In April 2024, we raised the retirement age by five years from 60 to 65 and also the post-retirement re-employment system age limit by five years from 65 to 70. These changes have been made to enable seniors to thrive at work for a long time while also providing a system that facilitates work-life balance, harmonization with their life plans and diversity. They can autonomously choose how to work and contribute while managing themselves.

With regard to diversity of human resources, we recognize that the presence in the Company of diverse perspectives and values that reflect different experiences, skills and attributes helps to sustain the vitality and flexibility of the organization, which in turn allows us to enhance corporate value and achieve sustainable growth.
With this recognition, we seek to ensure that more diverse people are able to thrive in our organization under our D&I slogan of “Recognizing Differences, Driving Individuality.” In particular, to enhance the diversity of our managers, we are working to develop female manager candidates. We believe that having manager-level staff with diverse perspectives and beliefs drive the organization forward will generate new ideas and values and lead to the evolution of the Company.
We have declared KPIs of a ratio of female employees of 30% by the end of fiscal 2026 and ratio of women in managerial positions of 20% by the end of fiscal 2030, and to achieve the KPIs, we have been implementing a Female Manager Candidates Development Support Program since December 2024. With the concept of “Building vertical and horizontal connections to remove feelings of isolation,” female manager candidates, managers (the supervisors of those candidates), and the executive management team work as a single entity to create opportunities for a workplace environment in which anyone, regardless of gender, can aim for managerial positions, and to allow female manager candidates to envision and realize their image of a leader who takes advantage of their own characteristics. In this program, female manager candidates, managers, and the executive management team conduct training at each level and consider the ideal workplace, support measures, and action plans through workshops. Through this program, we hope that the work of managerial positions will be embodied as an opportunity for challenge, that any anxieties about becoming a manager will be eased by following up on those opportunities, and that the candidates will experience first-hand the interesting nature of managerial roles.
We will continue to promote initiatives for the creation of a workplace environment that make it easier for women to aim for managerial positions and initiatives that will support their development.

We recognizes that the presence of diverse perspectives and values reflecting different experiences, skills, and attributes within the Company with respect to diversity of human resources will help the organization to remain active and flexible, and ultimately enhance corporate strength and achieve sustainable growth. We have set measurable goals for the advancement of women as described above and will work to achieve these goals.