As we accelerate the global expansion of our business, the environment in which our employees operate is becoming more diverse than ever, which is why it is important for us to promote Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DE&I) so that all employees can play an active role in the company while demonstrating the full extent of their abilities. Specifically, in order to achieve continuous business growth, it is important to employ, train and retain human resources and to achieve the status where "employees can work safely and actively while respecting different and diversified values." For this reason, we are promoting a wide range of initiatives, including a system that allows each employee to demonstrate their individuality, a fair, highly transparent, and attractive corporate culture, as well as a flexible work environment that can adapt to change. We established "Difference" × "Sense of Unity" as a theme for promoting DE&I. New awareness and ideas will emerge when human resources with different backgrounds and ideas work together. Our aim is to become a company that has a sense of unity and is attractive to people outside the company, and to create an organization full of human resources who desire to work actively in our company for a long time by fostering a corporate culture that embraces diversity. Click here to see the results of the engagement survey.
Our efforts to promote diversity focus on three main areas: management*, individual experiences and perspectives, and work styles.
When it comes to the diversification of managerial positions, we promote diversification particularly in three main areas: young employees, mid-career recruits, and female employees. Specifically, effective FY2025, we have eliminated the required years of service for promotion, which had previously been a condition for advancement. This makes it possible for talented employees to be selected for promotion at an early stage regardless of age or company history, and also ensures that taking childcare leave or other similar absences does not become an obstacle to career development. We also actively appoint mid-career recruits to managerial positions. There are currently around 160 mid-career recruits who are playing an active role as managers, which is 22% （in FY2024） of all managerial positions within our company. As for the active engagement of female employees in managerial positions, the ratio of female managers still remains at 7.4% (FY2024) and this continues to be one of the challenges our company. In order to our targets of raising the ratio of female managers to a 10% by FY2026 and 20% by FY2031, we have implemented new initiatives since FY2024. These include training programs for female employees (aimed at fostering growth opportunities for future female managerial candidates, in which participants work on stretch assignments together with their supervisors and receive coaching from external instructors), and a mentoring system (where Exective Directors and Division Directors serve as mentors to female employees, helping to broaden their perspectives and encouraging them to take on managerial roles). In addition , we conducted for all Senior Directors-level-managers on how to control unconscious bias and apply these insights to their management practices. We will continue to develop systems and environments that enable recruitment, training, and retention of talent in a fair manner regardless of age, company history, or gender as we strive to achieve our goals.
| Goal | Action plan | Annual Results |
|---|---|---|
| Increase the percentage of female employees at managerial level to 10% or higher by FY2026. |
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The percentage of female employees at managerial level FY2024: 7.4% |
In promoting the diversification of managerial positions, individual experiences, and perspectives, we believe it is important to not only diversify work styles, but to also continuously develop work environments to make it easier for our employees to work. We constantly strive to improve work-life balance by reforming work styles that contribute to recruiting and securing excellent talent. We have also been promoting DX and improving our systems by utilizing IT to further streamline our operations, and in order to create an attractive work environment, we introduced several systems that eliminates core time, such as a super-flex time system, a telecommuting system, and a work interval system. In FY2024, we increased the number of annual paid leave days granted (uniformly 20 days) regardless of length of service, and we have revised our dress code to office casual. In addition, we have introduced “Casual Fridays,” which allow employees to wear even more casual attire, such as jeans, every Friday. Through these initiatives, we aim to create a more flexible and comfortable working environment and to promote a work style with a better work-life balance. Through such efforts to diversify work styles, we will create an attractive work environment, which will help to enhance our company’s competitiveness in recruitment and secure excellent talent.
We believe that society as a whole should support families raising children and that creating an environment that supports childbearing and childrearing is one of the challenges that companies should address. We formulated an action plan based on the "Act on Advancement of Measures to Support Raising Next-Generation Children," and are working to support employees in balancing their work and childrearing.
We are currently working toward our goal of having at least 80% of our male employees take either childcare leave or reduce the amount of hours that they work.
To foster a workplace culture where it is easy to take childcare leave, we have posted a video on our internal web portal site that summarizes the details of our maternity and childcare leave systems, as well as our support programs for balancing work and childcare. We also conduct a childcare leave return-to-work orientation to help reduce anxiety and support a smooth transition back to work after leave. In addition, to promote and raise awareness of childcare leave among male employees, we have published the "ONO Father Childcare Leave SUPPORT BOOK" on our internal portal site, which introduces the current status of paternity leave and shares experiences from male employees who have taken childcare leave.
