What aspects of Mitsui’s corporate culture are part of the DNA that should be preserved, and what aspects would you like to evolve?

In my early thirties, I was seconded to the World Bank, where I worked alongside nearly 40 colleagues of different nationalities, age groups, and genders. It was a challenging experience in an environment where perspectives and ways of thinking differed greatly from my own. At the same time, I realized that the knowledge and experience I had built over 10 years at Mitsui was valuable in that environment, which gave me tremendous confidence. I believe this was possible because of Mitsui’s DNA of Challenge and Innovation and open-mindedness, as well as the corporate culture and environment cultivated by our predecessors that encourage people to take on challenges.
This corporate culture and environment remain key strengths that Mitsui should continue to preserve. At the same time, in an era characterized by heightened uncertainty and rapid change, it is more important than ever to continuously update our understanding of how Mitsui can contribute to society and what strengths we can leverage in doing so. Throughout my own career, I have become convinced that people are the source of corporate value enhancement. There is no limit to human growth, and it is also management’s important responsibility to maximize each individual’s potential and create an environment that supports autonomous career development.
To further strengthen our organizational capabilities, we will work to enhance employee engagement across the global group and make use of Bloom, our global talent management system, to implement strategic talent deployment aligned with management priorities based on a comprehensive global database. By promoting opportunities for talent beyond the boundaries of hiring location, region, and business, we will continue evolving into an organization that maximizes the potential of every individual.

Please share your views on employee engagement and investments in human capital.

Employee engagement surveys assess factors such as employees’ sense of fulfillment, pride, and growth. At the same time, they also reflect how deeply company and organizational strategies, visions, and management leadership are understood and embraced by employees. As CHRO, I am committed to improving employee engagement across Mitsui’s global group. In addition, metrics related to human capital are extremely important in demonstrating the effectiveness of our initiatives to stakeholders, and I believe such information should be disclosed as extensively as possible. When measuring outcomes, if challenges are identified, we must address them sincerely and use them to drive improvement. Continuously maintaining this cycle will contribute to the evolution of our human resources strategy and the sustainable enhancement of corporate value.
The ability to respond to challenges and generate new businesses strongly depends on both the autonomous actions of individuals and the organization’s capacity to drive initiatives forward. Investments and measures aimed at unlocking the latent potential of every employee across the global group and maximizing the execution capabilities of employees and organizations that operate businesses around the world are essential pillars supporting corporate value enhancement. We will continue moving forward steadily while reviewing and assessing the effectiveness of these efforts.

Please explain the results of the human capital initiatives under MTMP2026 and the initiatives under MTMP2029.

Under MTMP2026, we established the Global Talent Management Policy, which outlines the aspirations of both employees and the Company, in order to accelerate global talent management. To implement this policy, we introduced Bloom, enhancing the visibility of talent data that had previously been dispersed across regions and building the foundation for more advanced talent assignment. As a result, we established the groundwork for talent management from a group-wide perspective and have now entered the implementation phase. In fact, we are already seeing cases where talent deployment decisions are being considered based on talent data visualized through Bloom.
The three pillars of our human resources strategy, which we have consistently upheld, namely development of strong individuals, inclusion, and the strategic assignment of personnel, together with the well-being that supports them, remain at the core of our human capital management. This fundamental approach will remain unchanged under MTMP2029. Under MTMP2029, we will build a track record of agile and strategic talent deployment that responds to changes in our business portfolio by leveraging AI and DX in addition to the data accumulated through Bloom. By increasing the visibility of the experiences and skills of employees who are active in diverse fields regardless of hiring location or background, we will gain a more accurate understanding of skill gaps, desired career directions, and career plans. Based on this understanding, we aim to expand opportunities for each individual to take on new challenges by supporting autonomous career development and enabling optimal talent assignment across organizational and regional boundaries according to business needs.
Furthermore, to realize the nonlinear combinatory value envisioned in MTMP2029, we will combine the expertise of Mitsui’s diverse professional talent with the exploratory capabilities of AI. This will enable us to uncover cross-industry business connections and new business opportunities that were previously difficult to identify, thereby driving dramatic value creation and enhancing corporate value from the perspective of human capital as well.

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