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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.
In order to make better decisions and achieve continuous growth, we promote initiatives centered on the advancement of young employees, mid-career recruits, and female employees. Starting in FY2025, we revised the required years of service for promotion to encourage appointments that are not based on age or length of service at the company, and we are now operating our systems in a way that ensures that taking childcare leave and other similar absences do not become an obstacle to career development. The number of mid-career hires is also increasing, and they now account for 23.1% of all managerial positions within our company (178 people, as of March 31, 2026). As for the percentage of female employees in managerial positions, given that the figure stood at around 4% as of FY2021, we first focused on increasing the percentage of female employees at the junior manager level with the aim of expanding the pool of future female managerial candidates, and by FY2022, that figure exceeded 15%. Furthermore, we have set phased targets of at least 10% by the end of FY2026 (as of March 31, 2027) and at least 20% by the end of FY2031 (as of March 31, 2032), and we are systematically advancing our efforts to promote appointments. As a result, the percentage of female managers stood at 9.1% as of the end of FY2025 (as of March 31, 2026), demonstrating progress that is generally in line with our medium-term target. At the same time, we recognize that we need to further accelerate the pace of appointments in order to achieve our target by the end of FY2031. That is why we are strengthening initiatives to accelerate promotions to managerial positions, including offering training programs in which female managerial candidates work on stretch assignments together with their supervisors, providing opportunities to network with female managers outside the company, and a mentoring system where Executive Directors, Division Directors, and other senior executives serve as mentors. We will continue to develop systems that ensure fair recruitment, training, and promotion regardless of age, length of service at the company, or gender.
| 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 FY2025: 9.1% |
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. In terms of streamlining our operations, we are promoting DX and improving our systems by utilizing IT. Additionally, to create an attractive work environment, we are promoting a balanced work-life style that utilizes a super-flexible work schedule system, a telecommuting system, and a work interval system. In addition, we have been working to create a more comfortable work environment by granting a uniform 20 days of annual paid leave regardless of length of service at the company, adopting a business-casual dress code, and introducing “Casual Fridays” among other initiatives. In FY2025, in addition to expanding the application of the super-flexible work schedule system for factory workers, we promoted the development of a more flexible and comfortable working environment by, for example, granting employees on single-person assignments lasting more than five years one additional monthly leave day to return home. 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 80% of our male employees take either childcare leave or shortened work hours.
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 addition, we strive to create a comfortable work environment by establishing a nursing room so that female employees—who still have to breastfeed after returning to work from taking leave—can work with peace of mind, and by actively supporting the balance between work and childcare.
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 (FY2025) |
|---|---|---|
| Increase either the percentage of childcare leave or the percentage of shortened 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. It started as a printing business of the ONO Group, and has since expanded into domains such as design, web-related services, office support, and herbal cultivation, creating opportunities for people with disabilities to thrive by making the most of their individual abilities.
By providing a workplace that offers a sense of fulfillment in this way, we aim to contribute to a sustainable society. Currently, 32 employees with disabilities are thriving and playing an active role at Ono Pharma UD, and 34 such employees are doing the same at the parent company.
Employment rate of persons with disabilities
As part of our promotion of DE&I, we respect diversity, including sexual orientation, gender identity (SOGI), and gender expression, and are committed to ensuring psychological safety for LGBTQ+ employees and creating a workplace where they can work with peace of mind.
In recognition of these activities, we were awarded the Gold designation in the PRIDE Index 2025, 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+ employees.
For more information about the PRIDE Index, 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 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 strive to secure a market-competitive level of compensation, taking into account external market standards, in order to attract and retain the talent necessary for our company’s continuous business growth. In addition, we are committed to maintaining an appropriate wage level that supports the stability of our employees’ lives, and we promote the creation of workplaces where employees can work with peace of mind and fully demonstrate their abilities. We comply with the Minimum Wage Act of Japan and all other relevant laws and regulations concerning wages in Japan.
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, 2026, the ONO Pharmaceutical Labor Union has 1,895 members and the ONO Pharmaceutical Chemical & General Workers’ Union has 11 members. The company and both labor unions regularly hold labor-management meetings to discuss not only working conditions such as working hours and wages, but also initiatives and measures to enhance job satisfaction and workplace comfort. Through these dialogues, the company and both unions deepen mutual understanding and build cooperative and healthy labor-management relationships. Based on these relationships, we promote the creation of workplaces where employees can work with peace of mind.