In recognition of these activities to support a balance of work and childcare and create a supportive work environment, we were certified by the Minister of Health, Labor and Welfare as a standard-compliant general company, and we were awarded the mark of certification (Platinum Kurumin certification) as a childcare support company.
| Goal | Action plan | Annual Results |
|---|---|---|
| Increase either the percentage of childcare leave or the percentage of reduced working hours taken by male employees to 80% or higher by FY2026. |
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Percentage of Male Employees Taking Childcare Leave
Retention rate of female Employees*
While employees may take leave when they cannot come to work due to attendance to weddings, funerals, and other ceremonies of their own or their family members, moving for job transfer, and accidents, disasters, and other events of force majeure, we also have systems in which special paid leave can be taken under other circumstances.
| Category | Menu |
|---|---|
| Childcare & Nursing Care | Childcare Support |
| Nursing Care Assistance | |
| Health Support | Optional Medical Checkup Subsidy |
| Sports Facility Usage Subsidy | |
| Self-Development Support | Self-Development Facility/Service Subsidy |
| Academic Society & Certification Maintenance Fee Subsidy | |
| Life Support | Housing Loan Subsidy |
| Rental Housing Subsidy | |
| Infertility Treatment Subsidy | |
| Leisure Support | Travel Subsidy |
| Entertainment & Leisure Facility Usage Subsidy |
We have been proactively promoting the employment of persons with disabilities and creating a work environment where persons with disabilities can work easily. In April 2022, we established a 100% subsidiary, Ono Pharma UD Co., Ltd., in order to provide more working opportunities for persons with disabilities. In October 2022, it was certified as a specified subsidiary and engaged in printing business at the beginning. In the future, we will expand it as a place where employees with disabilities can fully show their abilities and work actively in a greater variety of businesses. As mentioned above, we would like to contribute to a sustainable society by providing worksites where employees can engage in meaningful work. Currently, more than 40 employees are working actively.
Employment rate of persons with disabilities
We are engaging in creating worksites where our employees respect diversity, such as sexual orientation and gender identification (SOGI), sexual expression, where individuals who are LGBTQ+ can ensure their psychological safety and work, as part of promotion of DE&I. Additionally, we regularly implement e-learning courses for all employees, seminars with external speakers and our LGBTQ+ individuals , and training specifically designed for managers in order to promote employees’ understanding of SOGI and enable them to respond appropriately based on accurate knowledge.
In addition, in order to visually convey to all parties concerned that there are Allies (people who understand and support LGBTQ+) within the company, we have created original Ally stickers, which we distribute to employees who wish to receive them.
In recognition of these activities, we were awarded the "Silver" designation in the "PRIDE Index 2024," organized by the General Incorporated Association Work with Pride. This index evaluates the initiatives of companies and organizations regarding LGBTQ+ inclusion.
We will continue to steadily implement each of our initiatives to create a comfortable working environment for our LGBTQ+ individuals.
For more information on PRIDE indicators, please see here.
In October 2023, we rolled out the Global HR System with the aim of enabling our diverse workforce to play an active role globally with a common set of values. Specifically, we aim to standardize HR policies and business processes such as talent management by globally unifying the concepts and processes of each system, namely grade, evaluation, and compensation, which comprise the framework of the system.
The duties and responsibilities of each employee are clarified, and grades are determined according to common global standards. This will foster a sense of satisfaction regarding the required roles, achievements, and compensation, and will encourage employee career autonomy by clarifying the requirements for each position.
We have established common global competencies (a clear statement of the way we expect our employees to think and act), and concurrently standardized evaluation items, scales, and processes. This will promote the activities and development of talent across countries and locations, and encourage employees to demonstrate their competencies. In addition, we have included "fairness and integrity" in competencies and included compliance in all employees' personnel evaluations in an effort to improve employees’ awareness of compliance by directly linking it to their compensation. Individual goals are set at the beginning of each fiscal year, cascading down from higher-level goals. In addition to quarterly interviews held during the fiscal year, these goals are updated as necessary by communicating according to changes in each employee’s circumstances. At the end of the fiscal year, a summary interview and evaluation feedback interview are held to discuss the individual strengths and weaknesses of each employee, and to discuss future career development.
We are establishing global common guidelines that define the overall approach to compensation for the Ono Pharmaceutical Group, as well as the key principles for designing compensation systems at each group company. We will reward employees who produce results and demonstrate competency, and help motivate employees, attract top talent, and promote talent retention by utilizing a market-competitive compensation system.
We pay wages to our employees in compliance with the Labor Standards Act and all other relevant laws and regulations concerning wages. We protect the lives of our employees and promote the creation of workplaces where employees can work with peace of mind.
We have two labor unions: the ONO Pharmaceutical Labor Union, which is a nationwide organization, and the ONO Pharmaceutical Chemical & General Workers’ Union at the Joto Pharmaceutical Product Development Center. As of March 31, 2025, the ONO Pharmaceutical Labor Union has 1948 members and the ONO Pharmaceutical Chemical & General Workers’ Union has 11 members. Both unions have good relationships with the company.