Human Capital

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Human Capital

Policy and Basic Approach Gunze’s human capital strategy aims to develop talent and foster an organizational culture capable of executing management strategies that lead to the sustainable enhancement of corporate value and competitiveness. To become a company where all employees can find fulfillment in their work and continue to thrive over the long term, we carried out our first major personnel system reform in 2026.

Goals and Achievements

Materiality Initiatives, achievements and KPIs (FY2027 - FY2030 Targets)

Category		Indicator	FY2025	FY2027	FY2030
Category		Indicator	Results	Targets	Targets
Evolution of Corporate Constitution	Promoting women’s active participation	Ratio of women in managerial roles	6%	Over 14%	Over 20%
		Ratio of women employees	35%	38%	41%
		Ratio of women new graduates hired on a main career track (excluding those working rotating shifts)	45%	50%	50%
	Child-rearing support	Men’s paternity leave utilization rate	86%	70%	100%
	Corporate culture reform	Engagement score	61 points	66 points (estimate)	70 points (estimate)
	Work-style reform	Annual paid leave utilization rate	79% （15.8 days）	80% （16 days）	80% （16 days）

More details

System Based on our human resources strategy and the qualities we seek in our talent, we have established our Human Resources Management Policy around three principles, fairness, reasonableness and transparency, to ensure that employees who meet expectations can have long and fulfilling careers. Our policy is for employees to “pursue personal growth by continuously delivering results commensurate with their experience and the stage of their career while passing knowledge on to the next generation.” Guided by this policy, we are implementing various initiatives to realize our vision for the future.
To maximize the impact of personnel system reforms aligned with our management and personnel strategies, it is essential to not only advance human capital management initiatives but also promote a reform of our organizational culture that delivers sustainable impact. Accordingly, we reorganized the Human Resources Department in 2025, ahead of our institutional reforms.

Initiatives

Personnel System Reform for the Sustainable Creation of Corporate Value

Basic policy In response to changes in the social environment and employee values, we aim to sustainably increase corporate value by building a system grounded in the principles of fairness, reasonableness and transparency; a system that enables individual employees to have a sense of purpose and satisfaction, fully demonstrate their strengths and continue to thrive.

Overview of the personnel system The previous personnel and compensation system placed greater emphasis on compensation. Under the new system, we manage our human resources from two perspectives, performance management and human resources flow management, linking staffing, utilization, evaluation, human resource development, and compensation to execute our management strategy. We have defined our desired talent profile as “people who embrace diversity and autonomously take on challenges without fear of change.” With the aim of becoming a company where employees can continue to thrive over the long term, we have established three management principles to achieve this goal.
Fairness: Evaluate employees based on merit rather than seniority.
Reasonableness: Achieve the optimal balance between individual careers and organizational management.
Transparency: Make evaluation criteria transparent. Based on these principles, we are advancing a range of HR initiatives under four key messages: Maximizing Results and Ensuring Fair Compensation, Promoting Diversity and Expertise, Creating Mechanisms That Encourage Challenges, and Strategic Human Resource Development.

Main changes

Grading system The previous system consisted of three career tracks based on job type and whether employees were subject to relocation, all of which used a work skills qualification system. Under the new system, these have been reorganized into four job categories based on job characteristics, with a separate grading system established for each category. Managers have also transitioned to a job-based system. In addition, we introduced a relocation preference flag that allows employees to make choices suited to their life stage and other individual circumstances.

Performance management and evaluation systems Challenging goals are introduced into individual work objectives to encourage employees to take on challenges. Through this approach, we aim to foster an organizational culture that generates innovation, including the creation of new businesses and process reforms. Making individual goals transparent across the Company also enables employees to compare the level of goals being set and promotes collaboration across organizational boundaries.

Compensation We are replacing the previous salary system, which was strongly seniority-based and cumulative in nature, with one that more closely reflects individual contributions and results in compensation. We will also strengthen differentiation in compensation based on the level of contribution.

Reforming the Training and Development System Under the new personnel system, we place particular emphasis on managing human resource development and personnel evaluation in an integrated manner, with employee development as a central focus of HR management. As a new concept for human resource development, we have moved away from the previous uniform development framework and established a system that balances accelerated development with opportunities to take on new challenges in line with the career aspirations of each employee.
Specifically, we are building a company-wide training framework designed to achieve two objectives: (1) “Develop at an early stage the talent capable of executing Gunze’s management
strategy and supporting the Company’s further growth (Early development of management talent)” and (2) “Raise skills and capabilities across the organization to drive innovation (Accelerated development of younger employees).” We are also enhancing support to enable employees to acquire the knowledge and skills they need in advance to progress to higher grades or be appointed to management positions. When an employee’s ability to deliver results needs improvement, we implement a PIP (Performance Improvement Plan, a specific
action plan designed to improve an employee’s job performance). Through this process, the organization supports performance improvement and provides training opportunities according to the capabilities required, encouraging employees to take on new challenges. Establishing a framework for global human resource development is another important priority.
To transform Gunze into a company capable of competing successfully on the global stage, we will develop a global human resource development framework aligned with the strategies of each business division.

