To realize the Kureha Vision, "A specialty solutions company that leverages proprietary technology and contributes to a new future for society," the Group has positioned activity by diverse human resources" as a material issue. To do this, we aim to be a company where diverse human resources with different ideas and experiences play an active role based on their abilities and achievements, regardless of age, gender, nationality, and other factors, in accordance with our management strategy and business needs.
To realize our vision and accomplish our material issue, the current Mid- to Long-Term Management Plan includes the key measure of "synergism between company and employees" and aims to develop human resources, create a comfortable working environment, promote health, and improve employee engagement.

In accordance with Kureha's corporate governance structure, the Board of Directors makes decisions on important matters, such as human resources development policies and personnel systems. In addition, the Board of Directors regularly receives reports from the Human Resources Department, an executive division, on the status of efforts to have activity by diverse human resources, and monitors and supervises these efforts.

In our efforts to promote activity by diverse human resources, the human resources departments at the head office and business sites work together to study and promote various measures. In addition, the human resource departments of the entire Kureha Group share and exchange information and opinions not only on human resource policies but also on initiatives for human resource development and health promotion, and the entire Kureha Group promotes initiatives for human resource development, enhancement of work-life balance, health promotion, and improvement of the workplace environment.

Kureha Group's basic way of thinking about developing human capital is that we aim to cultivate human capital with diverse strengths whose performance we can count on and who have the self-motivation and career awareness to continually improve themselves.
To bring this about, we are actively promoting various measures, including education in the workplace, various systematic training programs, and support for autonomous career development that support the autonomous and continual growth of each employee.

In order for our company to continue to grow as a technology-driven manufacturer, it is essential that our technical human capital be active. We are promoting the development of such human resources under the education program of the Human Resource Development Committee for Technology and Innovation.

For female participation, we continually run a program where female employees are selected as candidates based on their potential to fulfill future management positions, and the candidates are provided with knowledge and skills, and helped to foster a mindset for management and administration.

Kureha is aiming to enable every employee to choose and realize flexible and productive work styles and diverse lifestyles according to their life stages, while gaining a sense of fulfillment and satisfaction.
To do this, we are working to enhance various systems, such as flextime, telecommuting, per half-day or per hour annual paid leave, so that employees can work vigorously, while maintaining harmony between work and family life, child-rearing, caregiving, and other life events. In addition, we hold seminars and prepare and publicize guidebooks to deepen understanding of the systems and promote their use.

The following is the Kureha Group's Basic Policy on Health: Based on the belief that good employee health is essential for corporate growth, Kureha works with the Health Insurance Society to support employees' efforts to maintain and improve their own health. The Group also has a Health and Productivity Management Strategy Map and is working to create an environment where all employees in the Group can be healthy, work to their full potential, and grow.

Through Healthcare Promotion Meetings, Kureha supervises every aspect of health and productivity management throughout the Company. These meetings are supervised by the President as the Chief Executive Officer and the Director and General Manager of the Administration Division as the Chief Health and Productivity Management Officer, and members consist of persons in charge of human resources and safety and health at each of the Company's business sites, and the Health Insurance Society. Also, in FY2023 the Group started a health improvement committee composed of the people in charge of personnel and general affairs at each of the Group's companies. The committee is working to maintain and improve health throughout the Group.

We are working to reduce risks that threaten our employees' health through reassessment of diet, exercise, and other fundamental, daily lifestyle habits, and prevention and early detection of stress-related illnesses such as mental health problems. In this way, Kureha aims to maintain and improve employees' mental and physical health.

The psychological connection (engagement) of employees to the company is essential for the sustainable growth of the Group. The feelings that employees have that make a psychological connection to the company range from "I am proud of the company, I like my colleagues, and I enjoy my daily work" to "I share the company's vision and policies" and "I have opportunities to grow through my work," each of which is a driving force for employees to work with high motivation. For this reason, we started engagement surveys in FY2023.
We have analyzed the issues raised by the results of our engagement survey and are taking the following steps to improve engagement.

