Respect for Diversity

The Basic Policies of the Brother Group Global Charter (hereinafter referred to as the "Global Charter") stipulate that "the Brother Group respects diversity and provides a working environment that enables our associates to utilize their talents and abilities to the fullest. The Brother Group gives them great opportunity through challenging work assignments and provides them with fair, attractive financial rewards." In addition, the Codes of Practice in the Global Charter state that "we must always honor individuals and diversity and act with trust and respect." In accordance with the Global Charter, the Brother Group develops and maintains workplace environments and systems based on the laws and labor conditions of each country and region to ensure that employees can fully utilize their individual abilities regardless of age, gender, nationality, disability, or work history. Furthermore, we have been committed to promoting DE&I^* 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.

• Abbreviation of Diversity, Equity & Inclusion, a concept of respecting people's diversity and right to equality and encouraging organizations and society to promote more diverse values by including them

The Brother Group aims for its global facilities to autonomously manage operations tailored to local market conditions by promoting local talent to top management positions. As a result of actively advancing local staff to management positions, including presidents at major sales facilities in the United States, China, and other countries, the proportion of local employees in top management positions of the Brother Group's facilities outside Japan increased from 61% in 2018 to 67%^*1 in 2023.

In order to appoint qualified individuals to management positions regardless of their nationality and enable each facility to autonomously drive management suited to the local culture and environment, the Brother Group has set "enhancing talent development and governance to encourage the assignment of local employees to top management positions of facilities outside Japan" as a sustainability goal for its medium-term strategy "CS B2024." Based on the belief that the systematic development of successors, especially those of management personnel at each facility, is crucial to achieve this goal, the DEI Subcommittee, established under the Sustainability Committee, conducted a review of HR policies at major facilities outside Japan from FY2022 to FY2023. While this review revealed issues, such as a lack of coordination between talent development initiatives and succession plans, it also identified good practices independently implemented at some Asian sales facilities, such as setting necessary skills and requirements for each position, incorporating them into evaluation systems, and linking them to talent development and recruitment activities.

In the future, the Brother Group will set up opportunities to share good practices among facilities outside Japan and deepen discussions on optimal talent placement and development based on each facility's role and characteristics, as well as discussions on governance structures to support autonomous facility management, thereby enhancing the balance between regional and global management.

Furthermore, the Brother Group contributes to the revitalization of local communities and economies by creating employment opportunities through the establishment and expansion of manufacturing facilities. For example, the manufacturing facility established in the Philippines in 2012 employs over 7,000 local people, and the two manufacturing facilities in Vietnam together employ over 11,000 local people.

1. Including Domino-related companies
2. As of the end of March 2024

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.

1. As of March 31 of each FY
2. Includes temporary employees and seconded employees. Doesn't include Directors, Corporate Auditors, and Executive Officers
3. Recalculated and updated based on the standards of *2
4. Updated to the figures with revised calculation methods for the number of persons and ratios from March 2020 to March 2022 for Brother International Europe Ltd.

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. The employment rate of persons with disabilities at BIL was 2.34% in FY2023; thus, meeting the statutory requirement of 2.3%^*1. We will continue our efforts to create workplace environments where persons with disabilities can work with peace of mind, both in terms of their recruitment and their success.

BIL is continuously committed to its policy of building workplace environments 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.

1. Statutory employment rate for FY2023. The statutory employment rate for FY2024 is 2.5%.
2. Including direct employees (including contract and temporary employees) and those seconded to locations in and out of Japan (excluding employees seconded from other companies)

Lecture on Employment of People with Disabilities

In FY2023, BIL held a lecture on the employment of people with disabilities to expand employment opportunities for them and promote understanding within the company. This lecture was conducted for BIL's executives, managers, and presidents of BIL's group companies in Japan, with approximately 140 attendees.

Toward the employment of people with disabilities beyond the legal requirements, the lecture discussed the general state of employment of people with disabilities in society and what companies need to do to support their employment. Feedback from participants includes "I realized that understanding the individual is essential for people with disabilities to work with psychological safety" and "I felt that I might have been overly attentive to my wheelchair-using subordinate. I learned that it is important to confirm what the person wants rather than acting based on my own assumptions."

Using this lecture as a starting point, in FY2024, BIL will implement activities aimed at all employees to promote understanding of expanding employment opportunities for people with disabilities.

As part of its diversity promotion efforts, BIL is working to deepen understanding of LGBT issues and create environments 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 FY2023, more than 80% of employees have requested to be rehired under the reemployment system, and BIL is rehiring all applicants.

Shift to mandatory retirement age of 65 (from FY2026)

BIL will set the "retirement age at 65" for employees who will reach 60 years of age in FY2029 and thereafter. As a transitional period until then, the retirement age will be incrementally extended starting from FY2026.
In addition, in preparation for the transition to the retirement age of 65, BIL has revised the "Brother Reemployment System" to promote the active work of senior employees. This revision more clearly defines the standards and levels of senior employees' roles and establishes a new evaluation and compensation system based on them. BIL believes this will allow the company to appropriately evaluate and fairly reward senior employees who deliver high performance and contributions.

Furthermore, BIL will expand employment opportunities for individuals who can continue to deliver high performance and contributions even after the age of 65.

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