D&I

Diversity & Inclusion

At Otsuka Pharmaceutical, we believe a diverse workforce can drive innovation and global expansion, and therefore we actively nurture Diversity & Inclusion (D&I) initiatives. We consider D&I a management strategy that leverages the distinct strengths of each employee. The Otsuka group's materiality and related Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) we have committed to are focused on championing diversity, and we are striving to foster a diverse work environment in our constant pursuit of innovation.

Top Message

As a total healthcare company, Otsuka Pharmaceutical is committed to being an indispensable contributor to the health of people around the world.
Creating innovative products and services that drive corporate growth requires an environment where diverse talents can flourish, regardless of attributes such as nationality, race, age, gender, disability, or sexual orientation. We have championed diversity as one of our essential, sustainable growth management strategies since the 1980s, well before the concept became widespread.
Significant social changes in recent years have drastically altered how people around the world live and work and have also had an enormous influence on individuals' values. In light of this, we believe our great strength lies in having colleagues and partners around the globe with diverse experiences and backgrounds.
We respect diversity in all forms both among individuals and across our entire global workforce, and we encourage the full leveraging of these unique combinations of capabilities. We thereby create new perspectives and values through which we make our business more competitive and aim for continued development. This is what diversity is about at Otsuka Pharmaceutical. Creating something altogether new is often more difficult if the members of a team have similar life experiences and thought processes. We believe the essence of diversity is to recognize and maximize the different strengths of each individual.
The ever-changing future of healthcare will undoubtedly lead us to a world that requires the evolution of our business, where we are not limited by the existing framework of our pharmaceuticals and nutraceuticals businesses.
In Japan, our response has been to examine how we can contribute to total healthcare by moving beyond traditional business boundaries and taking a social perspective to cover areas ranging from daily health support to diagnosis and medical care to prognosis.
Although many of our subsidiaries outside Japan engage intensively in one of our two core businesses, these companies also collaborate with third parties such as research initiatives with universities, ventures with start-up companies, and community-support programs with non-governmental organizations. This diversity of thinking encourages our subsidiaries — and the teams and individuals within them — to expand beyond conventional business and category boundaries.
We must preserve our open-minded attitude of going beyond our comfort zones, transcending traditional labels and historical boundaries, and maintaining our culture of mutual respect. We believe that both diversity among individuals and diversity across businesses is necessary for the future of healthcare.
We hope to continue contributing to healthcare by taking on many new challenges, with our eyes set firmly on the future and people's everlasting wish for a healthy life.

Makoto Inoue
President and Representative Director

Steps to promote D&I

Otsuka Pharmaceutical has long committed to utilizing the talents of a diverse workforce, regardless of nationality, race, age, gender, disability, or sexual orientation, and our top management has actively promoted diversity initiatives. In 2007, we launched our Diversity Promotion Project and declared our commitment to promoting diversity in the Otsuka Group Global Code of Business Ethics. In 2017, we signed the Women's Empowerment Principles (WEPs)^*1, a set of principles offering guidance to businesses about promoting the advancement of women in the workplace. The initiative was jointly developed by the United Nations Global Compact (UNGC) and the United Nations Women's Organization (UN Women)^*2.

*1United Nations Entity for Gender Equality and the Empowerment of Women
*2Women's Empowerment Principles

Action Plan for General Employers based on the Act on Advancement of Measures to Support Raising Next-Generation Children (in Japanese)

Action Plan for General Employers based on the Act on Promotion of Women's Participation and Advancement in the Workplace (in Japanese)

Projects Driven by Diversity

Creating a supportive work environment for all employees — regardless of their position in the company — is a key company goal. We aim to create new value, improve corporate competitiveness, and drive sustainable growth by respecting the diversity of our human resources and making the most of each employee's abilities.
To that end, we are proactively implementing measures to share information and experiences within the company to maintain and boost employee motivation. We hope to foster a rewarding work environment by promoting these types of programs and activities.

A Diverse and Proactive Workforce

We respect diverse values and aim to create a workplace which brings out the individual strengths of each employee and allows them to play an active role.

Creating a Nurturing Environment

We are implementing various internal programs and frameworks to support the careers of our diverse workforce, as well as multiple measures and environmental improvements to maintain and boost employee motivation.

List of Systems and Measures

External Evaluations and Data