Diversity, Equity & Inclusion People with Disabilities

We respect the human rights of stakeholders affected by all our business activities and strive to realize sustainable society throughout our value chain. To clarify our approach to respect for human rights, we formulated our Basic Policy on Human Rights in December 2021 based on the UN Guiding Principles on Business and Human Rights, and launched initiatives related to human rights due diligence in 2022.

In FY2025, we held a Lecture on Promoting Understanding of People with Disabilities at our head office.
As part of our diversity promotion efforts, the lecture focused on the theme of employing people with disabilities to hedge against future risks, and it served to deepen understanding of the necessity of hiring people with disabilities as well as how to collaborate with them.
The lecturer was Mr. Hatsuse, who resumed practicing judo despite his visual impairment and even competed in the 2008 Beijing Paralympics. He now supports corporate activities from the perspective of a person with a disability. His words, drawn from his personal experiences, resonated deeply with employees. We received a lot of positive feedback, such as how his remark that “an environment where people with disabilities can work easily is also an environment where everyone can work easily” left a particularly strong impression on a participant, and how the lecture served as an opportunity to reconsider the manner in which the issue of people with disabilities should be approached.

2024: Attended the Lecture on Communication at the Kyushu Branch

2023: Attended the Lecture on Communication and Lecture on Consideration of What Is Reasonable Care

2022: Attended the Lecture on Consideration of What Is Reasonable Care

We attended the Asu Challe! Academy - Lecture on Consideration of What Is Reasonable Care, which is a training program on taking into account reasonable care toward people with disabilities. This program is run by the Nippon Foundation Para Sports Support Center. In this lecture on the consideration of what is reasonable care, we learned about working together with people with disabilities and becoming aware of how to provide better service to a diverse range of customers. We also learned about people with disabilities, the importance of empathy and acknowledging their differences, and the concept of a cohesive society where everyone can live easily and comfortably. We invited the current para-athlete Eri Yamamoto as a lecturer for this training program, which was held both in person and online and attended by about 90 employees. Several employees with hearing disabilities also took part in the program, and with the use of a speech-to-text application and assistance from a sign language interpreter, we were able to effectively run the training.

Feedback from participants

Listening to the talk from Ms. Yamamoto was a great opportunity for me to reflect on my daily actions. Reasonable care is effectively using each other’s strengths and weaknesses to help one another, and doing what you can by taking into account the other person’s situation. It made me realize once again that reasonable care is not just something you show toward people with disabilities, it is something you should try to do in your daily life. The participants showed a lot of care and consideration to one another during this training program.

We held a tour of Takasago Thermal Engineering Innovation Center for employees with disabilities. We consulted with participants in advance to determine what kind of accommodation and assistance were needed, and the Research and Development Headquarters and the Diversity Promotion Working Group discussed and implemented measures accordingly.

• Written guides and sign language interpretation (for employees with hearing impairment)
• Preparation of small-scale models to facilitate shape recognition through touch (for employees with visual impairment)vvv
• Design of tour routes with accessibility in mind (for employees with upper or lower limb impairments)

By drawing on the insights and issues identified through the tour, we will continue to work to ensure that members of the general public can also tour our facility even if they have disabilities.