Promotion of DE&I

Our group is building a sound corporate culture and a strong management structure by pursuing a system that enhances the job satisfaction of each employee, while at the same time by ensuring the quantitative and qualitative appropriateness of human resources. We aim to create a work environment that is receptive to diverse talents and values, deepens relationships of mutual trust and that allows each employee to perform to the best of his/her ability. We will continue to expand the diverse career paths and work options, and will implement talent measures that will enable us to take advantage of the diversity of employees in organizational decision-making for a rapidly changing market, such as by promoting an introduction of a new personnel evaluation system.

Empowerment of Women

As many of our employees at Wacoal Corp. and customers are female and we need to reflect more diverse viewpoints in its management decision-making, Wacoal Corp. considers the empowerment of women’s involvement and activities as an important management goal. Therefore, Wacoal Corp. has established a workplace environment that is appropriate and in line with women’s unique life stages, promotes more flexible work styles, and has instituted a system for promotion and advancement based on ability and performance, regardless of gender or age. In February 2021, Wacoal Corp. received the “Eruboshi Certification” from the Ministry of Health, Labor and Welfare of Japan, having been recognized as a company that has made effective efforts to advance women’s participation.

Promotion of Women in Managerial Position

Wacoal Corp. formulated a general employer action plan based on the Act on the Promotion of Women’s Active Engagement in Professional Life, under which we have been aiming to increase the percentage of women in managerial position (section manager and higher level) to 30% or higher by the end of fiscal year ending March 31, 2025. Now that the percentage of women in managerial position (section manager and higher level) has risen to 32.2% and 35.1% as of March 1, 2024 and May 1, 2024, respectively, achieving the target ahead of the deadline, we are currently in the process of formulating a new general employer action plan. Since the percentage of women in department head / general manager and higher level, who is involved in more important decision-making, is still low despite the percentage of women in managerial position’s exceeding the 30% mark, we will work to increase the percentage of women in managerial position of department head / general manager and higher level.
We will continue to identify talents with a high aptitude for leadership from an early stage, regardless of gender, and further promote the provision of training opportunities to candidates for managerial positions, in order to reflect the values of diverse talents in management decisions. We will also develop talents capable of being in charge of managerial and executive positions by supporting the autonomous growth of employees, encouraging them to gain experience in a variety of businesses and positions, and continuously working to foster career awareness.

Action Plan Based on the Act on Promotion of Women's Participation and Advancement in the Workplace

(Four-year period from September 2, 2020 to September 1, 2024)

Wacoal has formulated a General Employer Action Plan based on the "Act on Promotion of Women's Participation and Advancement in the Workplace" which was enacted in April 2016.By continuing to prepare working conditions according to the unique life stages of women, and by focusing on hiring and cultivation that emphasizes ability rather than gender, we will cultivate personnel who can perform regardless of gender. In February 2021, we obtained the certification of "Eruboshi" as a company with excellent implementation status of efforts related to the active participation of women.

Issues at Wacoal

Issues 1:
It is necessary to have and continuously operate a system for training and educating female employees who can become candidates for managerial and executive positions

Issues 2:
Together with career path formation for women and work style diversification, it is necessary to construct a system that can achieve both career formation and personal life enhancement

Target

Target １：
Work toward achieving a ratio of 30% or more for managerial positions (section manager and above).

Target ２：
Through the adoption of remote work capacity, work toward achieving a situation wherein all employees (100%) can work flexibly.

Details of initiatives

Differences in Wages between Male and Female Employees

The difference in wages between male and female employees, one of the metrics for empowerment of women, is 49.2% (full-time employees: 50.0%, part-time and fixed-term employees: 60.2%, career-track positions: 70.0% and managerial positions: 93.2%) at Wacoal Corp. At Wacoal Corp. , there is no wage differential due to gender for the same role. Therefore, the difference at Wacoal Corp. is due to (i) men accounting for approximately 65% of the managerial positions, (ii) the ratio of female employees in career-track positions, especially in the hiring of new graduates, having been increasing year by year, resulting in a higher ratio of female employees among employees who are below managerial positions and have been with the company for 10 years or less (10 years or less: 134 employees or 56.3%; over 10 years: 38 employees or 35.2%), and (iii) women comprising an overwhelmingly higher proportion of employees in sales-related jobs than the relatively higher-paid career-track positions.
In addition to our existing efforts to increase the ratio of women in new graduates and mid-career hires for career-track positions, we will ensure promotion based on capabilities, regardless of age and gender, to increase the ratio of women in the managerial positions and executive positions in order to close the gap in wages between male and female employees.

