Basic Approach

The Nihon Nohyaku Group believes that our employees are the most important management capital. We believe that working to equip employees with skills, provide experience, and improve motivation leads to sustainable enhancement of corporate value. In addition, based on the belief that having each employee in good physical and mental health increases individual happiness, we position health management as one of our most important management issues, and actively work to manage and improve the health of our employees.

Main Initiatives

1. Maintenance and Promotion of Health

1) Implementation of regular medical examinations
In accordance with laws and regulations, we conduct regular medical examinations for all employees. For employees over the age of 40, we conduct full medical examinations. Furthermore, in addition to the items tested in regular medical examinations, we conduct tests for various diseases and lifestyle-related diseases. Therefore, we have established a system that can check the health status of our employees. In FY2022, the medical examination participation rate was 100%.

2) Implementation of training, etc. to improve health literacy
To ensure all employees, including those at our branches, can attend health lectures given by industrial physicians at the Head Office and Research Center, we broadcast the lectures online and post the lecture videos on our corporate intranet. In FY2022, we held a lecture on “Sleep” at the Head Office, and a lecture on “Lifestyle-Related Diseases and Diet” at the Research Center.

3) Prevention of lifestyle-related diseases through cooperation with health insurance associations
We promote healthy eating habits, exercise, rest, smoking cessation, and alcohol abstinence on the ADEKA Health Insurance Association’s portal site for individuals. In this way, we are working to prevent lifestyle-related diseases in cooperation with a health insurance association. We also promote participation in the “Walking Contest,” which is held twice a year by the ADEKA Health Insurance Association, by announcing it through the Safety and Health Committee and on the company bulletin board.

2. Mental Health Care

1) Stress checks
Nihon Nohyaku and our domestic Group companies conduct stress checks once a year. The participation rate in stress checks has been at least 90% since 2017 and was 99.1% in FY2022. We also conduct organizational analysis and provide feedback on the results to each department, in order to promote improvements in the workplace environment.

2) Mental health-related training
We provide mental health-related training for new employees. This includes training courses on self-care, and on consulting with superiors regarding their health concerns. Furthermore, we provide mental health-related training as part of our newly appointed manager training program and our newly appointed appraiser training program which we provide to employees who have been newly appointed to supervisory positions.

3) Setting up a hotline for mental and physical health (external consultation desk)
In order to offer “care provided by resources outside the workplace,” as stated in the Ministry of Health, Labour and Welfare’s “Guidelines for Maintaining and Promoting the Mental Health of Workers,” we have established the “Nichino Group Health Consultation Hotline,” which is available 24 hours a day, 365 days a year. This hotline allows employees to make consultations not only about health and medical care, but also about nursing care and childcare. We also offer therapy services for mental health, and employees can choose to have face-to-face, online, or telephone consultations.

3. Creation of a Comfortable Work Environment

1) Measures to prevent passive smoking, outpatient support for smoking cessation
In line with the revision of the Health Promotion Act on April 1, 2020, many companies banned smoking in their workplaces in order to prevent passive smoking. Similarly, we are taking anti-smoking measures, such as by holding “no smoking days” at our plants and offices that have smoking areas, and providing outpatient support through the health insurance association to help employees quit smoking.

2) Optimization of working hours
We monitor all employees’ hours of work exceeding statutory working hours. For employees (including managers) whose overtime hours exceed our internal standards, we arrange for face-to-face guidance from industrial physicians. In FY2022, a total of three employees were eligible for such guidance.

3) Encouraging more active communication between employees
We have introduced an open plan office system at all departments of the Head Office in order to promote cross-departmental communication.

Expenditures related to Health Management

In FY2022, Nihon Nohyaku and our domestic Group companies spent a total of 20.9 million yen on health-related expenditures. Specifically, medical examination-related expenditure was 13.7 million yen, industrial physician-related expenditure was 6.0 million yen, and mental health related expenditure, including stress checks and external health consultation services, was 1.2 million yen. Going forward, we will continue to make the necessary expenditures for mental health care, etc., to maintain and improve the health of our employees.