introduction
Aiming to Realize Diversityin the Research Environment

Promotion of the Career Advancement Project for Women Researchers(CAPWR)
Project Executive
Misako Aida, Executive Vice President for University Reform,Hiroshima University
Professor, Graduate School of Science
This report summarizes the status of activities in FY 2019 within the Career Advancement Project for Women
Researchers (CAPWR), which was adopted in the Initiative for Realizing Diversity in the Research Environment(Collaboration Type) by the Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology (MEXT) Program in FY
2017. In CAPWR, Hiroshima University has been the Lead Organization; Mazda Motor Corporation, Delta Kogyo
Co., Ltd., and the International Development Center of Japan have acted as Collaborating Organizations; and, as
stated in this report, several other Member Organizations have participated.
Within CAPWR, four Task Forces have been set up, which are as follows:(1) Institutional Enhancement by Improving Existing Approaches to Diversity (Construction of research
environment that gives consideration to the life events and work-life balance of women researchers)(2) Capacity Development in Women Researchers’ Research Activities(An approach to improving the research capabilities of women researchers and training leaders who canparticipate internationally)(3) Positive Action in Recruitment and Promotion of Women Researchers)(An approach to positive employment of women researchers, support for reinstatement/reappointment of
women researchers who have been suspended from or left a research post, and positive employment of
women researchers in high-level positions)(4) Model Development for Creating a Diverse Research Environment(Construction of model initiatives to create a diverse research environment based on surveys in cooperation
with various organizations)Amongst these Task Forces, universities, manufacturing companies, and international think tank institutions
are cooperating and demonstrating their strengths, in an effort to promote activities by women researchers.
These activities are wide-ranging, therefore, almost all of the offices within Hiroshima University arecooperating for their implementation. The areas in which the Lead Organization, Collaborating Organizations andMember Organizations are located, are being highly globalized so this project should greatly contribute to thedevelopment of research capabilities and industry-academic cooperation, as well as international perspectives.
This will result in the further global development of various related organizations, whilst being firmly rooted
within the local community.
CAPWR has already begun being implemented across the six-year period from 2017 to 2022. An interimevaluation was undertaken in 2019. As a result, the overall evaluation was given the high grade of ‘A’ (Goalachievement ‘A’, Approach ‘S’, Approach’s outcome ‘A’, Implementation system ‘A’, Future direction ‘A’).
In order to make the approach even more effective, there is a need for understanding and cooperation frommany people. The activities and results for the third year since the start of this project are summarized below.
Please take a look at the activities in this project and do not hesitate in offering your opinions in order to makethis an even better approach.
March 20201

GreetingYoshiyuki Maeda, Chief of Academia, Industry, and Government
R&D Technology Administrative Department, Mazda Motor Corporation
Mazda Motor Corporation celebrated its 100th year anniversary on January 30,
2020. We would like to express our deepest gratitude to those who have supported
our company throughout this long period of time, including customers, retailers,clients, business partners, and everyone in the local community.
Mazda takes respecting human rights very seriously for its corporate activity. It isextremely important to respect everyone’s dignity and personality in relation toworking life, as this will lead to the capacity of employees being fully expressed withina cheerful, positive working environment which in turn will generate a strong organizational power. For thenext 100 years, we will cherish “originality created together with people” by making people the top priority. We
would like to strive for a company where all the employees can express their capacity to the fullest, byunderstanding and utilizing each employee’s strength, regardless of gender, age, nationality, religion, or type ofemployment. We intend to keep on challenging for the creation of products, technologies, and customer
experiences full of originality, which will hopefully create a feeling of attachment to our creations from thecustomers. We hope to fulfill this challenge through enhancing the collaboration and co-creation with all those
who are involved with our company.
We appreciate your growing support in our company for the future.
Yumi Ogura, Manager
Business Development Department, R&D Department, Delta Kogyo Co., Ltd.
It has been three years since we had the opportunity to join the Initiative forRealizing Diversity in the Research Environment. The approach at our company has
finally gotten underway. A couple of the enlightening activities undertaken since thestart of this project; “the women activity promotion seminar” is continuouslyorganized, and online “trainings for women’s advancement” is being implemented.
For international employment, we were able to hire six female (four South-East Asian,two European) technical and expert staff. A feeling of finally being able to makeground in regard to the engagement of diversity activities has begun to be felt around the company. I would likefor the work undertaken to be always positive for all those involved through growing under various
environments, and co-creating while settling within each person’s differing values.
Michio Watanabe, General Manager
International Development Center of Japan
After summarizing the approaches of the past three years, a subsequentestablishment of these approaches has been undertaken this year. Since the start ofthe project, activities applicable to our organization have proceeded learning fromHiroshima University’s approaches. We drafted a report with the results of the studies
on the approaches of increasing female leaders by visiting multiple universities on theeast coast of the U.S.A. in 2017. In 2018 our subsidiary, the International Development
Center of Japan Incorporated obtained the “ERUBOSHI (L-Star)” certificate at the level of “3 Stars” from theMinistry of Health, Labor and Welfare with the establishment of a plan with the main point being increasing theoverall ratio of female employees in managerial positions. 2019 saw the implementation of multiple coaching
training programs, aimed at further improving the understanding of those approaches. Furthermore, a training
course in regard to unconscious biases is being planned. In these training programs, we strive for ouremployees to learn about recognizing the importance of diversity which should be held by our leaders andrespecting individuals’ views when communicating with each other. As the second half of the CAPWR projectgets underway in 2020, IDCJ will continue to be engaged toward the achievement of our goals of increasing
women leaders while being led by the lead organization, Hiroshima University.

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