Differences in wages between male and female employees in current fiscal year (%)*

Work-Life Balance

Aiming to enhance productivity and job satisfaction, Wacoal Corp. launched the Work-Style and Leave-Style Reform Project in April 2017. Under this project, we are establishing employeefriendly working conditions by introducing a telecommuting system, a leave system for self-improvement, and a system that helps families take leave at the same times. We plan to advance personnel management with a view to raising productivity, and we will continue to take initiatives to heighten job satisfaction.

* Number of days of paid leave taken by all employees ÷ Number of days of paid leave granted to all employees

Wacoal Corp. is developing workplace environments that enable employees to lead fulfilling lives and to make the best use of their skills. For example, as part of our initiatives to help employees to balance work and child-rearing commitments, we are working to establish programs and culture with a view to creating an environment that is easy and rewarding to work in not only for employees with child-rearing commitments but also for coworkers who support them. Further, we formulated an action plan based on Japan’s Act on Advancement of Measures to Support Raising Next-Generation Children and implemented measures to achieve the targets, which resulted in “Platinum Kurumin” certification in addition to the third “Kurumin” certification in 2018. We plan to continue to create a mechanism that allows employees to use their time flexibly so that they can be actively engaged with not only work and family but also society to increase the diversity of their individual experiences and skills, thereby creating innovation at work.

Respect for Diversity：Promotion of Foreign Nationals to Managerial Positions

Our group, as a corporate group operating in countries and regions around the world, appoints local talents to the positions of representative (president) and key managerial positions in each of our overseas entities, including the U.S. and Europe. The representatives (president) of Wacoal Hong Kong Co., Ltd. and Philippine Wacoal Corp. are served by female. We will continue to hire diverse local talents regardless of nationality and promote them to key managerial positions in order to expand our business from the customer’s perspective and strengthen our competitive advantage in the overseas markets.

Respect for Diversity：Employment of people with disabilities

Our group is working to improve the working environment and provides work support by conducting training so that everyone is able to work proactively, and through individual interviews to listen to their opinions. In addition, we actively cooperate with external support organizations to gain experts’ knowledge to provide retention support. In February 2018, Wacoal I Next Corp. was founded to promote the employment of people with disabilities and to create opportunities for their active participation. In December 2018, the company was certified as a special subsidiary under the Employment Promotion Act for Persons with Disabilities.
Wacoal I Next Corp. has adopted flexible working styles that facilitate the development of skills of individual employees without limiting the scope of the work, such as “multi-tasking” where an employee is responsible for multiple tasks, and “work sharing” where multiple employees undertake parts of a larger task, with the aim to create a workplace where each and every employee can have a sense of fulfillment and growth. It is necessary for a company to satisfy legal employment quotas; however, we don’t see those as just numerical targets. Under the mutual trust advocated by Wacoal, we will contribute to the realization of a society that takes advantage of diversity by working as the group to create a workplace where everyone can play an active role for development.

Respect for Diversity: Participation from senior citizens

We are introducing a system in which senior citizens can play active roles after retirement with the goal of demonstrating their rich experience and abilities, and providing job satisfaction for them.

* As of 1 April of each period

Policies for serving diverse customers

From the fiscal year 2024, we will clarify policies for serving diverse customers (creation of an inclusive sales floor environment) and express Wacoal’s stance on facing initiatives for respect of human rights. To this end, we have started internal educational activities of “businesses and human rights” by holding explanatory meetings targeting managerial positions in the sale department and role-appointees.

• Customer support