Updated on May 29, 2026 Culture (Health Management, D&I, Diverse Work Styles, etc.)
- Health Management
- D＆I
- Diversification of Work Systems
- Other Data
Health Management
The Kuraray Group aims to promote a culture in which every employee pursues his or her own potential and takes on new challenges in order to sustainably increase corporate value. To achieve this, we believe it is essential to keep our employees physically and mentally healthy, positive and energetic. To clarify this belief, we have established our Health Management Declaration.
We will continue to promote diverse initiatives to maintain and improve the health of our employees.
- Health Management Declaration
Based on the Kuraray Group Global Human Resources Policy, we hereby declare the following.
Kuraray Group Health Management Declaration (established in April 2025)
The Kuraray Group continues to challenge itself to realize our corporate mission,
"For people and the planet—to achieve what no one else can.”
To this end, we are committed to supporting the maintenance and improvement of the physical and mental health of each employee and to creating a vibrant and rewarding workplace.
Hitoshi Kawahara,
President and Representative Director
- Health Management Promotion Structure
Specific measures to maintain and improve the health of employees are planned and promoted primarily by the Healthy Workplace Promotion Group at the head office, together with human resources and occupational health staff at each business site. Each year, these members review the results of initiatives implemented at each site and discuss priorities to be addressed in the following year. In addition, the direction of initiatives related to employee health issues, as well as the results of various surveys such as engagement surveys and stress checks are reported and discussed as appropriate at the HR Committee, which is attended by executive members.
Furthermore, in order to enhance the effectiveness of these initiatives, the Company collaborates with external organizations, including the Kuraray Health Insurance Association through collaborative health promotion programs, and engages in dialogue with labor unions through bodies such as safety and health committees regarding workplace environment and occupational health measures.
The Kuraray Group shares a common vision of what it aims to achieve through health management. While Group companies implement initiatives in line with their respective circumstances, they also work together with Kuraray to organize seminars and health promotion events, thereby mutually enhancing the effectiveness of their initiatives.
- Strategy Map
We organize the initiatives and performance indicators (KPIs) designed to realize the vision set forth in the "Health Management Declaration" in the forms of a Strategy Map.
At Kuraray, we believe that achieving effective health management requires initiatives from three key perspectives: Great Place to Work, mental health, and physical health.
Health Management KPI Results
(Includes employees of Group companies in Japan)
| 2023 | 2024 | 2025 | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Engagement survey score (Kuraray Co., Ltd.) | 60.0 | 60.0 | 61.0 |
| Sick leave rate*1 | 1.11% | 1.51% | 1.50% |
| Actual performance level*2 | 64.7% | 64.8% | 64.6% |
*1
Same as "Absenteeism". Calculated by the number of days of absence from work due to illness (including annual paid leave)/by the total number of working days in a year.
*2
Calculated by subtracting “presenteeism” (percentage of inability to perform due to illness) from the MAX condition (100).
”Presenteeism” measured by the method of WHO-HPQ.
Summary of Stress Check Results
(Includes employees of Group companies in Japan)
| 2023 | 2024 | 2025 | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Stress Check Participation Rate | 94.9% | 94.6% | 95.6% |
| High-Stress Employee Ratio | 7.7% | 8.2％ | 7.4％ |
[A Great Place to Work]
In order to create a healthy and vibrant work environment, we implement initiatives to prevent various forms of harassment.
Specifically, we continuously undertake measures such as assessing the situation through stress check results and other surveys, providing harassment prevention training for all employees including contract employees, establishing multiple consultation channels, and training staff responsible for internal consultation services.
[Mental Health]
To reduce mental health issues, we believe that in addition to creating “Great Place to Work”, it is essential to establish mechanisms that prevent conditions from becoming more serious through prevention and early intervention. Accordingly, we provide four types of care, including self-care training and line-care training (for manager) conducted at each business site, interviews between highly stressed employees identified through stress check and occupational health staff, and information on external consultation services. In addition, we have established a rehabilitation work system to support employees returning to work from sick leave. Human resources, occupational health staff, and supervisors work together to provide support for a smooth return to work. Furthermore, since FY2019, we have been progressively implementing harassment prevention training for all employees, as part of our efforts to create a workplace environment where employees can feel safe and secure.
[Physical Health]
We promote greater health awareness among employees through individual health guidance and the promotion of health-related activities. The following are the priority measures implemented in 2025.
