Respect for Diversity

The Brother Group has been supporting diverse ways of working which will enable employees to maximize their ability to perform their best, given laws in each country and region, labor environments regardless of age, gender, nationality, disability, work history, etc. while maintaining the work environment and systems. Furthermore, we have been committed to promoting diversity by reinforcing in-house systems and reforming employees' consciousness, with the goal in mind that the right personnel, who are excellent in ability, personality, talent and behavior, will be placed in the right positions across national boundaries and lead the Group.

The Brother Group has been promoting the globalization of its executive personnel by appointing qualified persons, regardless of their nationality, to executive positions of the group companies in various countries and regions to realize community-based management. At facilities of the Brother Group, we are actively promoting local employees to executive positions—this includes promotion to the position of president at sales facilities of regional headquarters in the U.S. and China. In the group companies outside Japan, local employees occupied 67%^* of management positions in FY2021, increasing from 55% in FY2017.

When establishing new facilities and expanding its existing facilities, the Brother Group hires local people to revitalize regional economies and societies through job creation. The factory established in the Philippines in 2012, for example, employs approximately 6,000 local workers, and in Vietnam, two manufacturing facilities employ more than 14,000 local workers in total.

• Including Domino-related companies

The proportion of female managers among all managers differs between the Brother Group companies because the history of women's social advancement and their lifestyles and main occupations vary depending on countries and regions. However, women are active in many group facilities.

Please see the following for detailed data regarding supporting the success of women, such as the percentage of female employees in BIL.

In recognition of its efforts, BIL has been certified by Japan's Ministry of Health, Labour and Welfare, and the Aichi prefectural and the Nagoya city governments as an enterprise responding to diverse ways of working by promoting the success of women and providing support for child-rearing and so forth.

For details, please see the site for "Management with an Emphasis on Sustainability-Evaluation by External Entities- Evaluation Regarding the Promotion of the Success of Women, Support for Child-rearing, etc."

At BIL, employees with disabilities are working actively in the occupations and workplaces that suit their aptitudes and abilities.

In Japan, companies beyond a certain scale are required by law to ensure a certain percentage of their total workforce is comprised of persons with disabilities. In FY2021, the employment rate of persons with disabilities at BIL was 2.29%, which underperformed the statutory employment rate. However, in FY2022, the employment rate was 2.35%; thus, meeting the statutory requirement. We will continue to hire persons with disabilities and undertake measures to support their activities in the workplace.

• Includes incoming seconded employees but not temporary employees or fixed-term employees

BIL is continuously committed to its policy of building a workplace environment where employees, with or without disabilities, can deepen mutual understanding, strengthen collaboration among them, and maximize their abilities based on "Trust and Respect" stipulated in the Codes of Practice of the Global Charter.

To respond to legal changes, such as the revision of the "Act for Promotion of Employment of Persons with Disabilities," BIL has been providing employees with e-learning programs that teach the outlines and concepts of laws and workshops by the Brother Group employees who serve as job coaches to facilitate specific actions. In addition, BIL selects work and life consultants for disabled people, who provide advice and other support for employees with disabilities, from among employees in respective factories, and provides those consultants with a continuing educational program by an external teacher. In such ways, BIL builds a system that enables the entire workplace to understand and support employees with disabilities.

As part of its diversity promotion efforts, BIL is working to deepen understanding of LGBT issues and create an environment in which employees can work as themselves.
In 2019, BIL implemented an e-learning program on LGBT issues for managers and general employees. BIL has also been working to promote employee understanding of LGBT issues by including LGBT topics in training programs on human rights and labor issues for new employees in FY2019 and for new managers in FY2020.
In addition, BIL is making various other efforts to respect diversity, such as giving consideration to health checkups, removing the gender field from the annual employee awareness survey, and changing uniforms for men to those for women and men.

BIL has introduced a reemployment system that allows employees who wish to remain employed after the retirement age of 60 to continue working until the age of 65, providing them with a place where they can utilize the experience they have accumulated over the years and demonstrate their skills and know-how.
In FY2021, more than 80% of employees have requested to be rehired under the reemployment system, and BIL is rehiring all applicants.
In response to the diversification of work styles in recent years, BIL is also discussing the extension of the retirement age.

1. (Number of rehired staff / Number of retirees^*2) x 100
2. Number of retirees includes those who do not wish to be rehired