Town hall meetings are held to clarify and disseminate the vision and management policies and to promote mutual understanding between management and employees through dialogue with top management and small-group dialogues with management.

We hold seminars and workshops for line managers, the former are to explain engagement and the latter are to consider improvement measures. Issues in each department are analyzed, and plans to enhance engagement are formulated and implemented.

Kureha has established and is promoting an action plan based on the Act on the Promotion of Women's Active Engagement in Professional Life to promote a healthy work-life balance, and to create a comfortable and rewarding work environment so that each employee can make the most of their individual talents and fully realize their potential.

To curb excessive working hours and promote health management, Kureha has had a prior approval system for overtime work since FY2016. Also, for employees who have overtime exceeding the company's internally established standard, supervisors check the reasons for the overtime and the outlook for the following months to ensure that such overtime does not become a regular occurrence. Furthermore, PC logs are used to appropriately manage working hours, aiming to ensure proper management of working hours and reduce overtime work.

Kureha is committed to creating an environment in which employees can work to their full potential, and has established systems that are accessible to both men and women according to their parental and nursing care needs, such as paid leave days for childcare, nursing, and caregiving, and shorter working hours. In addition, to deepen employees' understanding of these systems and promote their use, we have prepared a guidebook to explain work and family life balance support systems, which is posted on the intranet where employees can access it at any time.

Kureha has established a system that exceeds the legal requirement including a caregiving leave period of up to two years (and three times). In addition, to promote understanding of the various systems in society, we have created a handbook for supporting the balance between work and caregiving and have made sure employees know about it. The handbook not only has an explanation of the company’s system but also explanations of public long-term care insurance systems and specific examples of their use, making it easy for employees to use. In addition, we proactively provide information on caregiving to employees by holding online seminars with external lecturers.

To prevent lifestyle-related diseases, Kureha encourages 100% of employees to undergo health checkups and secondary checkups, has industrial physicians and public health nurses provide health guidance to employees who need to take measures against lifestyle-related diseases. In addition, Kureha regularly organizes walking events sponsored by the Health Insurance Society and stretching lessons given by outside instructors to promote opportunities for exercise. Cancer screenings are offered to women during working hours, leading to early detection and early treatment of breast and uterine cancer. We are also working to create an environment where employees can view the history of their own health checkup results on their PCs.

To maintain and promote the mental health of our employees, we strive to prevent mental health problems and improve the work environment by holding regular training and e-learning sessions, as well as explanatory meetings on how to read the results of collective analyses of stress checks. In addition, we have a consultation service staffed by counselors from professional organizations outside Kureha and provide interview guidance by industrial physicians. For those on leave, we have a support system in place to help smooth employees' return to work.

In consideration of the negative health effects of second-hand smoke, Kureha is making efforts to reduce the number of smoking areas in our business sites, hold anti-tobacco seminars, and create an environment where smokers feel motivated to quit by recommending the Health Insurance Society's No Smoking Challenge (financial aid for employees who try to quit smoking). From FY2025, smoking is prohibited during working hours.

All regular employees are members of the Kureha Labor Union except for those who have been specially determined in consultation with us. Note that the results of the negotiations between labor and management will apply to all regular employees, including those who have been exempted from the Labor Union.
Kureha and the Kureha Labor Union hold a monthly management council as a space to respect the constructive opinions of both labor and management. With a common understanding of Kureha's management situation and various other issues, we discuss various measures to improve the work-life balance of our employees and other improvements in working conditions, introducing programs for flexible workstyles and enhancing benefit programs. Moreover, we usually try to provide at least one month's notice of any changes in business. We also hold regular labor-management co-sponsored events and branch council meetings at each business location to promote communication between the Company and staff. We will continue to maintain close and amicable communications between labor and management in order to grow the Company and improve the economic status and welfare of all of our employees.
Furthermore, in its remuneration system, the Company adheres to paying salaries above the legal minimum wage and applies a uniform payment level across genders in the same job category and grade.