- Health promotion activities : We implemented a company-wide “Health Improvement Program,” which encourages employees to voluntarily improve their lifestyle habits, making the setting of exercise goals mandatory. In addition, we provided individualized follow-up through specific health guidance programs. To identify employees requiring improvement at an early stage, we also conducted health checkups that exceeded legal requirements. A lack of exercise and the resulting decline in physical function may lead to various negative effects, including deterioration of physical and mental health, as well as increased risk of injuries and accidents. Taking into account recent significant changes in working styles, such as the increase in remote work, as well as the aging of our workforce, we are promoting initiatives to improve exercise habits and address locomotive syndrome (decline in mobility).
- Promotion of non-smoking initiatives: Measures such as the introduction of non-smoking hours, restrictions on smoking areas, and the implementation of seminars were carried out in accordance with the conditions at each business site.
- Sleep Improvement Initiatives: As sleep deprivation and sleep disorders have a significant impact on quality of life and work productivity, we provide information through seminars and other initiatives to support improvements in sleep quality.
- Initiatives to improve drinking habits: As excessive alcohol consumption may cause physical and mental health problems, since 2024 we have been implementing initiatives to improve drinking habits. These include raising awareness through the distribution of informational leaflets and seminars, as well as conducting individual interviews with employees who require support.
- Accreditation from outside the company
Kuraray has been accredited from METI (the Ministry of Economy, Trade, and Industry in Japan) as a KENKO Investment for Health under the large enterprise category since 2022.
Diversity and Inclusion
In our Medium-Term Management Plan “PASSION 2026,” we set a Diversity and Inclusion goal of becoming “a company where each employee in a diverse workforce works enthusiastically and tackles challenges without fear of failure, generating a succession of innovations while responding to change and continuing to grow.” The Group provides support through the development of various policies and systems and promotes a change in awareness to enable diverse personnel to maximize their abilities and contribute to their own growth and the growth of the Group.
- Establishing Basic Principles of Diversity and Inclusion
In 2021, we formulated “Basic Principles for Diversity and Inclusion” shared globally across the Group. The principles define “Equality”, “Diversity and Inclusion” for the Group. They also stipulate the prevention of “Discrimination” and outline the roles of the company, HR personnel, and employees in creating a vibrant workplace and culture. We will implement specific actions to instill these principles and promote diversity.
- Raising Awareness about Diviersity and Inclusion
We conducted Inclusive Leadership Assessment and Training for General Manager position and higher. Every participant has set individual behavior goals refer to the result of the assessment through the training, and they aim for changing their own behavior.
In 2025 we expand the eligibility of the inclusive leadership training program to managers across the group, designed to provide them with insights and methodologies for creating inclusive organizations. We also distributed a video to all employees, featuring a message from the president and employee interviews, to promote understanding and awareness among all Kuraray employees globally.
- Supporting Women’s Career Advancement
Based on the idea that collaboration among diverse personnel leads to the creation of new ideas and innovations, we are working to create an environment where female employees can play an important role. This includes organizing networking events for female employees working at our domestic plants and creating communities where they can easily discuss their unique concerns and questions. As a foundation for this, we use the percentage of female in new graduates as an indicator to measure the progress of diversity of the workplace environment.
| KPI Ratio of female among new graduates (Kuraray Co., Ltd.) | Targets | FY2024 Results | FY2025 Results |
|---|---|---|---|
| a) General Career Track | 35％ more or every year (By FY2026) | 22％ | 33% |
| b) Job/Location-Specific Track | 10％ more or every year (By FY2026) | 13％ | 24% |
- Initiatives to support LGBTQ
In the Basic Principles of Diversity and Inclusion, the Kuraray Group declares that it will not discriminate against any employee on the basis of sexual orientation, and that we will create a working environment in which all employees cooperate. To achieve this, we are conducting seminars for HR personnel to learn about appropriate responses to those involved and creating a comfortable workplace. Additionally, during harassment training, we are advocating for the prohibition of discrimination and harassment based on sexual orientation.
- Engagement Survey
Respecting diversity and providing inclusive environment works important role to improve engagement in the organization.
The Kuraray Group has unified various employee surveys previously conducted by each affiliate company individually and has been conducting the global engagement survey, "Our Voice" once a year since 2022. We view engagement as "a relationship between employees and the company in which the direction of the company resonates with them and they want to contribute to each other." We monitor the status of employees' understanding and application of the company values, trust in their superiors and executives, and job satisfaction. The results are shared with all employees, including executives and division managers, and are used to improve departmental management and better communication in order to increase engagement and revitalize the organization.
Diversification of Work Systems and Initiatives for Work-style Reform
Kuraray is promoting diversification of work systems and work-style reform to establish a working environment where each and every employee can work in good physical and mental health while striking a balance between work and private life and in turn, deliver results.
