Diversity, Equity and Inclusion

Message from Top Management

It is essential to continue to create innovation for companies to continue to provide sustainable management and meet their social responsibilities. Shionogi & Co. Ltd. emphasizes that the creation of innovation is related to DE&I. We believe that respect for and integration of diverse values based on mutual efforts of employees lead to creating diverse innovation. This will enable us to make further contributions to patients and society and achieve sustainable development.

Accordingly, we focus on developing diverse human resources. Specifically, we have held the President’s Management Seminar, in which the President serves as a lecturer to train executives, and the Management Seminar, in which general managers serve as lecturers to develop executive candidates.

We have also implemented various succession plans, including providing young leaders with the opportunity to improve themselves by learning from each other in a multifaceted manner in order to develop future executive candidates. We ensure the diversity of human resources and the sustainability of management through these various efforts to develop the next generation of leaders.

We also actively promote the empowerment of women in the workplace, as exhibited by an increasing rate of female managers. We expect that the sharing and integration of diverse values beyond gender differences will become a new driving force in creating innovation.

These various efforts made by us have been highly rated by external groups. In FY 2015, we were selected by the Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry for the New Diversity Management Selection 100 project. We have also been certified as a Leading Company in Women's Advancement in Osaka City by the City of Osaka, in which our company is based.

As a company with diversity across age, gender, race and different cultural background, we will strive to further integrate diverse values to continue to create innovation, and work to promote sustainable management to fulfil our social responsibility.

Diversity Vision

In 2018, we established a system in which the Diversity Council integrally manages various efforts to facilitate DE&I, which had been made by individual organizations, in order to promote DE&I on a Group-wide basis. A Diversity Vision was also created so that all employees could engage in promoting diversity and inclusion on the same level as each other.

Workstyle reforms aimed at integrating diverse human resources

SHIONOGI emphasizes DE&I from the perspective of innovation creation, aiming for sustainable management and fulfillment of social responsibility. We consider work style reform to be an important initiative in DE&I, and we are creating an environment where diverse employees can work fairly regardless of gender, age, or nationality. As a result, the percentage of female managers and the rate of male employees taking childcare leave have been increasing year by year.

■ Personnel system revision

The personnel system revised in October 2023 was introduced in the hope of enabling diverse talent to thrive. For example, to ensure that temporary work hour restrictions due to life events such as childbirth and childcare do not become an obstacle to one's career, job grades have been changed according to the results of a single year's evaluation, and even the lowest grade can be promoted to manager in as little as four years.

■ Diverse working styles

In order for each employee to independently hone their skills and grow, we have created an environment that allows for flexible working styles through the introduction of a super flextime system with no core time and a work-from-home system, as well as a review of scheduled working hours. In addition, in the hope of bringing learning outside the company back to work, we have introduced a selective weekly holiday system (three days off per week) and reviewed the standards for side jobs.

Almost 100% of female employees take childcare leave and return to work, and then more than 76% of male employees take childcare leave as of the end of FY2024. We have also established various systems to recommend various ways of living of employees, including the sales staff to choose their work location according to life events, such as marriage and childcare , volunteer leave, bone marrow donor leave, and educational leave.

Since 2005, we have formulated General Employer Action Plans based on the Act for Measures to Support the Development of the Next-Generation Children. We have worked to increase the acquisition rate of annual paid leave, pay for childcare leave, and support the personal development of employees during their absence from work. We have also held manager training seminars and have introduced a system for interviewing employees before and after their childcare leave.

Making the Most of Human Resources Diversity

Besides these improvements, additionally, for each division, we will continue our efforts to create an attractive working environment with the use of engagement survey and other indicators to verify the effectiveness of various measures. We are continuously tackling the improvement of our workplace environment and enabling diverse work styles. Through this ongoing initiative, we aim to create a workplace environment where all employee who wants to work at SHIONOGI are not left behind, regardless of attributes such as gender, age, and nationality.

