Efforts to Date

The business operations of the Hitachi Group span across numerous fields of endeavor. The human resources supporting those operations represent a wide range of technological backgrounds, business lines, occupations, and living environments. This unparalleled diversity, coupled with the collective strength that enables us to generate synergies through the maximal utilization of diversity, is the fundamental source of our ability to create a range of products and services that add significantly higher value to the business operations of our clientele.

Hitachi to date has pursued a variety of initiatives having to do with diversity and the achievement of a better work-life balance. Those activities include the development and expansion of programs of leaves of absence and other working arrangements. Additionally, though, we have utilized the opportunities afforded by forums and Managerial training sponsored by headquarters, individual offices, and employee unions to instill and apply the fundamental ideals underlying diversity: namely, the understanding that each and every individual is unique and that their individuality should be nurtured and harnessed.

Diversity Forum on Workplace Communication

In November 2007, a Diversity forum was held at the Higashi-Ochanomizu Building in Tokyo under the auspices of the Diversity Promotion Project with approximately 120 managers from Hitachi Group companies participating. The second half of the forum comprised a discussion session devoted to the theme of harnessing the individuality of oneself and others. President Furukawa also attended this event, which saw participating managers engage in a lively discussion of issues surrounding the management of workplaces that encourage the expression and use of individuality and individual strengths.

Work-Life Balance Workshop Retreat Held by Company Workers Union

In April 2008, the Hitachi Workers Union sponsored a “Partnership Forum.” Some 60 personnel from Hitachi offices nationwide participated in this two-day retreat. Moreover, some participants even brought their children because the forum venue was equipped with a daycare facility.
After lectures by in-house and guest speakers, sessions broke up into discussion groups that focused on the themes of achieving a work-life balance and ways of effectively utilizing one's own free time. Thanks to the free exchange of views and ideas with people from other offices with which they normally had little opportunity to socialize during work hours, participants enjoyed exposure to a variety of fresh ideas and insights on the issue of work-life balance.

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