- Flexible Work-style
In an aim to improve productivity and enhance work-life balance, Kuraray introduced a telework program in 2018, a conventional flextime system in 2019, and an hourly flextime system in 2020. In 2023, we implemented policy revisions to enhance convenience, including expanding the scope of employees eligible for these systems and eliminating core hours under certain conditions.
In addition, the handling and operation of approval for secondary employment has been reconsidered, and a system has been established to allow employees who wish to work concurrently to take on challenges outside of their main job based on certain rules.
- Appropriate Working Hour Management
Kuraray is developing a work attendance management system. The system is used for appropriate work hour management by enabling employees to register working hours accurately so that we can identify any discrepancies with the uptime of PCs of all employees who use a PC including managers.
The system will flag any case with overtime work exceeding a certain number of hours so we can work on reducing overtime work by preparing a working hour improvement plan to mitigate long work hours in addition to health support such as having industrial physicians and other professionals interview the personnel whose overtime work exceeded the set standard.
- Initiatives to Reduce Long Working Hours
Kuraray has established and operates the work-interval guidelines that states employees must take more than a certain number of hours as an interval (10 hours or more) between the end of the previous work day and the beginning of the next work day.
In addition, as a result of taking into consideration the work-life balance of employees in the context of the revised Child Care and Family Care Leave Act (for male employees taking childcare leave) and other factors, since it is possible that we will face personnel shortages in some areas, we will provide necessary personnel backup.
Furthermore, we will secure personnel by calculating the appropriate number of employees in each department, so that workplaces can operate without disruption within appropriate working hours. We will also build a framework that allows sufficient time for cultivating human resources and transferring skills from employees who are approaching retirement.
- Efforts to Promote Paid Holidays
We keep making efforts to improve the rate of taking annual paid holidays, targeting 80% or more, and achieved a rate of 84% in 2025. Kuraray will continue these efforts to maintain and improve the rate in 2026 onward.
- Developing a Childcare and Family Care Leave System
Kuraray has systems in place to help employees provide childcare and family care. Considering the time required to enroll children in a day-care center, employees are able to take the childcare leave until the child’s second birthday if necessary. We promote that male employees take childcare leave to encourage fathers’ greater involvement in child rearing. We set a numerical target regarding the ratio of male taking childcare leave to promote further utilization in 2024, and expanded childbirth leave for spouses for to 10days in 2025 to accelerate the promotion. In addition to establishing a family care leave system, we also provide employees with basic knowledge about caring for family members.
| KPI Male employees taking children leave (Kuraray Co., Ltd.) | Targets | FY2024 Results | FY2025 Results |
|---|---|---|---|
| a) Acquisition rate | 100％ (FY2026) | 94％ | 103% |
| b) Percentage of taking 14 days leave and more* | 90％ (FY2026) | 63％ | 68% |
*
Percentage of male parental leave takers whose total number of parental leave days in the relevant year was 14 days or more.
Number of Employees Taking Childcare and Family care【Japan】
| 2023 | 2024 | 2025 | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Childcare | 126 | 174 | 209 |
| (of which, male employees) | 115 | 147 | 189 |
| Family care | 6 | 4 | 2 |
- System Allowing Employees to Take Temporary Leave from Duty to Live Abroad with Spouse Assigned to Overseas Post
A system has been established and implemented allowing employees to take a temporary leave from the duty to accompany their spouse who is assigned to an overseas post or in a similar circumstance. Those employees who take a temporary leave from the duty are allowed to return to their posts in the Kuraray Group when the overseas assignment of their spouse terminates or when the similar circumstance ends.
- “Come-back" Rehiring System
In addition to the system to rehire former employees after family care leave and the system to rehire former employees who retired for personal reasons for those who wish to work at Kuraray again, we launched the “Come-back” rehiring system through the Kuraray Alumni Network and other channels in 2019. Our doors are wide open to employees so they can thrive at Kuraray again by drawing on their experience outside the Company on top of their career at Kuraray.
- Global Initiatives
Also at Kuraray’s overseas bases, efforts are being made to carefully manage working hours and secure employees’ private time based on the laws of each country. In addition, amid growing international collaboration across regions, we established the Kuraray Group – Guidelines for International Remote Meetings in 2022, which stipulates the establishment of core time zones for meetings and other criteria.
Other Data
Number of Employees as of December 31, 2025
| Total | Male | Female | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Kuraray Group | 12,117 | 9,608 | 2,509 |
| (Kuraray Co., Ltd.) | 4,715 | 3,964 | 751 |
(Note)
The number of employees directly employed as regular employees and full-time contract employees, excluding contract employees and part-time contract employees.
Employee Turnover Rate (Kuraray Co., Ltd.) FY2025
| Number of Employee Turnover | Turnover rate | |
|---|---|---|
| Personal reasons | 91 | 1.75% |