People working for Mitsui & Co. Group have diverse values and backgrounds. Individual employees have their own views and responsibilities in their private lives. While everybody faces unique circumstances, we all approach our work as professionals and do our best to achieve our full potential with a sense of independence and responsibility, while also striving to balance work and life.

Based on the concept of work-life management, which enables individuals to achieve a work-life balance as managers of their own work and lives, Mitsui has introduced various systems and support structures that exceed statutory requirements, especially in relation to life-changing responsibilities, such as raising children and providing care for sick or aging family members.

Mitsui & Co. Group companies pursue initiatives that reflect local laws and living environments in the countries where they are active, with the aim of creating structures that will enable employees to achieve an optimal work-life balance based on each individual’s thinking and choices with regard to childbirth and child raising.

As part of our efforts to alleviate concerns about taking maternity leave or childcare leave and support employees taking childcare leave to make a smooth return to the workplace, we provide pre-leave orientations for the employees to take part alongside their line manager. The orientation provides the employee with the opportunity to consider at an earlier stage how to spend their time during the leave, and also how to manage working and childcare after returning to work. Furthermore, it provides the line manager with the opportunity to gain a fuller understanding of the employee and to think about how to build an environment that will support the employee's future career-building and work-life management. This initiative helps individuals to change their mindset in positive ways and deepens understanding in the workplace, and it also encourages male employees to take childcare leave.

In addition to partially subsidizing costs at childcare facilities, including those for extended hours, Mitsui partially covers housekeeping service costs in order to support a flexible childcare system that suits each employee's situation. We also have concluded a contract with an external childcare facility located inside the Head Office building, allowing our employees to use the service on a monthly or temporary basis.

We have also established a concierge service that is available to any employee who needs help to cope with fears and concerns ahead of childbirth or problems that can arise when raising children. The service provides access to wide-ranging advice about how to use Mitsui’s systems and support programs.

As a company that supports employees with children, Mitsui has received Platinum Kurumin certification in recognition of its enhanced work-life balance initiatives. Click here for details.

Mitsui & Co. Group companies implement measures that reflect local laws and living environments in the countries where they are active, with the aim of creating structures that will enable employees to achieve an optimal work-life balance based on each individual’s thinking and choices with regard to care for sick or elderly family members.

We regularly hold family care seminars during lunch breaks for employees to gain information that is necessary for the preparation of, or during, family care. At the seminars, in addition to helping them understand what it really means to balance work and family care, we deal with specific topics, such as how to choose the best family care facility. Videos of the seminars are made available for viewing. Furthermore, we have established an environment for providing necessary information in a variety of forms, such as posting the Handbook for Assisting Work alongside Family Care on the company intranet.

As a way of alleviating the concerns and anxiety employees might have in their individual circumstances, we have concluded a contract with an external NPO to provide opportunities for face-to-face individual consultations on family care with family care experts every month. We have been facilitating teleconferences as well so that employees overseas can make use of the consultations, and also have set up a system to allow consultations via email or telephone for urgent inquiries or when the employees cannot attend a face-to-face session. In addition, we have developed an internal consultation system that allows employees to consult directly with the Human Resources & General Affairs Division on such matters as how to use and benefit from internal systems and support programs and how to realize optimum work-life management.