Employment, labor, and diversity

At the DOWA Group, we believe that human resources are at the core of all of our business activities. We have overcome challenges in our long history by mobilizing each individual person working on the front line of development, manufacturing, marketing, and management, etc., in the DOWA Group and by squarely facing and addressing problems that have emerged at different times. To achieve the sustainable development of the DOWA Group and to continue to be a corporate group that is truly needed by society, we aim to maintain corporate growth by combining the efforts of each member who shares our Corporate Mission.

Based on the belief that a diverse workforce with a wide range of values and perspectives can fully leverage individual strengths and capabilities, thereby contributing to corporate growth, the Company is actively promoting initiatives to expand diversity.
In addition, our Values and Code of Conduct clearly articulate respect for individuals in matters related to labor, including the prohibition of forced labor, as well as the importance of diversity. These are translated into multiple languages so that all employees working both domestically and overseas can clearly understand them.

Under Medium-term Plan 2024, we set a goal for 2030 related to human capital—to be an organization that continues to grow as it strives to create economic and social value—and promoted various initiatives related to the key themes aimed at realizing that goal.

Information regarding “Securing human resources and developing core human resources” and “Developing human resources and promoting organization building that will create change” is primarily presented on the human resources development page.

Based on the belief that employee happiness leads to the development of the company, we strive to enable each employee to maximize their capabilities by supporting diverse working styles and providing an environment in which they can focus on their work.
With the population expected to continue to decline in Japan, we believe it necessary to create an environment that allows employees to work for many years and experience self-fulfillment during their working lives, even as they go through different stages of their life, such as childbirth, childcare, and nursing care. Diverse workstyles provide a dual benefit. They give employees more power to choose the style that will bring them self-fulfillment. Further, an ideal workstyle will not only enrich an employee’s work, but their personal life as well. Put together, we believe these factors will raise productivity as well as our employee retention rate. In addition, households with both spouses working have become commonplace, and the idea of both partners raising children together is becoming more mainstream. The introduction of various workstyles shows respect for the different circumstances affecting each employee, and we believe that if we create an environment where individual employees can work to their potential, they will return the favor by putting the best of their abilities on display. 

We are promoting flexibility in working hours and working conditions by establishing a flextime system with no core hours, shorter working hours for childcare, and the regional work system (limiting the area to which employees are transferred). In addition, we have established support measures that go beyond legal requirements, including paid leave for childbirth-related care and child nursing care, as well as partial subsidies for childcare expenses. We also provide information on company policies and internal systems through the “Childcare and Nursing Care Portal Site” on our internal intranet to support employees in utilizing these systems. Furthermore, we are strengthening internal awareness of the need to increase the percentage of men taking childcare leave. As a result, the rate of men taking childcare leave in fiscal 2024 was 89.1%, an increase of 15.4 percentage points from the previous fiscal year.
In addition to a refreshment leave system that can be taken after a certain number of years of service, the company also maintains a leave system for volunteer activities.

Our Group’s career-track employees are expected to work in a manner that allows them to gain experience while relocating throughout Japan. However, in recent years, there has been an increasing number of cases in which employees have been forced to leave their jobs due to difficulties working with temporary transfers for reasons such as childcare or nursing care. In response to these circumstances, we introduced a regional work system in 2021 that allows employees to limit the scope of their transfers within a specific area for a certain period. This system is designed to be available to a wide range of employees, from those in their fourth year of employment and beyond to managers, although they must meet requirements such as being engaged in childcare or nursing care. Through this program, we support all employees of our Group in balancing work and childcare/nursing care.

The DOWA Group supports the volunteer activities of its employees by allowing the use of accumulated leave for up to five days when participating in volunteer activities recognized by the company.

We are working to prevent long working hours and encourage employees to take paid leave so they can work vigorously and in good health, both mentally and physically, and fulfill both their work and personal lives. As part of our efforts in work-style reform, we have set a Group policy of reducing total annual actual working hours to less than 2,000. We promote efforts to control and provide guidance on long working hours every month. The time and attendance system at the head office manages working hours using computer logs. It requires employees who exceed a certain number of hours to submit an improvement plan to management. We also require employees who work long hours to meet with an occupational health physician as a part of our efforts to manage working hours from both tangible and intangible aspects to optimize working hours. As a result, the paid leave utilization rate for fiscal 2024 was 82.9%, above the target of 80% set in Medium-term Plan 2024.

Matters relating to working conditions, such as salary, working hours and holidays, occupational health and safety, welfare and service discipline, are a mandatory part of induction training. These are always posted on the company intranet and other websites and can be viewed by employees worldwide at any time.
In addition, meetings of labour and payroll managers attended by personnel from Group companies are held on a regular basis to share information on social trends and amendments to laws as appropriate, thereby promoting compliance with laws and regulations in labour management. We also conduct labour audits at Group companies to check whether appropriate rules and regulations are being developed and implemented in response to the ever-changing labour laws and social demands. In addition to identifying issues, the labour audits also provide advice on creating a good working environment.

The DOWA Group has introduced a stress check tool that allows employees to self-evaluate the state of their mental health. This step is intended to promote mental health management among employees by encouraging awareness of their personal stress levels and helping the Group improve areas in the workplace environment that may be causing such stress. We are committed to preventing mental health problems among employees by providing those with high stress levels with consultations and guidance and by formulating and implementing plans to improve workplace environments.

We believe that a diverse group of human resources utilizing a diverse set of workstyles is what sparks innovation. Diversity among a company’s core human resources is without a doubt an important part of corporate management, and we promote diversity for these core human resources and all others employed by the Group. Since this pursuit will also help us secure a labor force, we intend to make a strong Groupwide effort to achieve this goal. In terms of hiring, we are ramping up efforts to hire increased numbers of women and foreign nationals. We will continue to support the career development of diverse human resources and aim to be a company where people want to build long-term careers.

