Our people

Diversity forms the foundation of a company’s success and contribute to real sustainable growth. We try to bring our human best, which empowers all Group businesses. We are putting special effort into strategic hiring and development support for people who contribute to the growth and optimization of our existing businesses (tobacco, pharmaceutical, and processed food), who develop new businesses to meet the ever-changing consumer sense of fulfilling moments, and who lead the businesses and management of the Group.

To remain an employer of choice for a diverse range of people, we prioritize our employees’ mental and physical health and safety with a “People come first” approach. In addition, we offer various programs to ensure work-life balance and career paths suitable for all life stages to help them work happily in JT Group workplaces.

Organizational culture

Our organizational culture, expressing the values the organization shares, is important to help diverse people work together and steer corporate activities as Group members. We consider it important to cultivate shared values, so they become deeply rooted across the organization and form the basis for good decisions and standard practices as we continue creating unique value.

The Group has been building a corporate culture that encourages integrity, based on a highly tuned ethical sense and mutual assistance among employees for personal growth. While continuing to cherish this cultural tradition, we support employees in rising to new challenges and promoting collaboration within the Group and with external parties, so we can offer fulfilling moments despite the ever-diversifying values of society, and foster an organizational culture unique to the JT Group and the times.

Ownership

To help our diverse people make the most of their potentials and create value unique to the Group, it’s important for each employee to take ownership in order to enable a mutually beneficial cycle between our people and the organizational culture. To assure this, it’s essential that each employee understands and supports the JT Group Purpose, takes ownership in the Group’s priority values and desired actions, puts them into practice and helps promote them through their own initiative. We have formulated Values/Behaviors as guidelines for the desired actions that should be taken, and we not only encourage each and every employee to live in these actions, but we have also introduced an appraisal system that regularly reviews employees’ actual actions.

While defining human capital as the combination of “our people,” “organizational culture” and “ownership,” we will attract diverse people externally and internally, create an organization which makes our people work happily and encourage each of them to grow and make the most of its strength and skill, we have set six priority themes to focus on, as well as metrics to track progress and impacts of initiatives based on the themes. We will continue to conduct JT Group engagement surveys to ascertain the status of the Group as a whole and to verify and improve our initiatives on an annual basis. In the previous JT Group survey (with a response rate of 92%), the Employee Satisfaction (eSat) score (“How happy are you working at this company?”) was 77^*, but we aim to further improve it through our Group-wide initiatives.

*

eSat score: Average of response scores
Data coverage: JT Inc. and major subsidiaries including global tobacco business (the same applies from the next page)

Including all talents

The Group is a workplace for people from over 100 nationalities. We consider their diversity in terms of race, faith, ethnicity, background, birthplace, gender, age, ability or disability, sexual orientation and marital status to be as valuable as their individual experiences and specialties. We aspire to be an organization that respects all employees and helps them feel they belong to one team, with psychological safety.

We continuously hire people with various backgrounds and values and help employees value diversity through work opportunities and seminars intended to facilitate the understanding of gender, ethnicity or how the LGBTQ+ community experience work or life. We offer training programs to employees to help them be more aware of their own biases and embrace diverse values. We are also working to give same-sex partners and all types of families equal access to the benefits and programs the Group offers to its employees, so we can be an equal-opportunity organization, impartial about differences in individual preferences or orientation.

These initiatives made Ernst & Young Global Limited recognize JTI as one of the first in the tobacco industry worldwide to meet their Global Equality Standard. We are steadily making gender and LGBTQ+ inclusion efforts in Japan as well, and in 2023, JT was included for an eighth consecutive year in the Gold PRIDE Index of the nonprofit organization work with Pride.

• Please see Awards and recognitions for details.

Gender equality—Unleashing the talent of our women

Gender equality is a high priority in Group operations. Assuring equality at all career levels, particularly by increasing the ratio of women in managerial positions, is an important challenge. Under its committed senior management team, the Group has announced a target of having women in 30%^*1 of its managerial positions by 2030. To that end, our senior managers support career growth for female employees, while educating senior managers educate employees on gender equality, helping motivate women, organizing seminars to promoting understanding of the obstacles in women’s career paths, and promoting the workplace advancement of women. We are undertaking multiple initiatives to help accelerate women’s career development and promote gender equality Group-wide, actively nurturing the pipeline of female management candidates and monitoring the gender pay gap.

