Promotion of Women's Participation and Advancement in the Workplace

Promoting gender equality and female empowerment not only deepens our understanding of their human rights but leads to solutions to issues in international society and corporate sustainable development.
At KDDI, we position DE&I (Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion) as one of our management strategies to maximize the potential of diverse talents to thrive and deliver high performance. As a first step in this direction, we are working to promote the active participation of women. Starting from fiscal 2023, we have updated KDDI's definition of D&I to DE&I, incorporating Equity into Diversity and Inclusion, and we have explicitly stated our commitment to "providing bespoke support to individual employees to create an equitable foundation." To eliminate gender gaps, we are strengthening the empowerment of female employees through our support to remove gender-related unfair barriers and level the starting point. The significance and impact of DE&I and the promotion of women's participation, as well as the importance of changing employees' awareness, have been communicated to all employees through a video message from the President, who has declared KDDI's commitment to advancing DE&I and women's participation as a part of our management strategy.

We believe that the participation of women in company decision-making will contribute to enhancing our corporate strength and are focusing on a female leaders training program. In the new personnel system introduced in fiscal 2020, leaders in organizations with personnel evaluation authority and experts in specialized fields are defined as "managerial positions." As a numerical target until fiscal 2024, we have set a goal to increase the ratio of women in managerial positions to 15%.
In order to promote the development and promotion of women, a change in the mindset of managerial positions is essential. Starting from the 4Q of FY2022, we have adopted the slogan 'Let's dispel the preconceived notion that I have no preconceived notions.' and initiated 'Unconscious Bias & Inclusion Training' from our executive leadership level. From the executive leadership level, they themselves have recognized their own preconceptions, declared their initiative to promote women's participation and leverage individuality, and made these declarations publicly available to all employees through KDDI's internal newsletters. In the future, we will expand the target audience for training to include managers and group leaders and continue to implement it.
Additionally, as part of initiatives for female employees, from fiscal 2023, we have been holding "Roundtable discussions with females in managerial positions" six times a year. These discussions are aimed at addressing the concerns and conveying the sense of fulfillment of women aspiring for managerial positions, offering support and encouragement. In addition to these HR-driven initiatives, we are advancing the resolution of challenges and the acceleration of development by implementing unique measures, such as introducing a mentorship program and organizing lunch meetings with females in managerial positions, tailored to the specific needs and characteristics of each division.

Since the "Declaration of KDDI New Work Styles," we have been able to achieve a flexible and productive way of working that is not bound by time and location, by utilizing telework, flextime without core time, and satellite offices.