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We aspire to be a company that grows by openly accepting and working with people having different characteristics and values.
Guided by our corporate philosophy of kyosei, Canon respects diversity of culture, customs, language, and ethnicity, and actively encourages the fair hiring and promotion of employees, regardless of gender, age or disability.
Canon Inc. uses a company-wide, horizontally integrated organization headed by the Executive Vice President, known as Vital workforce and Value Innovation through Diversity (VIVID), to promote diversity.
Another initiative aimed at promoting better understanding of diversity and inclusion is the Barrierfree Mindsets e-learning program, which we are conducting at Canon Inc. and Canon Group companies in Japan. Based on conversations with people with disabilities and members of sexual minorities about real-life issues they encounter, the training aims to help each employee better understand the difficulties and pain caused by barriers in society as well as points for special consideration. In total, 59,228 employees of Canon Inc. and Group companies in Japan, including senior management, received this training from 2019 to 2021.
Canon is committed to providing equal opportunities according to ability and fair treatment for all, irrespective of gender.
In Japan, in addition to formulating action plans and disclosing information as mandated by the Act on the Promotion of Female Participation and Career Advancement in the Workplace, we are conducting our own original initiatives.
For example, at Canon Inc., we organize leadership training for women as part of efforts to develop female candidates for managerial positions. Using the theme of developing a new business proposal, the training provides an opportunity to develop leadership qualities. Since its launch in 2012, a total of 220 women have completed the training and are playing active roles in their workplaces, including at overseas locations. Partly as a result of these measures, the number of female managers rose to 138 in 2021, compared with 58 in 2011. In addition, based on the government’s Act on the Promotion of Female Participation and Career Advancement in the Workplace, we have formulated an action plan with a goal of having more than three times the ratio of women in management, compared with 2011* levels, by the end of 2025.
Furthermore, we hold return-to-work seminars for employees returning from childcare leave and their supervisors, and provide mentoring by female managers. We also host lectures and interviews with female executives, and share the experiences of female managers to create opportunities for raising awareness around working with purpose and balancing work with life events.
Group companies in Japan are promoting a range of initiatives to support career development for women, including roundtable discussions between presidents and female employees and surveys to gauge awareness, as well as networking events with female leadership candidates inside and outside the company, career advancement training, and career training for women who have returned from childcare leave.
Outside Japan as well, to coincide with International Women’s Day, since 2020 Group companies in the Middle East and Africa have begun the SHE RISE Program, an in-house campaign to encourage the active participation of women. Canon U.S.A. is also running a project called Women in Leadership Levels (WiLL) to support the participation of women through a variety of opportunities, including networking events, lectures, and mentoring. In addition, Canon Europe formulated a set of diversity and inclusion commitments, and is monitoring and reviewing these in the regions it oversees. The commitments include activities to raise awareness of diversity and recruitment of diverse personnel.
Canon is promoting initiatives to encourage men to participate in childcare, with the goal of realizing a society where men and women participate equally as parents.
At Canon Inc. and Group companies in Japan, we organize roundtable talks by, and publish interviews with men who have used childcare leaverelated systems, and we hold seminars to introduce our childcare-related programs to male employees. These initiatives have proven effective: the childcare leave participation rate among men at Canon Inc. has risen from 1.9% in 2011 to 33.4% in 2021. In addition, based on the Act on the Promotion of Female Participation and Career Advancement in the Workplace, Canon Inc. has put in place an action plan with a goal of increasing the childcare leave participation rate of male employees to more than 50% by the end of 2025.
The Canon Group Code of Conduct emphasizes respect for the individual and prohibits discrimination based on race, religion, nationality, gender, age, sexual orientation or gender identity. Our initiatives also cover sexual minorities, including lesbian, gay, bisexual, trans and queer (LGBTQ+) persons. With the goal of eliminating all forms of discrimination from the workplace, training for managers includes education on preventing discrimination. In addition, we make use of various opportunities to educate employees, such as departmental staff meetings and compliance meetings. The Barrier-free Mindsets training program, which we provide for employees of Canon Inc. and Canon Group companies in Japan, features content relating to sexual minorities and aims to deepen understanding of related issues.
Another provision to promote a barrier-free environment is gender-neutral washrooms. We also provide counseling and consultation services for employees who wish to speak with a specialist counselor.
Canon Inc. makes full use of the wealth of knowledge and skills of its veteran staff. In 1977, Canon Inc. was one of the first companies in Japan to set its retirement age at 60. In 1982, we introduced a system for reemploying retired employees until the age of 63.
In 2000, we partially revised our system for re-employment after retirement and introduced a system of open recruitment internally for re-employment posts. Further, we raised the age limit for reemployment to 65 in 2007. As of the end of December 2021, there were 1,817 rehired employees in total.
Respecting the ideal of normalization*1 advocated by the United Nations, Canon proactively employs persons with disabilities at Canon Inc. and Canon Group companies in Japan.
For example, at Canon Inc., we are doing our utmost to make workplaces more comfortable and accessible for people with disabilities by improving our facilities, including providing greater barrier-free access. Additionally, we are working to expand the range and nature of jobs for people with disabilities, while also ensuring that they are settling into and becoming active members of their assigned workplaces. Canon incorporates workplace experience and observation sessions into the selection process to ensure that new hires can contribute quickly after they are hired and assigned to a workplace. Canon Wind*2 primarily hires people with intellectual disabilities. In addition to maintaining a high employee retention rate, this employment helps us realize our corporate philosophy of kyosei.
Canon Inc. and Group companies in Japan have set up on-site hotlines after the 2016 amendment of the Promotion of Employment of Disabled Persons Law prohibiting discrimination and mandating reasonable consideration for people with disabilities. Canon’s measures to prevent discrimination against people with disabilities and ensure reasonable consideration at each site include providing individual consultations and personalized assistance or instruction during evacuation training drills and disaster preparedness training. Starting in 2019, Canon Inc. has been working to boost support for retaining employees with disabilities, including initiating measures to expand the job positions in which they can thrive.
Since 2004, Canon Inc. and Canon Group companies in Japan have organized training courses and created e-learning modules to ensure workplaces are attentive to the needs of the hearing impaired. The training provides an accurate understanding of hearing impairments and introduces sign language to help promote smoother workflow. A total of 839 employees participated in this training up to and including 2021.
Preventing the flow of people leaving their jobs to provide nursing care for family members has become an important social issue in Japan, which has a falling birthrate and an aging society. At Canon, we are taking steps to reduce the number of employees leaving work for nursing care by promoting activities to support them in balancing both priorities. Canon Inc. and Group companies in Japan hold nursing care seminars, conduct interviews with employees engaged in nursing care, and offer information on steps to take when a relative begins to need care and on nursing care-related systems, both public and internal. Since 2020, we have been holding online nursing care seminars in cooperation with local authorities.