*1

To foster the growth and participation of women in the JT Group, we are promoting various Group-wide measures, such as unifying the scope of monitoring across the Group and targeting positions in managerial positions. As a result, we have decided to raise the target for the proportion of women in management positions from 25% to 30% by FY2030

*2

We calculated women’s wages relative to men’s (100%) by nation and company, then calculated a weighted average according to number of employees

Various approaches to secure excellent talent

The Group sets compensation benchmarks specific to each country and business to ensure our compensation and benefit packages are attractive and competitive. We also put effort into communicating the attractiveness of Group companies to excellent employee prospects. To that end, JTI has successfully established an excellent company brand by winning the recognition of the Top Employer Institute as a Global Top Employer for 10 years running, while continuing hiring campaigns specific to each country. When hiring new graduates, in addition to hiring people who aim to build a wide-ranging career that goes beyond the functions, we also hire by job type from the joining stage. Furthermore, when hiring mid-career employees, we disclose the roles and responsibilities at the time they join the Company. This helps create an environment and career development supportive of meeting our employees’ future direction and needs. Through these initiatives, we secure the talent pool we need for each business.

Pipeline for executives and business leaders

For the sustainable growth of the JT Group, we think it’s important not only to recruit talent needed for each location and business, but also to have initiatives to promote them through talent development. To secure a pool of internal candidates as future Group executives and business leaders over the medium- and long-term, we provide early-stage training for both selected candidates and open applications. We pool generation-specific talent by providing opportunities for prospects to gain broad leadership experience by working in a range of positions around the world. In 2023, about 500 people participated in the program as executive and leadership candidates. For about 150 people, senior management team and business leaders monitor their development status, and discuss their individual potential, medium- and long-term growth challenges and career plan, referring to objective external assessments and their competitiveness in the labor market.

Securing human resources to explore areas of new value

The Group explores opportunities to offer new value over the medium- and long-term while working to expand existing businesses. In addition to M&A, a new organization called D-LAB was established in 2020 to expand corporate R&D activities that explore and create future business seeds. In 2023, we newly appointed a dedicated Senior Vice President. In order to continuously develop talent for these activities, we are working to recruit and develop people to support this new business development by operating a training program that includes growth opportunities not only within the Company but also outside the Company, and by adopting a unique HR policy that is tailored to the characteristics of each activity based on the differences in working styles and skills required.

Work-life balance

The Group uses the advantages of both in-office and remote working and encourages its employees to choose the workstyle that each finds most suitable. A case in point is our flextime system that does not impose a fixed work schedule. By the best combination of flexible schedules and the possibility of remote working, we believe each employee can make the most of their strengths and live fully, which will lead to optimal performance for the organization.

To make working easy for employees in all life stages, the Group assists them in balancing work and family. Under the Global Family Leave Policy, all employees working on JT and global tobacco business sites are allowed paid equivalent leave of up to 20 weeks when they become parents, regardless of gender, sexual orientation and the way the employees become parents (natural birth, adoption or surrogacy). In Japan, we are working to improve systems for leave related to care of children and seniors and for other family-related purposes, and we encourage employees to make use of them. So far, the ratio of employees who took parental leave is as shown in the table below.

*

Of the employees have become a parent via adoption, surrogacy or birth, the percentage of employees in FY2023 who took childcare leave not only statutory leave, but also those who took childcare leave further approved by the company. If there are any employees who have taken childcare leave for their child born in the previous fiscal years, the rate of employees who took childcare leave may exceed 100% in this fiscal year

Healthy individuals and relationships

The Group implements initiatives to improve compliance and conducts JT Group employee engagement surveys as well as pulse surveys as needed. The results illustrate the state of our organizations and inspire evolution so all employees feel safe and can make the most of their strengths and talents. In Japan in 2016, the local group set up an organization specialized in assisting organizational development. They plan and conduct initiatives to improve employee engagement in Group companies and divisions. In addition, we believe trusting relationships between employees and their line managers and among coworkers is important in shaping workplaces where diverse individuals can truly thrive. We set up regular dialogue opportunities, conduct 360-degree surveys and offer one-on-one assistance tools to improve the quality of dialogue.

JT Group Health and Safety Policy

To promote health and assure safety at work, the Group has established the JT Group Health and Safety Policy approved by the Board of Directors.

Specifically, we implement health and safety initiatives (the below described) under the responsibility of the CEO to realize “WHAT WE AIM” in the policy and enhance Group governance under a system supervised by the Board of Directors. Based on the policy, we have set up monitoring indicators to track the Group’s health and safety initiatives, and institute measures promptly as they are determined as necessary.

In addition, each business establishes its own version of the Health and Safety Policy based on the policy, and works to implement it among employees and all people concerned. Health and Safety Policies are also established at each location as needed, and reviewed regularly.

Initiatives to prevent workplace accidents

The Group believes that preventive measures according to the features of locations are important to achieve zero work accidents, and has implemented a range of measures to that end. We have processes for identifying and minimizing risks, preventing incidents, responding to emergency situations, and continuously improving safety. Driving vehicles and operating machines are particularly at-risk activities.

On global tobacco locations with driving operations, a special on-the-road safety policy was revised and a mobile app were introduced in 2023 in response to risk assessment results and best practices identified. Safe driving training was held for more than 2,000 drivers, as well as on-the-road training for drivers recognized as having the potential to cause an accident.

On locations with machine operations, targets and plans to achieve them are set, risks identified, mitigation measures instituted, and these initiatives are audited and assessed.

