JVCKENWOOD recognizes the Promotion of Diversity & Inclusion as a key strategy. In order for us to make a further leap forward, it is essential that all employees exercise their skills to the maximum in their respective positions. We are creating a lively organization for employees with diverse backgrounds in areas including race, nationality, religion, culture, disability, work style, age, gender, sexual orientation, and gender identity. Based on this approach, we are working to make promotion of D&I a key part of our sustainability strategy, with fostering a positive organizational culture, enhancing communication, and revitalizing the organization the three major objectives of this strategy. We are working to create an environment with enhanced systems where employees can flexibly choose their work style, where we promote more active roles for women, where we provide support for balancing child care and nursing care, and which respects diversity. We will continue striving to foster an organizational climate that respects diversity, and in this way we aim to create innovation and contribute to a sustainable society through business activities.

The JVCKENWOOD Group operates globally, with a network of around 15,000 employees across 19 countries in the Americas, Europe, the Middle East, and Africa, the Asia-Pacific, China, etc. Respecting the culture and values of each region is essential to smooth business operations, and we actively look to hire staff locally and promote them to managerial roles. In particular, as a company we offer as much support as possible for staff with strongly-held religious beliefs, such as by providing them space for religious practices. Moreover, in Japan where the declining birth rate and aging population has led to a decreasing population overall, securing high-quality human resources - regardless of nationality - is critical to corporate growth. We have for some time been promoting the hiring of overseas nationals, and work to create a workplace atmosphere which accommodates differences in cultures and lifestyles.
As of March 2025 we have 9,991 overseas national employees on a consolidated basis, 27 of whom work in Japan. We will continue to create an organizational structure in which diverse human resources can perform to the best of their ability.

We recognize the ratio of women in executive positions as a medium- to long-term issue and are continuing our initiatives to train staff to enable them to continue working and increase the number of women executive candidates, with a target to raising the ratio to 9.0% by FY2025.

As well as providing training for female employees at different levels who are future executive candidates, we offer support such as enhanced leave programs for use for child care etc. Moreover, by providing D&I management training to new managers, we are deepening understanding of our approach and aims to D&I as well as the positive changes in the organization through implementing it, such as changing oneself and how everyone works. As a result, the ratio of women in executive positions, which was only 2.1% in 2015, has approximately quadrupled to 8.1% as at the end of March 2025.

KPIs (Key Performance Indicators) set in promoting initiatives

A variety of programs have been set up to support both childcare/nursing care and work. Among childcare-related support programs, childcare leave is available for both men and women until the end of April after the child's first birthday or the end of the month in which the child reaches the age of two. Shortened working hours for childcare and leave for child nursing are covered until the end of March after the child reaches 12 years of age, which means until the child graduates from elementary school. Programs that allow leave or shorter working hours for nursing care have made it easier for employees to continue working while providing nursing care. The number of persons utilizing the childcare shorter working hours (flex-time) program in particular has increased in recent years, with workplace superiors and colleagues becoming more understanding. In future, we will build support systems that accommodate employee needs and work to ensure that no one has to resign because of childcare or nursing care. In parallel, we will step up the effort to foster a corporate culture that embraces various work styles, thereby working to create a workplace environment that helps deliver better results.

To create a workplace environment that facilitates the use of childcare leave, we conduct training for all managers to encourage male employees to take childcare leave. We also conduct interviews with employees who have announced plans of pregnancy or childbirth to confirm their intention to take childcare leave. In addition, from October 2022, the system has been changed so that maternity leave for spouse's childbirth can also be used for childcare purposes, increasing the number of leave days from 3 days to 20 days. As a result, the percentage of male employees taking parental leave (including leave for childcare purposes) in FY2024 was 100%, and the average number of days taken was 41.We will continue working to develop a workplace environment where both men and women can balance work and childcare according to their wishes, by disseminating the childcare leave system and actively promoting its use.

Employees also take seminars that help them to balance their work with childcare and nursing care. In seminars supporting the balance of childcare and work, we conduct training sessions for female employees returning from childcare leave. The theme of these sessions is "Balancing work and family while considering long-term career development." Furthermore, the support seminars provide lectures on the right mindset to have for nursing care and the basic knowledge they will require when they eventually face a nursing care situation. In addition, we held four nursing care workshops in FY2024, aiming to foster an organizational culture where staff can continue working while also providing nursing care. We have also have established an external nursing care consultation service since May 2023. We will continue our initiatives to create a work environment that allows employees to balance their work with nursing care.

As part of our efforts to support childcare and nursing care alongside work, we have prepared a handbook that compiles basic knowledge and introduces our programs relating to childcare and nursing care and posted it on the in-house Intranet.

Recognizing the importance of managerial employees who play a central role in promoting diversity management, JVCKENWOOD joined the "Ikuboss Corporate Alliance," advocated by specified nonprofit corporation Fathering Japan in fiscal 2019 in order to help them understand the career paths and value of their subordinates and manage them accordingly. The word ikuboss refers to an ideal superior (a management executive or a person in a managerial position) who attempts to realize a good work-life balance for subordinates or staff working together in his or her workplace, supports their careers and lives while delivering good business results, and enjoys his or her own work and private life. We organize lectures about ikuboss for managerial employees to deepen their knowledge and raise their awareness.

With the aim of fostering an internal culture that enables everyone to be assessed fairly for their performance and play active roles regardless of race, nationality, religion, culture, disability, work style, age, gender, gender identity and sexual orientation, we have made a variety of efforts since 2015.