Basic Approach

Well-being is an important concept in human capital management. NICHINO Group positions health management as one of its most important management issues and works on it as a unified group. Moreover, in order to promote coexistence and mutual prosperity throughout the supply chain, we will encourage and support our business partners in promoting health management, thereby contributing to the maintenance and improvement of business partners’ health.

Health Management Promotion Policy

NICHINO Group believes that its employees are the most important capital, and that having each employee in good physical and mental health enhances personal happiness, which in turn contributes to improved company performance and growth in corporate value. To pursue the creation of work environments in which employees have mutual respect for their diverse values and can work with vitality, we have established a company-wide promotion structure to maintain and promote employee health and improve the work environment, and we are working to promote activities.

NICHINO Group Health Management Declaration

At NICHINO Group, we have undertaken initiatives that focus on preventive measures to maintain and promote physical and mental health, as well as flexible work styles. This is in addition to safety and health activities that emphasize compliance. In March 2024, we made the NICHINO Group Health Management Declaration to further strengthen these efforts.

Health Management Strategy Map (Standalone)

Health Management Strategy Map (Nihon Noyaku Standalone) We have created a “Health Management Strategy Map” to clarify its basic health policy and health management goals, and to visualize the connections between these and various initiatives. By utilizing this map, we regularly evaluate the status and effectiveness of our efforts and implement the PDCA cycle to promote more strategic health management.

Health Management Promotion System

At Nihon Nohyaku, the President has been appointed as the “Health Management Supervisor” and the Division Manager of the Administration Division as the “Health Management Promotion Manager.” We have also established a secretariat centered on the Human Resources Department, health management managers, and public health nurses, as well as promotion managers and promotion officers at each business site.
We also promote health management in cooperation with the Health Insurance Society, safety and health committees, and labor unions.

We implement health seminars, health information dissemination, infectious disease countermeasures, health checkup programs, and other initiatives jointly with our domestic group companies where feasible.

Health Issues and Main Initiatives

1. Maintenance and Promotion of Health

1) Implementation of regular medical examinations
We conduct regular health checkups for all employees in accordance with laws and regulations. We also monitor the health condition of employees aged 40 and over by providing full physical examinations, which include tests for various diseases and lifestyle-related illnesses in addition to the regular health checkup items. The health checkup participation rate was 100% in FY2024.

2) Implementation of training, etc. to improve health literacy
We offer health lectures by industrial physicians and registered dietitians at our Head Office and Research Center, featuring live web broadcasts and videos on our corporate intranet. This enables all employees, including those at branch locations, to participate. In FY2024, the lecture themes were “Exercise,” “Blood Pressure,” “Breakfast,” and “Women’s Health and Diet.” Additionally, we distribute “Health News” twice monthly to promote health awareness.

3) Prevention of lifestyle-related diseases through
The personal portal site of ADEKA Health Insurance Society (the “Health Insurance Society”) promotes healthy eating, exercise, and rest, and encourages employees to quit smoking and alcohol. We work together with the Health Insurance Society to prevent lifestyle-related diseases. Starting in FY2024, we have introduced a periodontal disease risk test and dental health guidance for specific age groups and individuals at high risk of diabetes. We also encourage employees to participate in the Health Insurance Society’s biannual walking campaign by announcing participation through our safety and health committees and internal bulletin boards.

4) Initiatives to tackle issues indicated by the results of health checkups
The results of employee health checkups have indicated a slightly higher obesity rate than the national average and a low proportion of employees with regular exercise habits. We recognize this as an important issue, as it could potentially lead to the onset of lifestyle-related diseases and decreased productivity due to poor employee health in the future. To address this issue, we promote initiatives aimed at encouraging exercise habits, as well as stronger health guidance from industrial physicians and public health nurses. More specifically, we hold walking campaigns four times a year, organized by the Health Insurance Society and Nihon Nohyaku. Employees are actively encouraged to participate.