Promoting the empowerment of women

At SHIONOGI we are committed to providing employees with a work environment in which they can develop their strengths, express themselves as individuals, and develop professionally regardless of gender.

As a result of our initiatives to date, the ratio of female managers has been steadily increasing, reaching 16.4% in the domestic Group companies results as of the end of FY2024. With the male-female gap in average years of service also now closed, SHIONOGI is evolving into a company where it is considered only natural that women are active in the workplace.

Under its General Employer Action Plan based on the Act on Promotion of Women's Participation and Advancement in the Workplace (April 1, 2025 – March 31, 2028), SHIONOGI has established the following initiatives to foster an inclusive environment where diverse talent, regardless of gender, can thrive, maximize their potential, and confidently pursue their aspirations.

Among other initiatives in our continuing support for women’s professional advancement, we plan to (1) provide employees with work environments in which they can demonstrate their strengths and take on new challenges regardless of gender, by revamping personnel management systems and establishing various systems to recommend various ways of working (2) conduct seminars and other educational activities on the subject of childcare leave using a video-streaming service.

Creating a supportive workplace for people with disabilities

SHIONOGI is actively engaged in employing people with disabilities from the following perspective:

Fulfilling corporate social responsibility
Progressing with the adaptation of workplaces so that people with and without disabilities can work vigorously

Since 2014, we have been working to create supportive work environments in which people with disabilities can develop their abilities. To create further employment opportunities, in April 2018 we established Shionogi Smile Heart Co., Ltd., which was certified as a special subsidiary company in July 2018.

We declared its support for “The Valuable 500”, an international initiative to promote inclusion of people with disabilities, in March 2020.

About Shionogi Smile Heart Co., Ltd.

Shionogi Smile Heart Co., Ltd., as a special subsidiary of the SHIONOGI Group, strives to create a safe and secure workplace where employees with disabilities can work with peace of mind, grow through their work, and continuously improve job quality and service standards. In addition to fulfilling its role in promoting employment for people with disabilities within the SHIONOGI Group, the company also aims to become an organization that is valued by society as a place of learning for the local community, working diligently every day toward this goal.

Operations and efforts of Shionogi Smile Heart Co., Ltd.

1. Creating a Safe and Secure Work Environment

Standardization of various tasks (cleaning, laundry, installation and maintenance of flowers and　ornamental plants)
Job design tailored to individual skills, characteristics, and levels of understanding
Unique employment regulations suitable for continuous work

2. Human Resource Development Through Work

Providing appropriate growth support through regular interviews
Career development from a long-term perspective

3. A Place of Learning for the Local Community

Accepting visits and internships from local support schools and training institutions

Shionogi Smile Heart Co., Ltd. ( Japanese site)

Awards for Diversity

D&I AWARD Best Workplace

SHIONOGI has created an environment in which each individual can make the most of their strengths and demonstrate their individuality in their work, regardless of their attributes. In recognition of our efforts to promote internal understanding of DE&I and build an organization that utilizes diversity, we were awarded the highest level of certification, the 'Best Workplace,' at the D&I AWARD sponsored by Job Rainbow Co., Ltd., for three consecutive years since fiscal 2022.

New Diversity Management Selection 100

SHIONOGI has rolled out initiatives to support employee career development and to promote female advancement in the Human Health Care Division. The thinking behind these and other initiatives is that supporting diverse human resources to develop their strengths will not only lead to personal growth but will also contribute to the growth of the organization. These efforts were recognized when SHIONOGI was selected for inclusion in the fiscal 2015 New Diversity Management Selection 100 project.

Leading Company for Women’s Advancement in Osaka City

As a company that takes active measures to create a supportive work environment for women, SHIONOGI was certified in fiscal 2015 as a leading company for women’s advancement in Osaka City. Also, in fiscal 2023, our efforts to date were evaluated and certified as a "Three-Star Certified Company," the highest rank.