Sustainability

Takara Holdings, Takara Shuzo, and Takara Shuzo International aim to acquire human resources who will realize global business growth through continuous mid-career recruitment and new graduate recruitment. Our human resources development efforts center on training through job rotation, such as assignment of young employees to Takara Shuzo International Co., Ltd. and overseas posts. To provide them learning opportunities to acquire language skills necessary for global business, we support those who attend language schools, take online English lessons, etc. For those who are transferred to overseas positions, we offer a support program that helps them be mentally prepared to live abroad and learn the custom and lifestyle of the host country, in addition to supporting them with language skills acquisition. As measures to support employees’ independent learning, we allow them to take multiple correspondence courses related to language learning, provide opportunities for all employees to take the TOEIC® tests by group application, and regularly hold Global Café, an exchange program between employees working in Japan and overseas Group employees. Through these and other measures, we are fostering a corporate culture that actively promotes global business development.

〇Human Resource Development and Training System

The Takara Group is moving forward with initiatives in every group company in line with an action plan that is based on the Act on Promotion of Women’s Participation and Advancement in the Workplace to further promote the advancement of female employees’ careers. Takara Holdings, Takara Shuzo, and Takara Shuzo International conduct training programs for mid-level employees, including women, with the aim of supporting their career development while balancing work and life events. In addition, training is provided for managers who supervise female employees, to help create a work environment in which women can be more motivated and engaged. We also hold roundtable discussions between female employees and female managers, designed to offer insights and inspiration for employees in planning their own careers. The companies plan to newly appoint at least 50 women to manager and assistant manager positions by fiscal year 2030 as a mid- to long-term target. As of April 2025, a total of 44 women have been appointed. The proportion of women in managerial positions was 10.2% as of April 2025, exceeding the companies’ target of achieving at least 10% by the end of fiscal year 2025.

At Takara Holdings, Takara Shuzo, Takara Shuzo International, and Takara Bio, we have created an environment where all employees who wish to continue working after the mandatory retirement age of 60 can do so until the age of 65 through our post-retirement re-employment system. The percentage of employees rehired after retirement is 77% for Takara Holdings, Takara Shuzo, and Takara Shuzo International combined over the past three years (FY2021-FY2023), and 86% for Takara Bio. As part of measures to ensure employment opportunities until the age of 70, Takara Holdings, Takara Shuzo, and Takara Shuzo International introduced a system of continued employment until the age of 70 in October 2022, and Takara Bio introduced a system in April 2023.

When hiring people with disabilities, we ensure that our workplaces are conducive to allowing these individuals to exercise their talents. Approaches to doing so include understanding the individual’s work skills, establishing and developing a range of work tasks suited to the person’s circumstances, and improving the workplace environment. Additionally, people with disabilities participate in professional work alongside able bodied employees as we strive to create an environment in which they will feel a sense of purpose in their job. As of April 1, 2024, Takara Holdings employed 10 persons with disabilities (7 persons legally employed, 3.12% employment rate), Takara Shuzo 37 persons (29 persons legally employed, 2.92% employment rate), and Takara Bio 21 persons (20 persons legally employed, 2.56% employment rate).

The Takara Group strives to maintain and improve a safe and hygienic work environment, aiming for zero workplace accidents while complying with all relevant safety and health regulations. In the event of an occupational accident, we promptly identify the cause and implement necessary measures such as equipment improvements and safety training.

Information on any accidents is shared at the monthly Occupational Safety and Health Promotion Meeting to ensure company-wide awareness and horizontal deployment of preventive measures. We also take immediate action, including preparing reports and submitting required notifications, in accordance with prescribed procedures. To prevent accidents before they occur, we conduct regular workplace inspections by occupational physicians and other initiatives to ensure safety and peace of mind. In addition, safety training for employees at manufacturing plants is provided as needed.

As part of our commitment to maintaining and improving employee health, we conduct legally mandated health checkups and annual stress checks. Employees identified as having high stress levels and who request support are offered consultations with an occupational physician. If work-related measures are deemed necessary, we implement them accordingly to help prevent mental health issues before they arise.