5) Measuring presenteeism and efforts to improve the situation
We conduct surveys using The University of Tokyo’s Single-Item Presenteeism Question (SPQ) to measure presenteeism, along with a questionnaire on lifestyle habits. We aim to identify the causes of the deterioration in presenteeism and ways to improve the situation.

2. Mental Health Care

1) Stress checks
We conduct annual employee stress checks at Nihon Nohyaku and our domestic Group companies. The participation rate has been over 90% since 2017, and was 99.2% in FY2024. We also perform organizational analysis and provide feedback to each department aimed at improving workplace environments. The proportion of employees with high stress has been trending slightly upward, and we will focus on enhancing self-care and line-care measures.

2) Mental health-related training
We conduct mental health-related training for new employees, including self-care and line-care. We also provide mental health-related training as part of the training for newly appointed managers and the evaluator training provided to employees who are newly promoted to supervisory positions.

3) Setting up a hotline for mental and physical health (external consultation desk)
We have established NICHINO Group Telephone Health Consultations, based on the Ministry of Health, Labour and Welfare’s Guidelines for Maintaining and Improving Workers’ Mental Health. These consultations are available 24 hours a day, 365 days a year, not only for health and medical issues but also for caregiving and childcare concerns. We also provide mental health counseling services with a choice of in-person, online, or telephone consultations.

3. Creation of a Comfortable Work Environment

1) Measures to prevent passive smoking, outpatient support for smoking cessation
Following the revision of the Health Promotion Act on April 1, 2020, we have been working to prevent passive smoking by making our workplaces smoke-free. As of FY2024, all our offices are now completely smoke-free indoors. We are also implementing measures to help our employees quit smoking, such as providing subsidies for outpatient smoking cessation programs through the Health Insurance Society.

2) Optimization of working hours
We monitor the overtime worked by all employees, beyond statutory working hours, and provide consultations and guidance from an industrial physician for those who exceed our internal standards (including management personnel). In FY2024, there were a total of 8 cases where an employee worked 80 hours in excess of monthly statutory working hours.

3) Encouraging more active communication between employees
We have introduced an open plan office layout across all departments at our head office and some branches to promote communication between different divisions.

4) Engagement surveys
We have been conducting employee engagement surveys since FY2024 to understand the current situation and identify issues, with the aim of improving employee engagement. In FY2024, we implemented company-wide measures based on the survey results, including training for managers, as well as identifying issues and considering improvement measures at subsequent workplace meetings. We aim to establish a continuous cycle of improvement through the ongoing implementation of these surveys.

Expenditure on Health Management

In FY2024, we spent 13.9 million yen on health checkups, 5.6 million yen on industrial physicians, and 1.3 million yen on mental health-related services such as stress checks and external health consultations, for a total of 20.8 million yen. Moving forward, we will continue to make the necessary expenditures on mental health care and other initiatives to maintain and promote the health of our employees.

External Recognition

1) Received DBJ Employees’ Health Management Rating from the Development Bank of Japan
In 2023, we obtained DBJ Employees’ Health Management Rating and received a loan from the Development Bank of Japan (DBJ). The DBJ Employees’ Health Management Rating is the world’s first loan program to introduce a specialized health management rating methodology, which uses DBJ’s unique evaluation system to evaluate and select companies that excel in initiatives to enhance employee health.

2) Certified as a KENKO Investment for Health (KIH) Outstanding Organization (Large Enterprise Category) 2025, a program promoted by the Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry (METI) and the Nippon Kenko Kaigi
This program recognizes companies with excellent initiatives in “KENKO Investment for Health,” which strategically promotes employee health management from a business-management perspective. Nihon Nohyaku received this certification for the first time in FY2025.

Health-related indicators (Standalone)

Figures for Nos. 2 through 4 are for employees aged 40 and over

• *1 Percentage of employees with regular exercise habits: Includes those who exercise at least twice a week for 30 minutes or more each time
• *2 Annual total number of employees exceeding 45 hours of monthly overtime: Includes managers. Calculated based on the statutory overtime threshold of 45 hours
• *3 Absenteeism: Number of employees who took leave or were absent from work for one month or more