At our Company, there is no gender discrimination in terms of working style, with women active in a wide range of fields. We also conduct merit-based evaluations in hiring, promotion and advancement. The nonferrous metal industry, where DOWA operates, has historically had a low ratio of female employees due to prohibiting women from working in underground mines. To address this, the Company set a target in Medium-term Plan 2024 to increase the ratio of new hires who are women to 30% or higher, and we aim to increase the ratio of women among employees promoted to management roles to 30% in 2030. In fiscal 2024, we enhanced the company information we publish and expanded our internships with the aim of attracting more female candidates, but the ratio of new hires who were women was 27%.
Another issue we are facing is lower retention among female employees than among male employees, so in addition to our initiatives to attract new hires who are women, we are working to improve retention by holding regular information exchange sessions by female employees, helping to make our workplaces easier for women to work in, and establishing systems for balancing work and family responsibilities, including a flextime system, childcare subsidies, and expansion of eligibility for shorter working hours for childcare.

Furthermore, we will work to create a workplace environment that enables women to play an active role, including the development of welfare facilities for women and the expansion of career development initiatives for women.

In September 2024, we received Kurumin certification as a Childcare Support Company. In November of the same year, we received three stars, the highest level, for Eruboshi as a company that excels in promoting women’s participation in the workplace.
The certification was given in recognition of the measures to support childcare and initiatives to promote women’s participation in the workplace that the Company has carried out thus far. DOWA is the first nonferrous metal company listed on the TSE Prime Market to receive three-star Eruboshi certification.

On February 27, 2025, seven nonferrous metals companies (*1) and the Japan Mining Industry Association held the “Non-Ferrous DE&I Forum 2025,” an event aimed at promoting Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DE&I). This initiative was organized in connection with International Women’s Day on March 8 and marked the second industry-wide forum following the first held in March 2024.

On the day of the event, lectures on DE&I promotion in the nonferrous metals industry from the perspective of external experts, as well as talk sessions among employees actively engaged in DE&I initiatives, were held at the venue. The event was also streamed to participating companies, with a total of approximately 450 employees taking part either in person or online.

Going forward, the nonferrous metals industry as a whole will continue to promote the creation of workplaces where people with diverse backgrounds can work comfortably, and will accelerate initiatives that contribute to transformation and sustainable growth across the industry.

In order to respond to the expected decline in the labor force and to help build a society in which older people can remain active for longer, the Company decided to raise the mandatory retirement age to 65 across all Group companies, and implementation of this policy was completed throughout the Group by fiscal 2024. In addition, we regularly hold life plan seminars for employees who have reached a certain age to provide them with information on second careers after retirement.

The Group is promoting measures to raise the maximum retirement age for all Group companies to 65. DOWA Holdings, which introduced the extended retirement age first, has raised the mandatory retirement age to 65 years old, allowing employees to work under the same working conditions as before until they reach the mandatory retirement age. At the same time, the Group introduced an optional retirement system, which allows employees to choose to retire before reaching the age of 65 if they desire to be rehired after retirement, with changes to working conditions. In addition, full retirement benefits are still available even when the optional retirement system is applied.

Regarding the employment of people with disabilities, we have established acceptance frameworks to meet the legally mandated employment rate and are working Group-wide to create workplace environments in which people with disabilities can work comfortably and play an active role. In fiscal 2024, the employment rate at DOWA Holdings on a standalone basis reached 2.7%, representing an increase of 0.2 percentage points from the previous fiscal year.
On the other hand, as initiatives vary among Group companies, we are seeking to further improve the employment rate by expanding the provision of information, including on hiring methods.

The Group’s human rights policy clearly supports the International Labour Organization’s (ILO) Declaration on Fundamental Principles and Rights at Work. We support and respect fundamental rights at work (freedom of association and the effective recognition of the right to collective bargaining, the elimination of all forms of forced or compulsory labour, the effective abolition of child labour, the elimination of discrimination in respect of employment and occupation, and a safe and healthy working environment).

• We pay employees fair and equitable compensation in compliance with all applicable wage-related laws, including minimum wage requirements, overtime regulations, and statutory benefits. In addition, we set appropriate wage levels that exceed the living wage standards in the countries and regions where we operate.
• Overtime compensation is paid at premium rates based on regular hourly wages, in accordance with applicable local laws.
• Details of salary payments are communicated to employees in a timely manner through payslips or equivalent documents.

• There is no institutional pay disparity between genders.

• We manage working hours in compliance with applicable local laws and regulations and endeavor to ensure that they do not exceed prescribed limits.
• Except in cases of emergencies or extraordinary circumstances, we strive to prevent excessive working hours by ensuring that total overtime, including extended working hours, does not exceed 60 hours per month, and we work to reduce both weekly working hours and total working hours.
• Employees are provided with at least one day off per week.
• In addition to managing weekly working hours, we endeavor to appropriately manage overall working hours through measures such as the use of compensatory leave and flexible working arrangements.

The Group is promoting digitalization efforts to integrate vast amounts of human resources-related data and use it for various human resources policies, such as identifying talent, developing talent effectively, and treating employees fairly. In fiscal 2023, we began a new employee interview program, utilizing the cloud-based human resources information management service we introduced the previous year to directly listen to employees’ anxieties and concerns. Respondents can choose whether or not to share their answers with their superiors, providing an environment where they can feel comfortable discussing topics that they might find difficult to discuss with their superiors.