Career Autonomy Promotion Against the backdrop of an uncertain current outlook, we recognize the need to engage in human capital management that regards human resources as “capital,” and the urgency involved in developing human resources who are conscious of their own career and are prepared to act autonomously. Only in this way can we enhance our corporate value.
The Gunze Group encourages each and every employee to pursue diversity and to act on their own initiative in order to realize a career that makes the most of their strengths. In addition to supporting their career development as a company, we strategically assign the right people to the right job.

Carrier expectations in each age group and problem-solving approaches img_human04

(1) Implement strategic and appropriate job rotations while assigning the right people to the right job

We initiated Human Resource Share personnel exchange meetings as a forum through which each division can share information on human resources from 2023 and to expand opportunities for individual-led transfers that facilitate autonomous career planning.

(2) Support proactive career development

The Gunze Group has upgraded and expanded a variety of opportunities in an effort to support proactive career development.

Upgrade and expand career training The Gunze Group has a high percentage of senior employees. As such, the need to ensure that its senior employees are able to work energetically and demonstrate their skills is an important human resource issue. With this in mind, we have upgraded and expanded training opportunities at the age of 40 and 56 in addition to existing programs at the age of 50.
Moreover, self-development support programs, including distance learning, which was previously limited to regular permanent employees, have been upgraded and expanded to include post-retirement rehired employees and contract employees to enhance re-skilling and recurrent education opportunities.

Promoting widespread acceptance and use of 1-on-1 meetings The 1-on-1 meetings introduced in 2022 are used to foster psychological safety by increasing opportunities for communication between managers and meeting participants and strengthen trust. Building on this foundation, 1-on-1 meetings provide a place to support growth.

Upgrading and expanding the career counseling system Human resources staff are encouraged to obtain career-related certifications.
In this vein, the Gunze Group has strengthened its career-related support structure and systems. Established in May 2023, the Career Support Desk helps resolve a variety of work-related issues, including career development, human relations, and skills development.

Established Career Support Desk

As we enter the era of 100-year lifespans, employees must design their own careers, determine their life goals and career vision (life career), and work toward them in order to achieve independent career development. In order to actively support these actions, we have recently established a Career Support Desk, through which the Company helps employees deal with the various issues that arise in their duties together so that they do not have look for solutions alone.

Employees Engagement Since fiscal 2022, Gunze has conducted monthly engagement surveys. The scope of the surveys was expanded in January 2025, and under the new personnel system introduced in fiscal 2026, engagement scores are incorporated into the performance evaluations of managers. Going forward, we will provide managers with coaching on how to use engagement scores and support them in improving their dialogue skills through one-on-one meetings and other opportunities. At the same time, we will promote improvements at the divisional level based on survey results, following a three-step approach to organizational development focused on strengths: visualizing the current state, engaging in candid dialogue, and creating the future. Specifically, we will establish an organizational development team with the Employee Well-being Office serving as the secretariat. Working together with managers, the team will assess the state of each organization from four perspectives, goals, roles, ways of working, and relationships, to clarify both issues and strengths. Through ongoing support and the sharing of best practices across divisions, we will help each organization develop the ability to drive improvements independently.

Implementation framework: Hands-on support by the Employee Well-being Office

Functions and roles	Specific activities	Expected effects
Establish a secretariat	Develop and implement organizational development initiatives	Ensure consistency of initiatives and timely decision-making
Analysis and direct dialogue	Analyze survey results and engage in dialogue with individual divisions Provide coaching on organizational conditions from four perspectives and promote improvements	Implement highly effective measures based on the actual conditions of each division Enable each division to drive improvements independently
Sharing best practices across the organization	Articulate initiatives undertaken by divisions with high scores and share them Company-wide	Raise the overall level of organizational development and management

Example of an Initiative to Improve Engagement To maximize organizational strength, it is essential to bring individuals’ outstanding capabilities together toward a common goal. In my department, we focus on strengthening connections among people and enhancing organizational capabilities as we work to “create a workplace where people want to work.” Personally, I follow three principles in my interactions with team members: “Make eye contact,” “Stop what I am doing,” and “Do not cut conversations short because of time.” Through these practices, we help team members feel valued, ensure psychological safety, build relationships of trust, and thereby improve engagement. At the heart of this initiative are “listening” by managers and creating an environment in which team members feel that they “want to” do something rather than that they “have to.” By investing time in dialogue with team members and pursuing results together, we aim to achieve sustainable growth across the organization.

Manager, Sales Section 3, Sales Division, Plastic Film Company
Hideo Hayashi

Work-Life Balance Gunze has established various human resources systems to enable people with diverse characteristics, perspectives, and circumstances to work with high performance.
We are reforming to a flexible work style that is not restricted by location or time by promoting telecommuting, flextime, and remote work, as well as introducing time-based annual leave and a comeback system.

