Employee health
The Otsuka Pharmaceutical Declaration on Health
Otsuka-people creating new products
for better health worldwide
Part of the fulfillment of our corporate philosophy for better health worldwide starts right at home - by ensuring the health of each and every one of our employees. As a company dedicated to a holistic approach to health, Otsuka Pharmaceutical strives to maintain and promote the physical and mental wellbeing of our employees and their families because we firmly believe that this is the vital core for people to lead happy, productive, and fulfilling lives. We will continue to introduce innovative workplace policies and practices for the maintenance and promotion of everyday health.
Makoto Inoue
President and Representative Director
Otsuka Pharmaceutical Co., Ltd.
Otsuka Pharmaceutical strives to promote the health and well-being of our employees. Healthy and active employees who can reach their full potential help nurture the company's growth and make valuable contributions to society.
As a total healthcare company, we have created a health declaration emphasizing the importance of health and well-being. We draw on our wealth of knowledge and resources to improve health literacy in our employees through seminars, exercise programs, and other activities.
Goals and Areas of Focus
We aim to improve productivity through health and well-being initiatives that encourage employees to maintain and improve their health and foster a comfortable work environment.
We have set mid-to-long-term numerical targets for key health indicators. To achieve these targets, we have designated the following as priority areas: "Exercise, Nutrition, and Rest," "Mental Health and Disease Awareness," "Women's Health," and "Countermeasures Against Infectious Diseases." To boost health literacy in our employees, our departments work together to utilize health-related information and products from our pharmaceutical and nutraceutical businesses.
Strategic Map
Health Management Promotion System
The Human Resources Department's Health Management Unit and members of the Health Management Promotion Project, under the supervision of the Chief Health Management Officer, take the lead in managing our health management promotion system. It is facilitated in cooperation with the Otsuka Pharmaceutical Health Insurance Association. Individuals in charge of promoting health, including the heads of each department, health and safety managers, and hygiene managers, work together to create an environment where each employee can shine.
List of Initiatives
Maintaining and Improving Health
| Exercise, Nutrition, and Rest | Informative Health-Related Videos | We create videos in which employees from various departments explain health-related information, our research and development process findings, and product features. These archived videos can be viewed online as a daily tool for maintaining and improving health. |
|---|---|---|
| POCARI/fresh & POCARI/fresh Online | We provide online exercises every Thursday at 8:00 am so that employees and their families can perform them at the office or in their homes. We also hold customized sessions that act as communication tools, such as a three-day intensive session after the New Year holiday or a session for new employees to exercise with senior employees. | |
| Virtual Pocari Sweat Run | Our employees have been participating in a virtual run project since 2021. The run was initially launched by one of our overseas group companies, and today, participants can take part from anywhere in the world using a smartphone app. This project encouraged regular exercise and fostered communication between group employees in Japan and overseas. | |
| Training at Home | Our "Training at Home" videos are available exclusively online and encourage our employees and their families to exercise while from home. | |
| Walking Rallies with Smartphone App | We organize walk rallies where participants can track and manage the number of steps they have taken with a smartphone pedometer app. Individual and group prizes are set and awarded at different locations. | |
| Promoting Exercise in the Workplace | We encourage our employees to use stairs rather than ride elevators, and thanks to our campaigns, the number of people using the stairs increased. We introduced "No Elevator Days" in each department and poster displays and wall stickers in stairwells indicating calories consumed by climbing the stairs. We have also installed desks that allow people to work while standing. | |
| Food Data Transparency and Provision of Low-Calorie Meals in the Company Cafeteria | The company directly operates our cafeteria, and our employee dietitian devises health-conscious menus. Since 2008, we have provided greater food data transparency by displaying calories and nutritional information. We also offer more health-conscious dishes. | |
| Mental Health & Disease Awareness | Web Seminars | We hold web seminars by doctors, and other specialists on mental health, sleep, migraine headaches, and alcoholism to help employees and their families prevent illness and improve their health. In addition, we determine lecture themes based on the results of questionnaires to ascertain actual conditions and implement countermeasures to address them. |
| Women's Health | Women's Health Seminar | Women's health seminars, open to male employees and women, are designed to create a more comfortable work environment for women. It offers participants the chance to learn about the physical changes women experience during different stages of their life cycles due to hormonal changes and how to cope with them. The theme for the 2022 seminar was "Women's Health and Presenteeism." |
