Diversity & Inclusion
Basic Approach
As a basic management policy, NSD recognizes that its employees are its greatest asset. The Group believes in the boundless potential of each and every employee, provides a healthy and comfortable working environment, and aims to be a Company where people can dream and take pride in their work.
NSD strives to create and maintain a comfortable working environment, creating a workplace where diverse human resources can play an active role with job satisfaction, regardless of gender, sexual orientation, age, educational background, race, ethnicity, nationality, ideology, beliefs, or physical, intellectual, or mental disability.In addition to making company-wide efforts to promote women’s advancement in the workplace, NSD is involved in initiatives for diversity in the workforce and equal opportunity by actively working to enhance our benefits programs for work-life balance and also by fostering an internal culture that makes it easy to benefit from such programs. In order to create a workplace free of discrimination, we respect the diversity of our employees and promote mutual understanding through D&I training and other programs.
Creating a Workplace Where Diverse Human Resources Can Thrive
Efforts to promote women's advancement in the workplace
In order to promote the active participation of women in the workplace, NSD has set a target of increasing the ratio of female employees to 30% or more and the ratio of women in management positions to 20% or more by fiscal 2030. Our recruitment activities are based on the policy of ensuring that at least 50% of all new graduates hired each year are women, with our aim to increase the ratio of female talent, including in management positions, as core to the Company's human resources.
As part of our efforts in recruiting new graduates, we provide opportunities for female students to come and speak with female employees of different age groups and careers helping to give them an idea of what their career could be like after joining the Company. We have also set up a page on our website introducing some of our female engineers and managers in an effort to provide more information from a female perspective.
As a result, the ratio of female employees and the ratio of women in management positions have been increasing year by year, and the ratio of women in new graduate hires over the latest period was approximately 50%. We have established a corporate culture where employees can feel free to take childcare leave and NSD follows up with them when they return to work. The percentage of female employees taking childcare leave has been 100% since FY2000, when we began taking this statistic, and the percentage of male employees taking childcare leave has increased substantially.
| FY2020 | FY2021 | FY2022 | FY2023 | FY2024 | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| employees (as of end of fiscal year) | 18.7% | 19.3% | 19.6% | 20.8% | 22.8% |
| In management positions (as of end of fiscal year) | 4.7% | 5.4% | 6.2% | 9.5% | 11.6% |
| FY2021 | FY2022 | FY2023 | FY2024 | FY2025 | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| New graduate hires (joined April 1) | 35.7% | 32.3% | 46.7% | 46.5% | 49.7% |
Initiatives toward work-life balance
As well as enhancing some of our benefits programs to support a balance between childcare, nursing care, medical treatment and employment, we are actively working to foster an internal culture that makes it easy to benefit from such systems with, for example, messages from senior management, educational booklets, and seminars on work-life balance.
In particular, we provide programs such as more childcare leave than statutory requirements and commuting at off-peak times as well as reduced working hours for employees with children under the 6th grade of primary school. We also provide leave options, such as allowing employees to take leave by the hour or accrue paid leave days to certain extent and granting annual leave for meritorious long service to employees with 10 or more years of service, so that each employee can readily take leave.
Also, we hold a childcare support system seminar for male employees in an effort to have more than 80% (by fiscal 2030) of all male employees take childcare leave.
See Balancing work with childcare, nursing care and medical treatment for more information.
Diversity in the workforce and equal opportunity training and initiatives
At NSD, we aim to instill a culture of acceptance and mutual respect within the Company by implementing D&I training, on-boarding and other inclusion strategies.
We respect the diversity of our employees and promote understanding through D&I training on topics such as "understanding D&I trends and company policies" and "countermeasures against unconscious bias", a well as e-learning programs and educational booklets on LGBTQ issues.
Outside Evaluation
Eruboshi mark
The Ministry of Health, Labour and Welfare has recognized NSD as a company that supports women's participation and advancement in the workplace, and NSD has received the highest level of the Eruboshi Certification, Level 3, based on the number of criteria we met.
Platinum Kurumin Certification
NSD has received "Kurumin Certification"* as a "childcare support company."
We have received certification five times in total, in 2008, 2013, 2016, 2021, and 2025, and in 2025 in particular, our higher level of efforts were recognized, and we received the "Platinum Kurumin Certification".
- *The "Kurumin Certification" is awarded by the Minister of Health, Labour and Welfare to companies that have formulated a General Employer Action Plan and met certain standards as "childcare support companies" based on the Act on Advancement of Measures to Support Raising Next-Generation Children.
Human Rights Initiatives
NSD supports international norms on human rights stipulated in the UN's International Bill of Human Rights and the International Labour Organization's ILO Declaration on Fundamental Principles and Rights at Work. In compliance with laws and regulations, we respect the basic labor rights of workers to act collectively, bargain collectively, and the right to organize.
At any time in or outside of the workplace, we will not engage in any behavior or make any remark that violates human rights, and we will not discriminate on the basis of gender, sexual orientation, age, educational background, race, ethnicity, nationality, ideology, beliefs, or physical, intellectual, or mental disability. In addition, we do not tolerate forced labor or child labor under any circumstances. In order to engage in procurement that takes human rights into consideration throughout the entire supply chain, we have established ourSustainability Procurement Guidelines which we encourage all our business partners to understand and implement.