TOKYO, March 22, 2022 -- Chugai Pharmaceutical Co., Ltd. (TOKYO: 4519) announced that it has been selected as a “Nadeshiko Brand” by the Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry (METI) and the Tokyo Stock Exchange (TSE) as a listed company with outstanding capabilities to promote women’s participation in the workplace.

The Nadeshiko Brand has been jointly implemented with METI and TSE since FY2012 to raise investors’ attention to companies’ efforts to empower women and further accelerating the efforts of listed companies by selecting listed companies that are outstanding in promoting women’s active participation as attractive stocks that emphasize “enhancing corporate value over the medium to long term.”

Specifically, companies that have passed certain screening criteria are evaluated in accordance with the scoring criteria for promoting women’s active participation in the workplace, and the top companies in each industry are selected as a “Nadeshiko Brand.”

This year’s selection as a “Nadeshiko Brand” follows four consecutive years of selection from FY2014 to FY 2017, as well as the selection in FY2020.

Chugai’s basic policy is to grow and develop together with society with the aim to become a top innovator in the healthcare industry for advanced and sustainable patient-centric healthcare. Aiming to realize this goal, we have positioned the “promotion of diversity and inclusion” as an important management issue so that diverse human resources can work actively and create new value. We believe that the selection of the “Nadeshiko Brand” is a continuing recognition of our efforts to date.

Based on its basic philosophy that human resources are an invaluable asset that creates corporate growth and development, Chugai will continue developing a work environment and organizational culture that enables all employees to participate actively.

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[Efforts for Management Strategy and Promotion System]

In 2010, we formed a working group on gender issues under the direct control of top management and started the discussion. In 2012, we established the Diversity Office to strengthen and promote activities in an even broader range of areas and have been working to promote women’s empowerment and diversity. From 2013 to 2018, the Chugai Diversity Promotion Forum, which brings together executive officers and staff in charge of promoting diversity in each division, was held annually to share messages from top management and internal activities and to create a system for continuous promotion. Since 2020, in addition to executives and organizational heads, employees from around the country have participated in the “Diversity DAYS” online meeting. As part of these efforts, we shared the message from the president to employees that the active participation of diverse human resources, such as gender, age, and people with different cultural experiences, is essential to the realization of the strategy. Through these ongoing initiatives, we are promoting the implementation of diversity and inclusion.

[Establishment of a company-wide environment]

In order to discover diverse human resources and promote their active participation regardless of gender, age, nationality, disability, mid-career with various work histories and specialties, and other attributes, we support the challenges of each employee and provide growth opportunities through the promotion of the right person in the right place by position and talent management, operation of the personnel system that supports challenges regardless of age and attributes, provision of autonomous learning opportunities, and so on.

To support employees’ work-life balance, we are promoting more flexible work styles through the introduction of telework, a super flex-time system (no core time), and satellite offices. In addition, we are introducing a system to support the search for a nursery school, a plan to support medical representatives to live with their spouses, and the transportation of children to nursery schools by company cars. Male employees taking childcare leave increased from 4% in 2014 to 100% in 2021 (including the second acquirer). We also worked to improve the employees’ literacy in nursing care to balance their work and nursing care and held seminars and e-learning for all employees. We will continue to promote “work satisfaction reforms” to increase the number of effective employees going forward, as well as to work to create an environment where each diverse employee can maximize their abilities and foster a culture that creates innovation.

[Initiatives for Women’s Active Participation]

In 2014, we introduced a female leader program to train candidates for the head of departments. In addition, in 2016, we introduced a training program to expand the number of managers. We also provide e-learning to managers who are key personnel in D&I promotion on the theme of unconscious bias to improve their practical abilities in the workplace. In addition, we are continuously working to promote women’s active participation in the workplace by implementing task management training for supervisors with subordinates in the life event period, which will lead to their career development and growth. The percentage of female managers increased from 10.7% (as of December 2015) to 15.9% (as of December 2021). In addition, we emphasize diversity in management and actively promote the appointment of women as the board of directors, audit & supervisory board, and executive officers.

Going forward, we will continuously engage in identifying and developing female manager candidates and expand the next generation of female leaders.