| Health Consultation with a Gynecologist | We launched a women's health consultation service in April 2022, offering our employees the opportunity to easily consult our contracted gynecologist. | |
| Countermeasures against Infectious Diseases | Countermeasures to prevent the spread of COVID-19 | By promoting vaccinations nationwide through our workplace vaccination program, we aim to create an environment that makes it easy to get inoculated. Examples include allowing employees to get vaccinated on or on the day before a company holiday and creating a manual on how to respond in the event of infection so that each site can take prompt action. |
| Other Preventative measures | We are also making efforts to prevent the spread of other infectious diseases by covering the cost of influenza vaccinations and sharing infectious disease reports with employees. | |
| Other initiatives | Supporting Efforts to Quit Smoking | We are seeing an annual decrease in the number of smokers due to our efforts to ban smoking throughout the company, including the elimination of smoking and smoking rooms in our offices. |
| Moderate Drinking Education | To encourage a shift from excessive alcohol consumption, we invite physicians and public health nurses to explain and distribute materials on health problems caused by excessive drinking. We also provide information through in-house posters, alcohol seminars by doctors, and educational videos created by employees. Employees approaching retirement age are encouraged to drink moderately even after retirement. | |
| Stress Management | We conduct stress checks for all employees, discuss stress management strategies with employees showing high levels of stress, and review the work environment based on the results of group analysis. |
Health Management Promotion
| Otsuka Health Challenge | For employees eligible for follow-up consultations based on the results of health checkups, we recommend visits to medical institutions, give advice on lifestyle improvement, and encourage participation in in-house health activities. We will set metric targets for health-related assessment items — such as the percentage of employees maintaining a healthy weight and regular exercise habits — and aim to achieve these targets in FY2025 while reviewing progress at annual health checkups. |
|---|---|
| Consultations with Contracted Physicians and Medical Professionals | In addition to setting up consultation sessions based on the results of periodic health checkups, we conduct various interviews and provide support for employees who have returned to work after an injury or illness leave. |
| Promoting Medical Checkups | We promote medical examinations by allowing employees aged 30 and over to receive physical examinations at 10% of the cost. For those under 30 years of age, stomach cancer screening and gynecological exams are available as an option free of charge. |
| Other Medical Examinations | We subsidize testing for H. pylori and other bacterial infections. |
| Free Health Consultations | Our telephone consultation service provides free advice on health and mental health issues 24 hours a day. |
Creating a Comfortable Work Environment
| Responding to Diverse Work Styles | We changed our telecommuting system in 2020 to strike a good balance between on-site and remote work. Our new system ensures that employees can work from home without difficulties, and we also subsidize expenses incurred through telecommuting. |
|---|---|
| Free-Address Seating | We decided to introduce a free-address seating system in 2022 to encourage communication when employees come to work. We also set up a communication zone to promote interactions between employees in various departments and positions and foster a more comfortable work environment by encouraging space-saving, tidiness, and paperless work. |
| Recreation Centers & Company Cafeteria | We have four recreation facilities available for our employees and their families, and the company cafeterias at each plant serve dishes that account for calorie intake and nutritional balance. |
| In-house Social Media Platform | We launched our in-house social media platform in June 2021 to promote communication among employees even when they are working remotely. |
| Zero Workplace Accident Initiatives | Videos on preventing occupational accidents are available to all employees, and each plant conducts locomotive syndrome prevention exercises for plant workers. |
| Curbing Excessive Overtime | Overtime must be declared in advance so managers can adequately manage their teams' work hours. We have also taken measures to promote more balanced work styles by setting a weekly No Overtime Day and a Work Balance Day. |
Certifications and Awards
- Health & Productivity Management Outstanding Organization (White 500)
- The Certified Health and Productivity Management Organization Recognition Program was introduced in 2017 by the Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry, and it recognizes both large and small- and medium-sized enterprises for outstanding efforts in health management of their employees.
Our company has been certified as a White 500 (large enterprise category) for nine consecutive years since.
- Sports Yell Company
- Since the program began in 2017, we have been recognized for eight consecutive years, achieving Silver certification for being a consistently certified company.
- Tokyo Metropolitan Government Sports Promotion Company
- Otsuka is recognized as a Tokyo Metropolitan Government Sports Promotion Company for our outstanding initiatives to encourage employee participation in sports and our support for sports. We have been certified for ten consecutive years since 2015.