In addition, we analyze stress check results at the organizational level to monitor workplace stress conditions and take steps to improve the work environment where needed. Moving forward, we will continue working closely with occupational physicians and the Takara Group Health Insurance Association to reduce health risks and promote employee well-being.

The Takara Group operates globally and is committed to maintaining a comfortable and safe working environment while complying with local labor laws and regulations in each country and region where we conduct business. We strictly prohibit excessive working hours, forced overtime, and any form of compulsory labor, in accordance with labor standards laws, and require managers to pay close attention to the physical and mental well-being of their team members. Furthermore, all recruitment activities in each country are conducted in compliance with local laws. To prevent child labor and forced labor, we ensure thorough age verification during the hiring process and strictly adhere to statutory minimum wage requirements.

From the perspective of preventing health problems caused by long working hours, we have a system in place that prohibits overtime work in excess of 60 hours per month and work on Sundays as a general rule, and ensures that managers thoroughly manage overtime hours, as well as a system in which the person in charge of management at each workplace and the human resources department also check progress in the middle of the month . Under the Article 36 Agreement, we limit the maximum extended working hours to 75 hours per month. We also ensure that the total hours of overtime work and work on holidays in excess of 40 hours a week do not exceed 80 hours a month, in an effort to reduce excessive working hours.

For employees posted overseas, we require them to undergo a medical examination before they leave for their new post and again when they return, and in principle we also arrange for them to have an annual medical examination after they have arrived at their new post. In addition, if they need to receive vaccinations for tetanus, rabies, etc. when they are posted to an Asian country, we will pay for them.

Takara Holdings has built a sound labor-management relationship with the TaKaRa Labor Union, founded on mutual trust between employees and management. We regularly provide reports on business management and discuss labor conditions at meetings of the Labor-Management Council and various special committees on labor-management relations.

As part of efforts to support the balance between work and family life, Takara Holdings, Takara Shuzo, and Takara Shuzo International have expanded their telecommuting system, which was previously limited to those engaged in childcare or nursing care, to cover all employees except those who are required to come into the office for work, such as factory workers. In order to promote diverse working styles, the system has been expanded to allow employees to take annual paid leave on telecommuting days in hourly increments in addition to half-day increments. In addition, from April 2024, the requirements for taking accumulated paid leave have been expanded as a mechanism to support employees in balancing work and infertility treatment, and accumulated paid leave can now be taken in half-day increments.

Each of the Takara Group companies is making efforts in line with an action plan based on the Act on Advancement of Measures to Support Raising Next-Generation Children. Takara Holdings, Takara Shuzo, and Takara Shuzo International are working to maintain and improve the level of childcare leave utilization, with the targets of “100% of employees returning from childcare leave” and “30% or more of male employees taking childcare leave.”

In fiscal year 2024, the percentage of male employees taking childcare leave was 84.6%, as a result of efforts to create an environment that makes it easier for male employees to take childcare leave, such as by individually informing male employees about the leave, holding individual interviews with them to confirm their intentions at an early timing, and following up after the interviews, as well as the establishment of a company-wide consultation desk within the Personnel Division.

To realize Takara Group’s Vision, we need each and every employee to understand and sympathize with the goals and vision of the organization and to encourage them to voluntarily demonstrate their capabilities while bringing their diverse strengths together, and thereby maximize our ability to get things done as an organization. Recognizing that we cannot improve productivity or generate innovation without fostering a sense of satisfaction among our employees such as by improving their engagement, we have been conducting an employee engagement survey since fiscal year 2022, and the survey was conducted for the second time in fiscal year 2024. In conducting the survey, in order to more accurately grasp the situation of the Company, we designed our own survey with the cooperation of external experts, using five indicators: “Company,” “Workplace,” “Supervisor,” “Job,” and “Systems.” We share the issues identified in the analysis of the survey with all our employees, including executives, and work to further improve employee engagement through initiatives under the company-wide project to reform our corporate culture and by strengthening career development support programs.