Annual Leave (full day, half day, time) In addition to paid leave in units of a day or half a day, employees can also take paid leave in units of hours. We also have a well-developed paid leave system, including the "three-day off system" introduced in fiscal 2017 and an increase in the target number of days to be taken annually.

Flextime In March 2018, Gunze introduced flextime. By leaving the start and end times of work to individual employees, the company aims to increase their independence and initiative and improve productivity through flexibility.

Working from home In March 2018, Gunze introduced working from home to enable a more productive and efficient work style that fits each employee's diverse lifestyle and work style.

Comeback System (Reentry System for Retirees) This is a system that allows employees who left Gunze due to unavoidable circumstances such as child care, family care, or spouse transfer, or for career advancement due to study or job change, to return to work for Gunze.

Career change system Gunze has a career change system to encourage a variety of work styles, such as employees who want to change from a general position to a career track position to take on different challenges, or employees who want to change to a regional career track position because marriage has made it difficult to move to a new city.

Refreshment Year System In order to refresh and further motivate employees to lead a healthy and fulfilling professional life, the company provides consecutive paid leave (Refresh Leave) and incentive payments according to the number of years of service.

Refreshment Year 10

Three consecutive days of refreshment leave for employees with 10 years of service.

Refreshment Year 25

Five consecutive days of refreshment leave and a 25-year service award (100,000 yen) for employees with 25 years of service.

Self-development Support System Employees who obtain the qualifications specified in the "List of Qualifications to be Encouraged to Acquire" or those approved by the company are eligible to receive an incentive (10,000 to 100,000 yen) and assistance with tuition and other expenses.
In addition, under the distance learning support system, employees who complete a distance learning course can apply for support for approximately half of the course fee. These self-development support programs are also available during leaves of absence, allowing those who have taken unavoidable leaves of absence to develop their careers.

Childcare and Nursing Care Support System Since April 2015, managers have been conducting "support interviews for balancing work and childcare," as we believe it is necessary to create an environment in which employees can continue to work while taking advantage of the system. The company has also prepared a Q&A manual for managers so that not only those who use the system, but also managers, can properly understand the system and smoothly manage the entire department.

Childcare Leave You can take childcare leave up to the day before your child's second birthday.

Reduced Working Hours for Childcare In principle, 6-hour days until the end of March when the child enters the sixth year of primary school. If desired, the hours can be reduced in 15-minute increments, from 30 minutes to 2 hours per day, as needed.

Childcare Fee Subsidy

Employees who take childcare leave for two months or longer and, upon returning to work, are in a dual-income household or a single-parent household with a child under six months of age placed in childcare, will receive a subsidy for childcare fees up to a specified limit until the end of March in the year the child turns three.

Extended Childcare Fee Subsidy

Employees who are dual-income households or single-parent households with children, and who incur extended childcare fees due to work while placing children in childcare, will receive a subsidy for these fees up to a specified limit.

Childcare Subsidy

For children up to sixth grade, employees who use babysitters or similar services (including municipal sick child care and family support centers) to secure work hours will receive a subsidy for the usage fees up to a specified limit.

Long-Term Care Service Fees Subsidy Employees caring for eligible family members will receive a subsidy up to a specified limit for fees incurred to secure work hours when using long-term care insurance services.

Nursing Care Leave A period of up to one consecutive year (which may be divided into several periods) to care for an eligible family member, combined with reduced work hours for caregiving.

Reduced Work Hours for Nursing Care When caring for an eligible family member, for a period of up to one year in the aggregate with the period of caregiving leave; may be up to two hours per day in 30-minute increments; may be divided into multiple periods; may be taken concurrently.

Nursing Care Leave Five days per year (10 days for two or more eligible family members) to care for or otherwise attend to an eligible family member.

Employment and Benefits

Single-Person Dormitory & Company Housing System Provision of single-person dormitories and company housing

Housing Assistance Program Rent subsidies through the Housing Assistance Program

Holiday System Two-day weekend system, 115 to 123 annual holidays (varies by workplace), etc.

Retirement Benefits System Three systems: Lump-sum Retirement Payment, Defined Benefit Corporate Pension, Defined Contribution Pension

Employee Perks Gunze Store, Discounted Use of Gunze Sports Facilities

Other Welfare Programs Employee Stock Ownership Plan, Welfare Fund (various congratulatory payments such as wedding gifts, condolence payments, etc.) and other programs available.

Labor Union

Conclusion of labor agreement

Gunze respects the freedom of association and the right to collective bargaining.
Gunze has established the sound development of its business and the improvement of the social and economic status of its employees as common goals of labor and management, and strives to establish constructive and stable labor-management relations.
We have a union shop system, and all employees who are "eligible to join the union" under the labor-management agreement are members of the union.