All our tobacco factories have implemented health and safety management systems in compliance with ISO 45001, an international safety standard that specifies requirements for occupational health and safety management systems, in addition to local laws and regulations.

In offices and research centers, we are implementing various initiatives according to the features of locations to reduce the risk of work accidents.

We will continue monitoring work accidents across the Group and promoting effective preventive measures to achieve our goal, zero work accidents.

• Please refer to the JT website for data on contractors.

*1

The number of people per 1,000,000 working hours

*2

The number of days per 1,000 working hours

Initiatives to promote physical and mental health

The JT Group also puts effort into initiatives to help promote the mental and physical health of each employee. We are designing and introducing systems to better support employees with spontaneous health action.

For mental health support, for example, we offer employees opportunities to self-assess their stress conditions and this helps us to implement workplace-specific measures based on the results of analyses, to facilitate access to specialists and counselors, and to offer training and other measures to prevent employees’ mental issues. For physical health support, we better understand risk through data gathering related to occupational health and develop consistent approaches. If the issues are attributed to the work or workplace, we take appropriate measures immediately to protect employees’ health and prevent recurrences. At JT, health and productivity management is promoted under the leadership of the CEO, and occupational health staffs are assigned in 11 key areas across Japan to help employees take care of their physical and mental health. Specifically, occupational health staffs across Japan have one-to-one interviews with employees and provide them with support programs to meet issues and needs. Our support systems allow each employee to take initiative to promote their own health and that of their families as well, providing financial assistance for testing and vaccinations they have selected.

In collaboration with Group companies in Japan, we set up a walking challenge program. This unique initiative has created a range of opportunities to promote health, revitalize the organization and contribute to society in combination with TABLE FOR TWO.

JT has been certified as a health and productivity management organization (White 500) for eight consecutive years under the Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry.

Encouraging self-motivated career development

The Group works to create opportunities for employees to think about and choose their careers.

Every year, employees have a career discussion with the line manager about their aspirations and plans. We also offer them opportunities to explore career options from among many, beyond the function in which they currently work. JT’s career challenge initiative is a case in point, allowing employees to apply for a position of their choice once a year. Another is the job posting of the tobacco business that globally discloses open positions, inviting employees to apply. In FY2023, 4,251 positions became open and 7,532 employees applied for them.

Learning opportunities to meet the diverse needs of employees

The Group responds to the growth needs of employees and provides learning opportunities to help realize diverse career plans. In identifying the strengths and challenges of employees in their various development stages, we have introduced original learning programs that effectively employ on-the-job training, off-the-job learning of the employee’s choice, and assessments. We offer training options such as LinkedIn Learning and Udemy, allowing employees to choose content and embrace opportunities to study on their own initiative. Building an online learning environment is also a high priority, to help free employees from time-space constraints.

Foster a feedback culture for employee growth

The Group values its organizational culture of interest in employee growth and provides extensive support to help.

To cultivate feedback culture, we promote ongoing regular one-to-one meaningful conversation which includes discussions about each employee’s strengths and development areas. In addition to various training, materials are being provided, and we offer the possibility of mentors within the organization as well as external coaches to support employees in their growth and development. In 2023, about 94% of Group employees participated in feedback meetings about their achievements as well as advice leading to improvement.

For the entire organization to support growth for every employee, managers meet ahead of employee performance appraisals to discuss each employee’s performance and challenges for growth from various viewpoints, as well as the kinds of new experience needed for further growth.

Promoting internal collaboration

The Group is working to create opportunities to put a range of forces together beyond organizational boundaries for inducing innovation. Through the use of Workplace, a digital communication tool for the Group, we encourage the creation of various communities that transcend regions, businesses, and functions, and promote mutual understanding, knowledge sharing, and motivation for co-creation. As remote work becomes more established as a workstyle, we believe physical offices are important for promoting collaboration. For example, both the JT and JTI head offices have been designed to promote exchange and collaboration among employees and the pursuit of projects spanning across locations and functions.

Promoting external collaboration

To create new fulfilling moments the Group considers it necessary to go beyond the framework of our businesses and organizations to bring together viewpoints and knowledge from outside. When Group employees contribute outside the Company as members of society, we think it benefits the employees themselves, the Group’s business operations and the local community, leading to new value creation. So we actively encourage a broad range of collaboration, on both organizational and individual levels, with people outside the Company, other companies, universities, research institutes and community organizations. Our corporate R&D organization D-LAB, for instance, participates in the THINK SPACE LIFE platform of the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency as an incubation partner to create fulfilling moments imagined from space.

The Group actively offers employees opportunities for volunteering and donating with financial assistance backed by the Company, and considers this is important, not just as a path to corporate social contribution, but also as opportunities for employees themselves to gain new perspectives. As a result, 11,310 Group employees volunteered and worked a combined total of 24,549 hours in the past year.